Lineage
Eon Zen is a member of the White Plum Asanga, the teaching lineage founded by Taizan Maezumi Roshi in Los Angeles in 1967.
Conceived of informally in 1979 by Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Tetsugen Glassman, the White Plum Asanga was named after Maezumi’s father, Baian Hakujun Dai-osho (White: haku, Plum: bai), and then later incorporated in 1995 following Maezumi’s death. Bernie Glassman was the White Plum Asanga’s first President. Shishin Roshi served as president from 2007 to 2014.
“Asanga” or “outside (a) the Sangha (sanga)” implies “without attachment”— a play on words chosen by Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Glassman.
Our Founding Teacher, Paul Gyodo Agostinelli, Sensei originally studied with and received jukai from Maezumi Roshi at the Zen Center of Los Angeles, and continued his Zen studies with Gerry Shishin Wick Roshi and Ilia Shinko Pérez Roshi in Colorado, founders of the Great Mountain Zen Center in Berthoud, CO. He received Dharma Transmission from both of his teachers in 2015 after 25 years of practice.
After leading a small sitting group at his home zendo in north Boulder for several years with dharma talks on Monday evenings in various locations, Gyodo Sensei established the Eon Zen Center in 2017.
Eon Zen now offers meditation online every day along with weekly and monthly programs in-person and online at the Shambhala Center in downtown Boulder and at Willow Farm Contemplative Center in Hygiene, CO.
Gerry Shishin Wick, Roshi
Shishin Roshi is President and Co-spiritual Director of Great Mountain Zen Center in Berthoud, CO, which he founded in 1996. He is a senior Dharma Successor of Taizan Maezumi Roshi having received transmission in 1990 after 24 years of Zen training under Maezumi, Shunryu Suzuki Roshi and Sochu Suzuki Roshi. In 2006 he received Inka from Roshi Bernie Glassman, founder of the Zen Peacemakers Order. He administered the Zen Center of Los Angeles and the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values from 1978 to 1986 and was In May 2007, he was elected President of the White Plum Asanga from 2007 to 2014. When Shishin Roshi stepped down as President of White Plum Asanga, he was acknowledged as an Elder in the organization. He received a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967.
Shishin Roshi is the author of numerous books including The Book of Equanimity, and co-author of The Great Heart Way (2006) with Ilia Shinko Perez.
Ilia Shinko Pérez, Roshi
Roshi Shinko is Co-Spiritual Director of Great Mountain Zen Center and Abbess of Maitreya Abbey. She was empowered to teach by Shishin Roshi in 2000 after 20 years of Zen training under Shishin Roshi, Philip Kapleau Roshi, and Pat Hawk Roshi. She completed formal Zen studies while simultaneously raising two children and running her business, Rama Imports. Roshi Shinko has an M.A. Degree in Archeology from Universidad Autonoma, Madrid, and has taught at the Caribbean University College, Puerto Rico.
She co-authored The Great Heart Way (2006) with Shishin Roshi and authored The Zen Priestess and the Snake (2020). In October 2015 she received Inka from Roshi Egyoku Nakao, Abbot of the Zen Center of Los Angeles.
Hakuyu Taizan Maezumi, Roshi
Taizan Maezumi Roshi (1931-1995) received Dharma transmission from Baian Hakujun Kuroda Roshi in the Soto lineage1970. He also received Inka in both the San Bo Kyo Dan (Three Treasures school) through Yasutani Roshi in 1970 and the Shakyamuni Kai, through Koryu Roshi in 1973. Thus, Maezumi Roshi became one of very few teachers to receive Inka (final seal of approval as a teacher) in both the Inzan and Takuju Rinzai lineages, as well as Dharma Transmission in the Soto lineage.
Maezumi Roshi was ordained as a Soto Zen monk at the age of eleven and came to Los Angeles at 24 years old in 1956 as a priest at Zenshuji Temple, the Soto Headquarters of the United States. In 1967, he established the Zen Center of Los Angeles. He devoted his life to laying a firm foundation for the growth of Zen Buddhism in the West.
He transmitted the Dharma to twelve successors: Bernard Tetsugen Glassman, Dennis Genpo Merzel, Charlotte Joko Beck, Jan Chozen Bays, John Daido Loori, Gerry Shishin Wick, John Tesshin Sanderson, Alfred Jitsudo Ancheta, Charles Tenshin Fletcher, Susan Myoyu Andersen, Nicolee Jikyo Miller, and William Nyogen Yeo.
BERNIE GLASSMAN & MAEZUMI ROSHI
KORYU OSAKA ROSHI
HAKUUN RYOKO YASUTANI ROSHI
BAIAN HAKUJUN KURODA ROSHI