Welcome to Cloud Dragon

Invocation of the Lunar Dharma
Cloud Dragon : The Joan Sutherland Dharma Works was created to make the groundbreaking teachings of Joan Sutherland, Roshi widely available. Her work is a fresh imagining of the koan tradition, rooted in its original understanding of all of life as a process of awakening. Endarkenment is as essential as enlightenment to awakening, and much of her work is an exploration of the power held in the radiance of the dark.
Since her retirement in 2014, Cloud Dragon is the place to access Joan Sutherland's writings, videos, and the audio archive of her talks and readings, as well as a growing body of transcripts of those talks. For ongoing practice there’s The Open Source network of communities, led by her dharma heirs. See the window below, Places to Go, for more information.
Announcements
"How 'The Blue Cliff Record' Came to Be"Joan's essay is featured in Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Fall 2025. Read Here
Radiant Light Conference: What Zen Women Carry Into the World
Benediktuschof, Germany, August 28-31, 2025
Joan will give an online talk,Endarkenment & the Lunar Dharma.
Gates
Our Miscellaneous Koans collection is available free of charge as a PDF in the original Acequias & Gates format.

Koans ... Awakening ... Where to begin?
Here are links to a few essays and recordings that introduce the philosophy and practices that are essential to our Way.
The Radiance of the Dark from The Joan Sutherland Dharma Works on Vimeo.
A short video evoking Joan's vision embracing endarkenment as well as enlightenment.More Videos

New writing every couple of weeks, from fields notes and journal entries to larger works in progress. Read here.

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The Open Source communities and teachers in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and California

...more soon...