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.

  • Beautiful Storm: Part 1 of 3

    MCZCFebruary 28, 20154 min read

    The Kuna believe that a violent storm is a being that has lost its way, blundering about blindly, desperate to get its bearings once more. Beautiful Storm: Finding the hidden remedies in our troubled selves One night some 16 years ago, while on a writing assignment in Central America, I got caught by a violent storm in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fronds of the palm trees along the shore were breaking apart and bending...

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  • Blue Cliff Record 67, Fu Daishi Expounds the Sutra

    MCZCFebruary 26, 20151 min read

    Episode Description: This compelling talk, given in our zendo under the light of the full moon, explores Case 67 of the Blue Cliff Record. In a hushed atmosphere, Roshi Henry talks about Fu Daishi’s surprising sutra presentation. We see that words and other symbols only point to reality, but are not the reality themselves. The talk includes wisdom from Harada Roshi and encourages resolute practice that uncovers unimagined treasures. Featured Image Credit: from Mountain Cloud Image...

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  • Message from Henry: Perfection and Imperfection

    MCZCFebruary 25, 20153 min read

    ...the Dharma, the great “fact,” functions flawlessly... It is a “perfect mirror,” as Joshu says. The best one can reasonably hope for from any system of profound self-enquiry and practice is that for the most part it works. It’s never going to be perfect. The system, the “yoga,” the training, the set of methods and guidance, the tradition and lineage in which we train at Mountain Cloud is surely no exception. There may be better ways...

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  • Wrongness and the Blues

    MCZCFebruary 23, 20153 min read

    Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so, said Shakespeare. When we’re depressed, or despairing, depondent, down or we’ve got the blues, the blah’s, feeling browned off… we often tend condemn circumstances as being wrong, not the way they ought to be. And we tend to condemn ourselves as likewise being wrong, not good enough. I should have done this, I shouldn’t have done that. We can do it quite mercilessly – this...

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  • Self Improvement

    MCZCFebruary 21, 20152 min read

    We believe ourselves to be solid and separate "lumps of ice." Don't expect to be perfect. As we know, Zen is not about self-improvement. Zen may indeed help to alleviate some of the things we dislike about ourselves, but that is not its real purpose. Rather, give it time and diligence, constancy and faith, and it just may dislodge the one sitting in the middle who is busy doing the disliking. The disliker may suddenly...

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  • Blue Cliff Record 66, Ganto and the Sword

    MCZCFebruary 19, 20151 min read

    Episode Description: This talk explores Case 66 from the Blue Cliff Record, Ganto and the Sword. Roshi Henry Shukman guides us to open our hearts to the alternate dharma reality in which we naturally exist, a consciousness radically different from the “getting and spending” (as Wordsworth called it) of our consumerist lives. This talk also describes the Zen practice of bowing and explains the nature of koans. Featured Image Credit: from Mountain Cloud Image Archives

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  • Message from Henry: Allergy of Self II

    MCZCFebruary 18, 20156 min read

    ...the relationship between self and world is revealed to have been part of the screen itself. That relationship falls away. There is no longer self and world as two – so naturally the friction between self and world is then gone, and with it the “allergy of self”. Following on from last week’s message: if the self may be viewed as an allergic reaction to the world, that’s not the end of the story of...

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  • How to Be in the World: Part 5 of 5

    MCZCFebruary 17, 20154 min read

    Koans, too, return us to our daily lives. This is surely why Salinger used one as the epigraph to one of his greatest books: It was in harmony with the thrust of his tender, farreaching morality. Click to read: Part 1, Part 2,  Part 3, and Part 4 of How to Be in the World. Chekhov said all that is necessary for a writer is to present a problem as completely as possible. When later...

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  • How to Be in the World: Part 4 of 5

    MCZCFebruary 15, 20154 min read

    Mu soon opened me up: suddenly, one evening... the world vanished; there was nothing at all. I remember thinking: all this training of the mind, yet there is no mind! There’s absolutely nothing! Not a speck in the sky. Click to read Part 1 and Part 2  and Part 3 and Part 5 of 5 of How to Be in the World. In what ways is literature a sufficient response to deep spiritual experience, in what...

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  • How to Be in the World: Part 3 of 5

    MCZCFebruary 13, 20158 min read

    “To study the self is to forget the self,” said Dogen. If you try to find who you really are, you may discover you’re not there at all. Dogen also said: “To forget oneself is to be actualized by all things.” Click to read Part 1 and Part 2 and Part 4 and Part 5 of 5 of How to Be in the World.. All good literature, in a way, is an emissary from this other...

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  • Rohatsu Sesshin 2014 Day 4 of 4

    MCZCFebruary 12, 20151 min read

    The last talk of the sesshin again returns to Continuous Practice, taking us through discussions of Tennyson's poem "Crossing the Bar," sweatlodges, cults, faith and the Three Treasures. Image Credit: Above image from Mountain Cloud Image Archives Featured Image Credit: Stones, Meditation by memyselfaneye, CC0 Public Domain, from pixabay.com

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  • Message from Henry: Allergy to Self

    MCZCFebruary 11, 20154 min read

    There’s debate about what a self is, but most would agree it involves choosing. Wanting and disliking. Craving and aversion. The “three fires” of Buddhism—greed, aversion and misunderstanding—are all aspects of self. This message is not clearly thought out still less backed by any kind of hard evidence. Please bear with me… What if the self is basically an allergy? Allergies are an over-reaction of the immune system to a perceived danger that is in...

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  • How to Be in the World: Part 2 of 5

    MCZCFebruary 10, 20155 min read

    Dogen said: “Directly upon encountering the dharma, we will abandon the law of the world.” Click to read Part 1 and Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5 of 5 of How to Be in the World.. Salinger became an entry point into the dharma for me in two ways. First, that inherent seeking manifest in his characters, who, with their troubled integrity, seemed to be searching for a truer way of living spoke to...

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  • How to Be in the World: Part 1 of 5

    MCZCFebruary 8, 20156 min read

    How to Be in the World: J.D. Salinger and a Zen Koan for Authenticity Click to read Part 2 and Part 3 and Part 4 and Part 5 of 5 of How to Be in the World. “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” J. D. Salinger inscribed in the opening pages of Nine Stories. An epigraph made in heaven: What on earth were his readers going to make of that? Whatever it was, coming...

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