About
Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt is a lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki Zen tradition. Born into a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received meditation training in Insight and Zen traditions across the US, Thailand, Japan, and Vietnam. Shutt was a founding member of Buddhists of Color in 1998. She is the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, a nonprofit sangha in the San Francisco Bay Area focused on anti-racist and inclusive practice.
Teaching focus
Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's teaching focus, drawn from the source profile, sits in the Zen and Insight traditions. Several threads come up: steady attention to body and breath; the relationship between ethics and meditation; and short, direct teachings rather than long talks. On talks, the style is closer to thinking-along than presenting. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt works with whatever shows up in the room rather than reading from notes, which is part of why these talks land as conversational instead of scripted. Short pauses, longer sits, and questions that come back to direct experience are usual. Listed specialties on the source profile include LGBTQ+. The bigger move Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt keeps making is back toward attention itself: what's happening, how it's being held, and what gets in the way. That keeps the teaching close to practice rather than drifting into commentary about practice. For talks, schedules, and longer essays, the affiliated organization's page is where the live material lives. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's sessions tend to keep returning to the body, to breath, and to the felt quality of attention as the steady ground that the rest rests on.
Background
Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt teaches in the Zen and Insight traditions. The teaching home is East Bay Meditation Center. From the teacher's own profile: Rev. Liên Shutt is a lineage holder in the Shunryu Suzuki tradition. Born to a Buddhist family in Vietnam, she received her meditation training in the Insight and Zen traditions in the US, Thailand, Japan and Vietnam. She was a founding member of the Buddhists of Color in 1998 and currently is the guiding teacher of Access to Zen, an anti-racist, inclusive sangha and non-profit in the San Francisco Bay Area. To make a gift to support the teachings, please do so via Venmo: @SuddenLeap-A2Z or PayPal: [email protected] In the Insight stream Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt works inside, the emphasis is on direct attention to body, feeling tone, and mind, alongside the brahmaviharas and an ongoing investigation of how clinging and aversion arise. Talks tend to be conversational rather than scripted, and there's room for sila and ethics to be talked about as part of practice rather than as a separate topic. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography. Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt's page on OMP collects the publicly available bio, the listed affiliations, and any talks tracked through the source archive, and is meant as a directory entry rather than an authorized biography.
Lineage
Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt teaches as a monastic teacher in the Zen and Insight traditions. The institutional home, per the source listing, is East Bay Meditation Center, and that's where most of the public teaching schedule and any retreat offerings will be posted. The Insight lineage in the West runs through teachers like Mahasi Sayadaw, U Ba Khin, Anagarika Munindra, and Dipa Ma into the founders of IMS, Spirit Rock, and the regional centers, and most contemporary Insight teachers position themselves somewhere in that broad family.
What to expect
On a class or retreat with Rev. Keiryu Lien Shutt, the basic shape is short instruction, longer sittings, and some Q&A. The container is shaped by East Bay Meditation Center, so format details, fees, and access policies follow that organization's norms. Expect plenty of silence, less talking-at-you than you might think, and an emphasis on letting the practice do its work rather than chasing experiences. For exact dates, registration, and any sliding-scale or scholarship information, There's usually a short Q&A window and, on retreats, optional teacher interviews where students can bring specific questions about their practice.
