Pat Enkyo O'Hara

The Lo-Down Culture Cast

Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, PhD, is the Abbot and co-founder of The Village Zendo, a contemporary Zen center based in downtown Manhattan. A Soto Zen priest and modern day American Zen Teacher, O'Hara integrates traditional meditation and koan practice with social engagement and peacemaking.

A Founding Teacher of the Zen Peacemaker Order, she taught for many years at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, centering on new media technologies, media ecology and social justice. Her focus is on the expression of Zen through caring, service, and creative response. (Host Traven Rice has studied formally with O'Hara for many years.)

Roshi O’Hara’s writing has appeared in Tricycle, Lion's Roar, Shambhala Sun, Buddhadharma and other Buddhist journals, as well as her books, Most Intimate, A Zen Approach to Life’s Challenges and A Little Bit of Zen. Her numerous talks can be found on YouTube here.

She was an early pioneer in the field of teaching Zen - and Engaged Buddhism - in America. Today she continues to encourage practitioners from all walks of life to incorporate social action, compassionate care-taking and creative expression into their daily practice.