Dharma Talk: “Mumonkan Case 23: Think Neither Good nor Evil” with Carolyn Seburn
Thursday, August 6th | 5:30–7:00 PM
Meditation begins at 5:30 pm MT, followed by the Dharma Talk (teisho) at 6:00 pm MT.
You are invited to join us for an evening with Carolyn Seburn at Mountain Cloud Zen Center’s zendo, where she will be leading the Dharma Talk titled, “Mumonkan Case 23: Think Neither Good nor Evil.”
Monk Myo realized that drinking water and knowing for yourself whether it is cold or warm is the whole teaching, like Buddha confirming his own realization by touching the Earth. There is no other place to find it than right in this moment, right here.
This hybrid event is free and registration is not required. Please arrive five to ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time.
To participate online, please click on the zoom link below.
sit.mountaincloud.org
Passcode: mountain22
Trouble logging on to our online sits? Click here for guidance. Need help with time zone conversion? Use the World Time Buddy.
If you miss a dharma talk, you can find it on our YouTube channel within one to two weeks.
Kindly consider contributing dana (a traditional Buddhist offering) to express financial gratitude to our teacher. Dana to Carolyn can be made:
- Those who live in Canada can send an e-transfer to mountainmoonottawa@gmail.com
- Those who live in the US can make a donation to Mountain Cloud Zen Center at https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/
- Those who live in other countries can use PayPal PayPal.me/cseburn
- If none of the above options works then please give to an appropriate local charity.
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Carolyn Seburn is a Sanbo Zen Teacher based in Ontario and a regular teacher in our hybrid/online events.
She provides online dokusan to our members and during our 6-day retreats, dharma talks, and workshops for our 30 Days of Zen Course.
She is an authorized Dharma successor of Roselyn Stone (Sei’un An – Clearing Away the Clouds) Rôshi of the Mountain Moon Sangha (Toronto and Brisbane). She has been practicing Zen meditation since 1985 and guiding Zen practice since 2015. Married, with one offspring, Carolyn is also a biologist and public servant who focuses on wildlife conservation. Carolyn is also appointed a Zen teacher with Sanbo Zen International.
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Teisho literally means “presentation of the shout.” It is not a lecture or a didactic discourse but a direct sharing of the dharma springing from the teacher’s experience. A teisho or dharma talk is not intended to engage the discursive mind. Rather, the invitation is to let the language wash over the listener and, if something strikes, to let that resound.
At Mountain Cloud, teisho often take up a koan, a record of an exchange between Chan/Zen masters or masters and disciples that conveys the world they are sharing and carries the seeds of awakening. Teisho invite us to keep company with the ancestors whose practice-awakening (a term from Dogen) is freshly conveyed each time we turn to this living tradition.
