Paul Gyodo Sensei talks with Dharma Holder and Zen Peacemakers Executive Director Geoff Shoun O'Keeffe about what brought them to practice Zen meditation and how practice can help us to meet our own emotional conditions and our current tumultuous times more skillfully, without turning away.

Geoff Shōun has been practicing in the White Plum lineage since his first introduction at ZCLA in 1975. With his family, he lived and practiced at ZCLA from 1984-'86, studied with Joko Beck in San Diego into the early 90's, and has been a student of Gerry Shishin Wick, Roshi, Roshi Ilia Shinko Perez of Great Mountain Zen Center and, currently, Paul Gyodo Agostinelli, Sensei at Eon Zen. This intimate connection to our contemporary teachers and to our Zen ancestors, this bloodline of our lineage, is most precious. The Lakota say, Mitakuye Oyasin, or “all are related”. Shōun serves as Eon Zen’s administrative staff, registrar, and newsletter coordinator.

He has been the Zen Peacemakers Executive Director since early 2020. He lives in the foothills above Boulder and has three adult children and three grandchildren.