Teachings
You can find all of our weekly Dharma talks for free right here on this page, as well as on our YouTube channel and podcast. Live talks take place every Thursday from 5:30–7:00pm MT, both in-person and on Zoom (sit.mountaincloud.org — password: mountain22). Members receive access to some special archival materials.
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Case 4 Book of Equanimity. The World-honored One Points to the Ground
July 16, 20151 min read
Episode Description: Henry presents this simple koan about the Buddha, Indra and the building of a temple. This talk explores how something as simple as a piece of straw can illuminate infinite abundance, ultimate reality. Henry quotes from Sri Nisargadatta, from the 17th Century English cleric Thomas Traherne, and from Master Bansho to expose what Bansho calls “the fundamental matter.” Henry shows that to clarify who we really are, to see the fundamental point of our...
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Listening to the Voices of the Great Wide Earth, Part 3 of 3
July 13, 20156 min read
It is about undergoing a conversion of heart, so our whole life is seen from the perspective of mountains, rivers, and the great wide earth Read Listening to the Voices of Great Wide Earth, Part 1 and Part 2. The fourth point is important. “Change the way you consume”. Look at our lives from day to day. What are we eating, drinking? Where does that come from and how does that affect the circle of...
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Mountains and Oceans
July 12, 20151 min read
Mountains and oceans have whole worlds of innumerable wondrous features. We should understand that it is not only our distant surroundings that are like this, but even what is right here, even a single drop of water. Dogen Zenji Photo and creation by Rosa Bellino, used with her permission
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Case 3 Book of Equanimity. The Indian King Invites the Ancestor
July 9, 20151 min read
Episode Description: In this talk, Henry explicates Case 3 in the Book of Equanimity koans, and explores the Buddhist “Middle Way.” This koan shows how Prajnatara’s teaching on sutras, “suchness” and breath exemplifies the Middle Way. (Prajnatara, Bodhidharma’s teacher, may well have been a female master, in spite of what the Zen tradition has said.) Henry describes how a life focused on either desire or self-mortification is profitless. He explores the “excluded middle” between these two...
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Listening to the Voices of the Great Wide Earth, Part 2 of 3
July 7, 20156 min read
How may I live my life realizing that the wounded world is my own true self, I am that, crying out in pain? Click to read Listening to the Voices of the Great Wide Earth, Part 1. Let me share some thoughts based on a posting I read, which summarizes the recommendations for a change of lifestyle following Pope Francis’ encyclical. The article, "Five eco-lifestyle changes the Pope wants you to make" offers five points...
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The Ecological Crisis: Can Buddhism Help? Reflection by David Loy
July 3, 20152 min read
"We are here to overcome the illusion of our separation." -- Thich Nhat Hanh "I came to realize Weed seed puff clearly that mind is nothing other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars. " -- Dogen Is the ecological crisis a larger version of our usual individual predicament, according to Buddhism? The Buddha emphasized the connection between dukkha - "suffering" in the...
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Case 2 Book of Equanimity, Bodhidharma’s Vast and Void
July 2, 20151 min read
Episode Description: This instructive teisho reviews Buddha’s earliest core teachings: The Four Noble Truths and The Three Marks of Existence. The Three Fires of greed, hatred and delusion mislead us, so we get caught in the Three Worlds of desire, form and no-form. Henry applies these early teachings directly to Case 2 of the Book of Equanimity in which Emperor Bu asks Bodhidharma, "What is the highest holiness?" Bodhidharma’s answer is “no holiness, only vast and...
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