Tova Green began sitting at the San Francisco Zen Center in 1990 after many years of Vipassana practice. She became a resident there in 1999 and was ordained as a priest in 2003 by Eijun Linda Cutts. Tova co-founded the Queer Dharma Group at the Center and is currently the Director of the San Francisco Zen Center's City Center. Paul Shepard has been in recovery and concurrently practicing vipassana meditation since 1990. An active member of GBF since 1995, he initiated focus groups on Sexuality and Spirituality in 1998 and 1999 and has written major articles for the GBF Newsletter (10/1999 and 6/2005). Paul is a graduate of the Buddhist Alliance for Social Engagement (BASE) training, a program of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. He is a licensed addiction counselor with a sex addiction counseling practice in Oakland, where he shares a living space with his dog Bodhi(sattva). Paul received his PhD from UC Berkeley. He taught, directed and produced film and stage productions for the university and in community theaters. He died in 2022. Support the show______________ To participate live and be notified of upcoming speakers in advance, please Like us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/gaybuddhistfellowship) or visit https://gaybuddhist.org/calendar/ To support our efforts to share these talks with LGBTQIA audiences worldwide, please visit www.GayBuddhist.org.There you can: * Donate * Learn how to participate live * Find our schedule of upcoming speakers * Join our mailing list or discussion forum * Enjoy many hundreds of these recorded talks dating back to 1996 CREDITSAudio Engineer: George HubbardProducer: Tom BrueinMusic/Logo/Artwork: Derek Lassiter