ABOUT MOUNTAIN CLOUD

 


Mountain Cloud is a Zen practice center primarily hosted by two Zen groups – the Santa Fe Zen Group of the Sanbo Kyodan, and a Rinzai group derived from Sasaki Roshi’s teaching. In addition the Santa Fe Vipassana Sangha use the center weekly, along with other occasional groups who sometimes hold retreats and sits here.

This beautiful zendo was founded in 1985 by Philip Kapleau Roshi and a number of his students. After Kapleau left in 1988 the center was used by a variety of Dharma groups, while all along a handful of the original founding students remained. In late 2010 these students invited in Zen Teacher Henry Ryu’un Shukman, who has trained like Kapleau in the Sanbo Kyodan lineage based in Kamakura, Japan. So the center currently has a teacher from its original founding lineage, as well as two osho’s in the Rinzai group, recently appointed by their teacher Sandy Stewart, who is based in North Carolina.

The building was designed to follow the lay-out of a traditional Japanese zendo, while incorporating elements of South-western architecture, such as its viga beams and straw-and-adobe walls. We have Japanese tan (a kind of platform) running around the walls, on which we sit, and a variety of the traditional drums and bells of a Zen temple.

The center can accommodate twenty people in its four cabins during retreats, but is otherwise non-residential. Its purpose is to serve the local community of Zen sitters with its weekly sits, and to offer Zen training to anyone seeking it.

 


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