Teachers & Practice Leaders
TEACHER & SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR
Gyodo Sensei is Founder and Spiritual Leader of Eon Zen Center. He received Dharma Transmission in 2015, after 25 years of Zen practice, from his teachers Shishin Wick Roshi and Roshi Shinko Perez, founders of the Great Mountain Zen Center. Gyodo Sensei has long and intimate experience with the main Zen practice styles of koan (Rinzai) and shikantaza (Soto), as well as the Great Heart Way path developed by his teachers. In addition to leading the Eon Zen Center, Gyodo Sensei has taught Zen as adjunct faculty at Naropa University and serves on the faculty for Cause to Pause Contemplative Caregiving Intensive offered bi-annually by the Willow Farm Contemplative Center.
Gyodo Sensei received a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Dartmouth College and a Master’s Degree in English Literature from the University of Chicago, and has had a long career as an Internet Technology entrepreneur, co-founding and running multiple companies. He has held executive positions with three tech startups, including CEO.
Through Zen@Work, he also offers mindfulness programs and Executive Zen Coaching to the business community, specializing in the Tech and Social Enterprise sectors. He believes that true corporate and team success only happens when inner divisions -- of attention, heart and identification -- are healed through the practice of presence.
Paul Gyodo Agostinelli
DHARMA HOLDER / ASSISTANT TEACHER
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 coordinates our newsletter. 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.
Geoff Shōun O’Keeffe
PRACTICE LEADERS
Sam Sokyo Randall began studying with Paul Gyodo Agostinelli Sensei at Eon Zen Center in 2015 and has also practiced with Gerry Shishin Wick Roshi and Ilia Shinko Perez Roshi at Great Mountain Zen Center. She serves on the Board of Directors for Zen Peacemakers and is a Boulder County organizer with GreenFaith, a global interfaith environmental and climate justice movement. Sokyo is Eon Zen’s Media Coordinator and Web Developer.
Sokyo provides trauma-informed mindfulness and meditation instruction for young people in recovery and received certification as a Recovery Coach from CCAR in 2015. She was co-founder and executive director of the Arbor Institute, a creative incubator for art, ecology, and contemplative practice, and served as the program manager for the Collegiate Recovery Center at the University of Colorado in Boulder for many years.
Lisa Gakyo Schaewe started practicing at Zen Mountain Monastery in 1991 where she received the precepts and studied with Abbot John Daido Loori, Roshi. Her path then led her to Great Mountain Zen Center in Colorado working with Gerry Shishin Wick, Roshi. She is currently a student of Paul Gyodo Agostinelli, Sensei at Eon Zen where she serves as New Member Outreach Coordinator and assists with Precepts Classes.
Gakyo completed Mindfulness Meditation Instructor training with Acharya Dale Asrael in association with Shambhala International at Naropa University where she served as a meditation instructor and adjunct faculty for 15 years. After a career as an Art Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor in psychiatric, hospice and private practice settings, she is now a visual artist facilitating Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction classes and workshops in art making and creative process as contemplative practice.