Robert Kaku Gunn
Deep Ocean Zendo / Village Zendo - Dotokuji
Virginia Beach, VA/New York City, NY
Robert Kaku Gunn, Ph.D., was ordained by Enkyo O’Hara in 2012 and given the name of Kaku—”Song of Emptiness.” In 2017, Kaku became the Guiding Teacher for the Empty Hand Zen Center in New Rochelle, N.Y. In 2019, Enkyo Roshi gave him dharma transmission and he moved to Virginia Beach, Virginia where he established a new practice center, Deep Ocean Zendo.
Kaku is the author of Journeys Into Emptiness: Dōgen, Merton and Jung and The Quest for Transformation (Paulist Press, 2000), as well as a two-volume autobiography, One Bright Pearl: An Unholy Memoir, vol. 1, and One Bright Pearl: God is the Source of My Life, vol. 2 (Amazon, 2017). With Roshi Enkyo O’Hara, Kaku is the subject of a video, One Body, One Heart, in which Roshi and he discuss the role of his Zen practice in meeting the personal challenge of cancer. The third volume of his memoirs will be titled, Radiant Splendor: My Life in Zen, and its publication is slated for 2020.