SKY ABOVE GREAT WIND
Standing alone beneath a solitary pine;
Quickly the time passes.
Overhead the endless sky -–
Who can I call to join me on this path?
Ryokan, One Robe, One Bowl, Stevens
Quickly the time passes.
Overhead the endless sky -–
Who can I call to join me on this path?
Ryokan, One Robe, One Bowl, Stevens
Photo by Karin Hillhouse
Sierra Gorda, Peñamiller, Querétaro, Mexico, 2016
All things, including the earth, are in the sky.
Kaz Tanahashi, The Heart Sutra
Sierra Gorda, Peñamiller, Querétaro, Mexico, 2016
All things, including the earth, are in the sky.
Kaz Tanahashi, The Heart Sutra
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.
Zen offers an ever-deepening insight into the oneness of life and calls us to compassionate action. Our emphasis is on zazen (seated meditation) and the integration of Zen in daily life. We explore the classic koans, which bring us more fully into our experience of the moment. We practice not turning away from whatever arises and meeting it with wisdom and compassion. We are guided by the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers: Not Knowing, Bearing Witness to the joy and suffering in the world, and Healing Action.
Zen offers an ever-deepening insight into the oneness of life and calls us to compassionate action. Our emphasis is on zazen (seated meditation) and the integration of Zen in daily life. We explore the classic koans, which bring us more fully into our experience of the moment. We practice not turning away from whatever arises and meeting it with wisdom and compassion. We are guided by the Three Tenets of the Zen Peacemakers: Not Knowing, Bearing Witness to the joy and suffering in the world, and Healing Action.
Sensei Susan KōDō Efird is a Zen teacher in the White Plum lineage of Maezumi Roshi and Bernie Glassman and is a dharma successor of Roshi Robert Jinsen Kennedy of Morning Star Zendo. She began her practice in 1999 under Roshi Janet Jinne Richardson and Sensei Jishin Rosalie McQuaide. She founded Sky Above Great Wind in 2016.
Susan received Jukai in 2008 from Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker. In 2010, she organized a street retreat in Washington, D.C., led by Roshi Genro Gauntt. In 2012 and 2013, she attended the Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz/Birkenau, directed by Roshi Bernie Glassman of the Zen Peacemakers. From 2011-2017, she participated in the Village Zendo's monthly Path of Study classes led by Roshi Enkyo O'Hara.
Susan was a senior writer and editor for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. For more than a decade, she was a hospice and AIDS volunteer, then worked with Alzheimer's patients for six years, teaching them meditation. Since 2014 she has participated in Lifelines to Solitary. She is a member of the White Plum Asanga and the Lay Zen Teachers Association. A published poet, she is the editor of The Revised and Edited Second Edition of Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit by Roshi Kennedy (Bloomsbury Continuum 2020).
The pot fills me with wonder.
Open and empty like the sky
it shares its upright heart.
It cannot turn away from hunger--
always its hand reaches out
like the sun or gusting wind.
No one is turned away--
it is born to serve.
—From The Pots and Plates of Every Day, spring 2021
Susan received Jukai in 2008 from Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker. In 2010, she organized a street retreat in Washington, D.C., led by Roshi Genro Gauntt. In 2012 and 2013, she attended the Bearing Witness Retreat at Auschwitz/Birkenau, directed by Roshi Bernie Glassman of the Zen Peacemakers. From 2011-2017, she participated in the Village Zendo's monthly Path of Study classes led by Roshi Enkyo O'Hara.
Susan was a senior writer and editor for the Smithsonian American Art Museum. For more than a decade, she was a hospice and AIDS volunteer, then worked with Alzheimer's patients for six years, teaching them meditation. Since 2014 she has participated in Lifelines to Solitary. She is a member of the White Plum Asanga and the Lay Zen Teachers Association. A published poet, she is the editor of The Revised and Edited Second Edition of Zen Spirit, Christian Spirit by Roshi Kennedy (Bloomsbury Continuum 2020).
The pot fills me with wonder.
Open and empty like the sky
it shares its upright heart.
It cannot turn away from hunger--
always its hand reaches out
like the sun or gusting wind.
No one is turned away--
it is born to serve.
—From The Pots and Plates of Every Day, spring 2021