Enkyo Pat O'Hara


Enkyō Pat O'Hara is a Soto priest and teacher in the Harada-Yasutani lineage of Zen Buddhism. She is abbot and founder of the Village Zendo in New York City. She serves as co-spiritual director of the Zen Peacemaker Order along with Tetsugen Bernard Glassman. She is also a former professor of interactive media at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. She holds a doctorate in Media ecology. A socially engaged Buddhist, she is a member of the White Plum Asanga and manages the Buddhist AIDS Network.

Biography

In high school, O'Hara read R. H. Blyth’s translations of haiku, Buddhist sutras, and the writings of D. T. Suzuki. This began her studies in Zen which led to her spending a summer at Zen Mountain Monastery in her late thirties.
O'Hara studied with John Daido Loori but differences with her teacher led her to begin studying with Taizan Maezumi, who himself was Loori's teacher.
O'Hara was ordained a Soto priest by Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi in 1995 and received shiho from Bernard Glassman in 1997. In June 2004 Glassman gave O'Hara inka.

Activism

Much of Enkyo's activism is in the world of HIV/AIDS, from teaching meditation to HIV-positive practitioners to working on prevention strategies among those at risk, and serving as Chairperson of the Board of the National AIDS Interfaith Network. Enkyo, who is a lesbian, has articulated a Zen Buddhist approach to issues dealing with sexuality, race, class, and health.

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