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.

  • Shin-Jin-Mei (Verses on the Faith-Mind) by Sosan, Part 3 of 3

    MCZCJune 18, 20151 min read

    Episode Description: Henry continues to explicate Sosan’s Shin-Jin Mei and incorporates the Three Treasures—Buddha, Dharma and Sangha--into the meaning of the poem. The Shin-Jin-Mei is an example of Dharma, a teaching or guidance, which helps us find our core, the heart/mind of ourselves (Buddha) and our universe (Sangha). Henry also discusses another meaning of Dharma, as "natural law," intangible but vividly experienceable, always with us, and in us, right now. The other 2 parts of this...

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  • Message from Henry: Empty Mirror

    MCZCJune 16, 20153 min read

    An empty mirror; the giver of all; no mirror; a fire without fuel: the Dharma.  It’s like we have stitched and threaded such a thick web around and through our minds that it’s hard for reality to break in. But it keeps trying. And sooner or later a strand snaps, and a glimmer of light breaks in, and another, and another, and gradually the cat’s cradle of wires and threads starts to lose its integrity...

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  • Zen and the Art: Part 4 of 4

    MCZCJune 15, 20154 min read

    ...the secret truth is that art is useless... Its “purpose” is to delight with its purposelessness, to demonstrate that in our lives of “getting and spending” there must be one thing without utilitarian value. Click to read Zen and the Art, Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. In his book What Good Are the Arts? the British cultural critic John Carey argues that art is whatever someone defines as art. Yet even if we...

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  • Zen and the Art: Part 3 of 4

    MCZCJune 13, 20156 min read

    Perhaps there is a parallel between the artist wrestling with his medium, bending it to the shape he seeks, and a dharma practitioner wrestling with the equally intractable medium of the “self,” which she strives to see for what it is. Click to read Zen and the Art, Part 1 and Part 2. The Trappist monk and accomplished writer and poet Thomas Merton wrote: “Today the artist has inherited the combined functions of hermit, pilgrim,...

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  • Life is worth living … full flow! {VIDEO}

    MCZCJune 11, 20151 min read

    "...life, ...  for all it's bruises and false starts, it's blind alleys and reversals, it's failures, ... is worth living ... full flow ..." This YouTube video, below, is being posted in lieu of this week's podcast episode. Regular weekly (every Thursday) publishing of podcast episodes will recommence with the next episode on Jun 18th. Bill Broyles, who is not a meditator but a friend of Henry’s and supporter of Mountain Cloud, grew up in a refinery town...

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  • Message from Henry: Reflections on the Ox

    MCZCJune 9, 20154 min read

    And the true ox (in Zen’s famous sequence of the ten ox-herding pictures), if there is one, is no ox at all.  REFLECTIONS ON THE OX Last week in the zendo I was saying that koans are an affront to our humanity. Maybe I should have been clearer: they are only an affront to our imagined or assumed idea of what it means to be human. To our real humanity they are a blessed expression...

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  • Zen and the Art: Part 2 of 4

    MCZCJune 8, 20156 min read

        According to the Buddhist scholar Robert Sharf, the relationship between Zen and art is neither simple nor obvious. Indeed, it is a matter that we in the West have largely gotten wrong...         Click to read Zen and The Art Part 1 The connection between certain Chinese arts and Chan has been overstated, Sharf told me. It was in important ways tangential. In feudal society, Buddhist monasteries were cultural centers,...

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  • Zen and the Art: Part 1 of 4

    MCZCJune 6, 20155 min read

    Why the relationship between Zen and art is neither as simple nor as obvious as this cliché implies... For better or worse, “Zen and the Art of...” has become a phrase that, like “Catch-22,” gets bandied about in all kinds of contexts. Zen and the Art of Changing Diapers, Zen and the Art of Casino Gaming, Zen and the Art of Faking It—there are now literally hundreds of books with “Zen and the Art of...”...

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  • Spring Sesshin Part 2 of 2, Case 10: Book of Equanimity, An Old Woman near Taizan

    MCZCJune 4, 20151 min read

    Episode Description: In this second talk of our spring sesshin, Henry elucidates the the case of an old, wise woman near Taizan who gives directions to a lost monk. Henry acknowledges the many women teachers within Zen history and this lineage. He discusses the depth of awakening that Joshu senses in the old woman and describes how the ten Ox-herding pictures provide a map to awakening. In this wide-ranging discussion Henry captures the essence of Zen’s...

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  • Message from Henry: Authoritative Rating

    MCZCJune 3, 20157 min read

    ...what if there are no final answers at all, and the best we can hope for is to become OK with that? MEDITATION TIP First things first. When sitting, let the sit first and foremost be a chance just to be as we are. We start where we are. Where else could we start? Of course, sometimes we don’t want things to be as they are, nor do we want our own reactions to things...

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  • Behind the Scenes: Journey Through Japan Continues …

    MCZCJune 1, 20152 min read

    ... from Behind The Scenes: A Sanbo Zen Documentary .... One of the walkways of Sojiji monastery - a major Soto Zen training institution, where Harada Sogaku Daiun (Great Cloud) Roshi was abbot for a while, before exploring further training within the Rinzai school. Today hundreds of monks spend one to three years in training here, learning to become professional monks or priests. It was founded by Dogen's "Dharma great-grandson" Keizan, who compiled the Denkoroku book...

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  • Behind the Scenes: A Sanbo Zen Documentary

    MCZCMay 30, 20151 min read

      A few early photos from Henry Shukman's whirl-wind odyssey through Japan, accompanied by a film crew making a documentary about Sanbo Zen...           Guided by Sato Migaku Roshi, the film crew met with and interviewed a host of extraordinary practitioners, of all ages and walks in life.         Henry and the crew visited zendos in Tokyo, Kamakura, Kyoto and Obama, all on the trail of the ancestors of...

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  • Spring Sesshin Part 1 of 2, Mu Koan

    MCZCMay 28, 20151 min read

    Episode Description: This talk, the first during our spring sesshin, introduces the Koan Mu and addresses the challenges that arise during a first sesshin. Henry compares zen practice to musical instrument practice with a lively story about his old trombone teacher, Jack Pinches. He also recounts the difficulties and rewards of his own first sesshin. Henry emphasizes the importance of diligent practice and explains how to sit with Mu while allowing it to absorb our inner...

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  • Message from Henry: Random Thoughts from Japan

    MCZCMay 27, 20155 min read

    Our practice is a kind of experiential science, a personal science. The science of authentic self-discovery, as passed down by Zen through many generations. A poster in the Tokyo Metro showing what looks like a city of the future; I guess it’s advertising some kind of real estate development, or possibly mortgages. There’s a glamorous young woman standing beside a red sports car, alone. Beyond her the idealized development spreads hazily. She’s the only person...

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