June 2026
 

Dear Companions of the Way,

We’re writing today with some exciting news about our sangha. The community known as Open Source has a new name–Cloud Gate Zen–and is stepping forward with fresh energy and commitment, to bring the dharma to this generation of practitioners, and the next. In this letter we will outline the process and thinking that are going into this transformation.

The Open Source teachers and some community members have been working together for a few months as a strategic planning group. Our aim has been to develop new ways to continue to strengthen and grow our shared practice community: to better support and sustain each of our individual groups and their members, and to make widely available the unique dharma practice and continuing innovative teachings of the founder of our Open Source/Cloud Gate lineage, Joan Sutherland, Roshi. At the December online meeting of our wider community, we had a wonderful conversation about the work our planning group has been doing so far. One key topic was our tentative choice of a new name for our shared tradition. In line with that conversation and the loose consensus that emerged, the planning group has settled on Cloud Gate Zen. We’ve made this choice with Joan’s blessing and support.   

Our new name expresses what we have become and aspire to be—a gate open in all directions, and to all who would like to join in our challenging, generous, life-giving practice—a live tradition, powerful and transformative, and a dedicated community that brings it forth freshly, continuously. 

Giving ourselves a new name in this moment helps mark our renewed, and strengthened, commitment to pool our many individual talents and resources in order to build something together that we hope will surpass what any one of our communities could achieve on its own, to truly dream this dharma on. At the same time, the name Cloud Gate Zen reaffirms our continued grounding in Joan’s lineage and the traditions it grows out of and continues to transform. 

A Brief History of Open Source

Joan founded Open Source in the early 2000s as a home for a particular, innovative mode of koan-based lay practice. The name itself pointed toward something essential in Joan’s vision: that awakening and its source are not private property, owned by some single institution or authority, but are and should be available—open—to whoever turns toward it with sincerity. This attitude of genuine openness also marks Joan’s reception, assimilation, and sharing of the dharma—or, really, many dharmas. Joan trained deeply in Chinese as well as Japanese language and literature; in the Taoist tradition that transformed a newly-arrived Indian Buddhism into the uniquely Chinese practice known as Chan; and in mythopoetics as well as shamanism and other pre-Chan practices. This receptivity to multiple traditions finds expression in Joan’s generous and discerning attitude toward innovation, her conviction that the ancient encounter of koan and practitioner can flourish not only in the midst of contemporary life, but by integrating our own native resources—our poetries and folkways and music—into our developing practice traditions. Our house style aims not to be too solemn or dutifully reverential in our embodiment of received tradition, in the hope of making space for the saving graces of humor and a lighter touch. 

Why Cloud Gate Zen?

Since the notion of an “open source” describes the attitude and vision that animate our communities quite well, why not stick with it? One answer is that, in the wider world, the aspirations that inspired the term haven’t worn all that well; for many people, “open source” no longer connotes the optimistic “communal commons” vibe of the heady days of an earlier internet, with its faith in the utopian potential of  free-spirited tech innovation; the term is now more likely to conjure up “tech bro” culture than an egalitarian utopia. And, in the midst of our strategic planning, this also seems like a good moment to mark with a new name our renewed hopes for what we can achieve as a collective of multiple practice communities. 

At the same time, our specific choice of “Cloud Gate” also marks our ongoing allegiance to the particular tradition Joan continues to shape and pass on to us, with its unique modes of engagement in the Chan tradition in China and the remarkable koan practice that Chan developed.  Cloud Gate translates “Yunmen,” the teaching name of the great Yunmen Wenyan, one of the most luminous and audacious voices in all of Chan. Yunmen’s teaching has always lived at the heart of our koan work. His sayings are pithy, vast, and of the moment—like clouds that cannot be held but that open the sky. A cloud gate is a threshold without a door, a passage that transforms the one who moves freely through it. “Cloud Gate” also links us with “Cloud Dragon,” Joan’s teaching name as well as the name of her ongoing project “Cloud Dragon : The Joan Sutherland Dharma Works.” 

But why “Cloud Gate Zen,” given the central importance of Chan and Chinese practice traditions to our particular lineage? One answer is that we are not, formally, a Chan school: our lineage of “dharma transmission” doesn’t descend through any recent or contemporary Chan school. Instead, our teachers received transmission through lineages that passed through Japanese Zen (both Rinzai and Soto) and then through the American Zen teachers authorized by their predecessors. That’s the fact of the (lineage) matter, though in significant ways our current practices fall outside the norms of contemporary American Zen, maintaining a deep allegiance to the Chan elements Joan has consistently foregrounded. And for a wider public, “Zen” still gives the potentially interested passerby a much better notion of what we are up to than a looser moniker like “dharma group” would—it’s a more effective, and accurate, shingle.

What Else is Going On with Strategic Planning: An Invitation to Join In

Some key goals of our planning group are to figure out specific ways in which a stronger Cloud Gate umbrella organization and community can 1) support the ongoing activities of each of our individual groups by centralizing and streamlining some of the necessary administrative work currently performed in each sangha; 2) grow our communities through a more effective and “polished” “outward facing presence” on the internet, with a really good website and effective social media accounts; and 3) continue to develop shared programs (annual Cloud Gate in person retreat, annual Koan Series on Zoom, and so on), also making some of our shared offerings available to a wider audience via our new website. 

As we move toward nuts & bolts implementation of these goals, our planning group has begun to spend some time in smaller working groups. We’re now at the point where it would be really great to have more people participate, helping to shape where we’re headed and how we’re going to get there by joining one of the groups. We’ll be sending out email invitations soon, through all of our email lists, asking you participate if you’d like to.  The current working groups are:

·       Formal structure, legal and banking 

·       Website and communications 

·       Staffing and operations 

·       Leadership development and programs 

There’s one important initiative that we’re already “rolling out.” A new Leadership Development” group, facilitated by all three teachers, will start meeting once a month, beginning shortly. “Leadership” is broadly defined, and the group is still open to anyone who would like to join. 

And coming up on July 12: our second community-wide zoom meeting about all this—a chance for a conversation among all of us about what the planning group has been doing, how it lands with everyone, what additional suggestions and ideas people have, and so on. Our aim, and hope, is to continue developing our shared practice in ways that our whole community is enthusiastic and excited about.

With high hopes for the future of Cloud Gate, and huge appreciation for our wonderful community,

Sarah Bender, Tenney Nathanson, and Megan Rundel

on behalf of the Strategic Planning Group:

Martha Abatuno

Kayci Barnett

Brandy Lancaster

Kelly McFarland

Michael Morton-Wiedner

John Robin

Jen Sellers