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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Blue Cliff Record Case 14, A Preaching in Accordance
April 16, 20151 min read
Episode Description: Henry probes the big question a monk asks of Unmon: “What are the periods and teachings of the whole lifetime of Shakyamuni? Unmon answers, “A preaching in accordance.” Henry explores the single fact demonstrated in this Blue Cliff Record case. We learn that the master’s work is to be in accordance with the student’s need and, at the same time, to cut off the student’s stream of delusion. Listen to this lofty and...
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The Unfamiliar Familiar: Part 5 of 6
April 13, 20153 min read
...we surely know that to be alive among things is a gift; yet it’s a gift we so often fail to unwrap. Click here to read the Unfamiliar Familiar Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4. Shklovsky regarded the slowing down of perception as one of the purposes of defamiliarization. By making us work harder the artist slows our perception to the point of making it nonautomatic. Like Rain it sounded till it...
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Karma: Fate or Freedom
April 11, 20154 min read
Yet karma is not something the self has; rather, it is what the sense of self is, because one’s sense of self is transformed by one’s conscious choices. Many Buddhist teachings seem quite modern in their emphasis on such things as impermanence and interdependence (evolution, ecology), insubstantiality (physics), and the deceptions of language (philosophy). Yet the same cannot be said for karma, which points to an inexorable moral law built into the cosmos. This doesn’t...
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Blue Cliff Record 62, Unmon’s Single Treasure
April 9, 20151 min read
Episode Description: As the winter solstice descends, Henry Shukman explores Unmon’s Single Treasure, Case 62 of the Blue Cliff Record. This puzzling koan helps us turn our habitual views upside down. Roshi Henry describes the great invitation of Zen which is to abandon our cherished opinions and find the single jewel that makes the “one true fact” apparent. Henry talks about Christmas, the death penalty and his encounter with a Navy Seal in this elucidation...
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The Unfamiliar Familiar: Part 4 of 6
April 7, 20155 min read
The scriptures do not merely speak about the deconstruction of preconception; they enact it. Click to read The Unfamiliar Familiar Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. In the early Buddhist texts, defamiliarization is established in the content of what is said; in the later Mahayana teachings of the early first millennium C.E., it tends to occupy a central place not just in the content but in the very form of the texts. The scriptures...
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The Unfamiliar Familiar: Part 3 of 6
April 5, 20154 min read
This kind of disbanding of an assumption—whether of something as fundamental as our sense of self, or merely of a preconception about a classical poet—can bring about a radical new openness. Click to read The Unfamiliar Familiar Part 1 and Part 2. In John Keats’s sonnet “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer,” the poet dramatizes a sudden expansion of view. Keats had never learned Greek and did not like Pope’s versions of the classics, but...
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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 3 of 3
April 3, 20157 min read
Joan Rieck presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 - the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment experience of “body and mind falling away.” Click to Read Sanbo Zen: Part 1 and Part 2 Yasutani Roshi’s organization Sanbō Kyōdan was legally recognized as an independent Zen Buddhist religious organization on January 8th 1954. As had been the case under Harada Roshi, there were...
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Blue Cliff Record 75, Ukyu’s Blind Stick
April 2, 20151 min read
Episode Description: Continuing with the Blue Cliff Record, this talk explores Case 75, Ukyu’s Blind Stick. Find out what happens when Ukyu wields his stick. Roshi Henry discusses the background of this intriguing koan and ponders the nature of emptiness. We learn about the five types of Zen blindness and that all beings are blessed because there is no separation. Image Credit: IMG_4768 via photopin CC BY-SA 2.0 Featured Image Credit: Zen-Mind, by Hartwig HKD, CC BY-ND...
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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 2 of 3
March 30, 20155 min read
Joan Rieck presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 - the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment experience of “body and mind falling away.” Click to Read Sanbo Zen: Part 1. Yasutani Haku’un (1885-1973) is the official founder of Sanbō Zen, an independent Zen line formerly known as Sanbō Kyōdan and often referred to as the “Harada-Yasutani School” because it is based...
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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 1 of 3
March 28, 20156 min read
Joan Rieck Roshi presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 - the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment experience of “body and mind falling away.” Sanbō Zen is an independent lay line of Zen Buddhism that blends elements of both the Caodong (Soto) and Linji (Rinzai) traditions in its teaching and practice. Its purpose is stated on its website (sanbō-zen.org) by...
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