Through Forests of Every Color

JOAN SUTHERLAND, Roshi is a teacher in the koan tradition and the first woman teacher in her lineage in the Americas. She is one of the founders of the Pacific Zen School, an innovative contemporary koan school that also includes Pacific Zen Institute. Sutherland taught in Santa Fe, New Mexico, through Awakened Life, the community that gathered around her teachings there. She is also the founding teacher of The Open Source, a network of communities in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and California. In 2014 she retired from working directly with students and now focuses on Cloud Dragon: The Joan Sutherland Dharma Works, established to organize and disseminate her teachings. She is the author of Vimalakirti and the Awakened Heart, and her writing has appeared regularly in Lion’s Roar and Buddhadharma magazines. She is a translator from classical Chinese, collaborating with John Tarrant on a new translation of the Blue Cliff Record (forthcoming from Wisdom Publications). She currently lives on the coast of northern California.