SKY ABOVE GREAT WIND
A Zen Community in Washington, D.C.
Sky Above Great Wind is a diverse community that welcomes everyone to Zen meditation, regardless of background, experience, or affiliation, if any, with other spiritual traditions.
Sky Above Great Wind is a diverse community that welcomes everyone to Zen meditation, regardless of background, experience, or affiliation, if any, with other spiritual traditions.
Photo by Kris Herbst
Enso by Kazuaki Tanahashi, 2014
Enso by Kazuaki Tanahashi, 2014
The pure wind circles the earth and shakes it time after time,
But who can pluck it up and show it to you?
Zen Master Keizan
The Record of Transmitting the Light
But who can pluck it up and show it to you?
Zen Master Keizan
The Record of Transmitting the Light
A child with a sheet of paper came up to Zen Master Ryokan and asked, “Please write something for me.” “What will you use it for?” Ryokan replied. “I'll make a kite. Please write something that will help my kite to fly.” Ryokan then wrote four big characters “Sky Above Great Wind” and gave the calligraphy to the boy. The phrase and his unpretentious brushstrokes are beloved throughout Japan.
Photo by Kris Herbst
Sky Above Great Wind, a plaque from the Bunsui Ryokan Archive, Tsubame, Japan, 2015
Sky Above Great Wind, a plaque from the Bunsui Ryokan Archive, Tsubame, Japan, 2015
For his entire life, the poet-monk Ryokan, given the Buddhist name Daigu, or Great Fool, poured himself out and clung to nothing. His compassion, humility, and boundless serenity inspire this community to take up the path of awakening. Zen is the practice of the oneness of life and reaches wherever life reaches.
Out breath
and in breath--
know that they are
proof that the world
is inexhaustible.
—Ryokan
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Out breath
and in breath--
know that they are
proof that the world
is inexhaustible.
—Ryokan
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Sky Above Great Wind invites everyone to join us in zazen.
Beginners are encouraged to participate.
______________________
Sensei Susan KōDō Efird, Founder and Guiding Teacher
Karin Hillhouse, Director, Sky Above Zen
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Beginners are encouraged to participate.
______________________
Sensei Susan KōDō Efird, Founder and Guiding Teacher
Karin Hillhouse, Director, Sky Above Zen
_____________________
Unless otherwise noted, all Ryokan poems and stories about him are quoted from Sky Above, Great Wind (Shambhala 2014) by Kazuaki Tanahashi. Another excellent book on Ryokan is Ryokan Interpreted by Shohaku Okumura (Dogen Institute 2021)