Upcoming Events

Image of Saguaro in desert.

Riding the Dragon: Compassion and the Way of Transformation

An Open Source In-person Retreat
Tucson, Arizona

April 10-15, 2023
With Open Source Teachers:
Sarah Bender Roshi, Tenney Nathanson Sensei, Andrew Palmer Sensei and Megan Rundel Sensei

For more information and registration for the retreat, please click here.

Working with Koans

Online and In Person koan exploration
To learn more about koans, please click here.

Exciting News!

Through Forests of Every Color: Awakening with Koans by Joan Sutherland, Roshi

Through Forests of Every Color author Joan SutherlandAn intimate spiritual and literary journey exploring how Zen koans make us permeable to the joys and the anguish of this life—and to the primordial mystery we glimpse behind the veil of the everyday.

In Through Forests of Every Color, renowned Zen teacher Joan Sutherland reimagines the koan tradition with allegiance to the root spirit of the koans and to their profound potential for vivifying, subverting, and sanctifying our lives. Her decades of practicing with koans and of translating them from classical Chinese imbues this text with a warm familiarity, an ease still suffused with awe.

Open Source Zen is a network of individuals and communities in the western United States engaged in Zen practice together.

We emphasize collaboration, the development of authentic American expressions of Zen, and the confluence of koans and creativity.

The Open Source is part of the Pacific Zen School, an innovative Western koan school with roots in East Asian traditions; it includes The Open Source and Pacific Zen Institute in Northern California.

The house style honors the original Chinese koan way while emphasizing the integration of koan inquiry with contemporary lives. Click here to learn more about Open Source Zen.

Photo Credit: Piper Leigh. Top to bottom: flower, and dappled light-shadow.