Prairyerth Zen Center is located in Topeka, Kansas and is an affiliate member of the Kwan Um School of Zen. We are a community of people committed to the practice of Zen meditation. Much of what is taught here comes through the lineage of Zen Master Seung Sahn, a Korean Zen master who came to America in the 1970’s to teach. Our community is open and welcoming to everyone. We recognize that coming to the Zen center the first few times can be a little intimidating, but we’re here to help you get started because we believe in this practice so wholeheartedly.

The name Prairyerth is an old English word and is the title of the book “Prairyerth” by William Least-Heat Moon. This quote by Mr. Moon sums up the spaciousness and wide open clear mind of Zen – a spaciousness akin to the prairie lands and the open fields of the Flint Hills : “The protection and sureties of the vertical woodland, walled like a home and enclosed like a refuge, are gone, and now the land is a world of air, space, apparent emptiness, near nothingness where wind blows steadily as if out of the lungs of the universe.”

Welcome to Prairyerth.