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.

  • Living Heart of Zen, Spring Retreat Talk 1: Joshu’s Dog

    MCZCApril 13, 20231 min read

    Crossing over to the other shore is the heart of our practice and the heart of Buddha’s teaching. Eventually we realize that we were always on the shore, here and now, in the moment at hand. In this first talk of our Spring sesshin, Valerie looks at the famous koan: Does a dog have Buddha Nature? the traditional subject of the first teisho in a Zen sesshin. Valerie mentions a choral chant version of the...

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  • Message from Valerie: Seeds

    Valerie ForstmanApril 12, 20232 min read

    Walk into the dining room at Mountain Cloud and you will be met by a long table laden with new seedlings, freshly sprouted from seeds planted on a Samu Saturday in March. The seedlings are encouraged by a long, slender UV lamp that hangs above, oscillating on and off according to a timer. When the time is ripe, the young plants will be transferred to the garden, tilled soil that will nurture all manner of vegetables...

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  • The Gap, Natalie Goldberg (Video)

    MCZCApril 8, 20231 min read

    When Buddhas are truly Buddhas they do not necessarily realize they are Buddhas. However they are actualized Buddhas who go on actualizing Buddhas, ~ Dogen Natalie explores the gap - the space between who we really are and who we think we are. Listen to this dharma-talk and absorb - we don’t have time to hurry. Natalie illustrates the gap from ancient Zen stories and from her own life. A few quotes from Zen Master...

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  • Hakuin’s Song of Zazen, Scott Thornton (video)

    MCZCApril 8, 20231 min read

    Scott Thornton’s dharma-talk explores Hakuin and Hakuin’s famous Song of Zazen. This inspiring and joyful chant opens with All Beings are Buddha - Freedom is here with us, right now. Freedom from separateness. If we see clearly, our self is no self. Compared to ancient Zen masters, Hakuin is fairly contemporary (1680-1769) He was from a pious family and from a young age wanted to become a monk to avoid rebirth into hell. At 15...

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  • Message from Valerie: Step by Step

    Valerie ForstmanApril 5, 20232 min read

    Being on the Way without ever leaving home. Being at home without ever leaving the Way. --Joan Rieck Roshi This past Saturday, Mountain Cloud embarked on another 30 Days of Zen offering. Thanks ring out to Sarah Giffin for organizing the course, curating the daily emails, and lending her wise and welcoming way to a new cohort of participants. (It’s not too late to join!) How fitting to begin this fresh exploration of daily practice,...

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  • Message from Valerie: Continuous Practice

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 29, 20232 min read

    On the great road of buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continuous and sustained. It forms the circle of the way and is never cut off. Between aspiration, practice, enlightenment, and nirvana, there is not a moment’s gap; continuous practice is the circle of the way. This being so, continuous practice is undivided, not forced by you or others. The power of this continuous practice confirms you as well as others. It means your...

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  • Message from Valerie: Covering the Earth

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 21, 20231 min read

    The earth is covered with nourishing moisture, penetrating a thousand and soaking ten thousand. Eihei Dogen, New Year Blossoms  On this first day of spring, the mountains surrounding Mountain Cloud are covered in the nourishing moisture of snow. The calendar opens to the spring equinox – night and day in balance, the sun shining equally on both hemispheres – as we make the turn towards spring sesshin.  Four days of shared practice: penetrating a thousand...

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  • Dharmatalk: Diamond Sutra and Living Beings with Maria Habito

    MC PodcastMarch 17, 20231 min read

    "Abiding no-where mind comes forth." Maria Habito returns to Mountain Cloud's zoom zendo and talks about the Diamond Sutra. When we enter deep silence, the diamond cuts through every notion we carry. It can show us intimate awareness of no self, no other, no sentient beings and no time. In this talk, Maria focuses on Living Beings, which refers to those who are not yet enlightened. However many species of living beings there are, Bodhisattvas...

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  • Message from Valerie: Practice-Awakening

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 15, 20232 min read

    Something is happening at Mountain Cloud. Practice. Or, as Dogen put it, practice-awakening.  On Sunday morning, springing forward in daylight savings time, we gathered in the zendo and online for shared practice. It was quiet. The silence held us and spread out. Outside, clouds settled in close, and even the birds and critters seemed hushed. Mountain-still sitting.  What is that silence? Joshu said, “It’s alive!” Another master called it “a silence heard round the world.”...

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  • Longing to Belong, Shana Smith (Video)

    MCZCMarch 13, 20232 min read

    Shana relays a personal story—about walking her dogs while trying to listen to a dharma talk on her phone—as an example of how what we are seeking and longing for – is already right HERE. She explores the koan “Seijo’s Soul Is Separated” Gateless Gate Case 35) as a pointer to seeing into the reality our non-dualistic true self, which helps us compassionately understand that we, by our very nature, belong to the world. Shana...

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  • Life-and-death – the one and the many, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCMarch 13, 20231 min read

    On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, Valerie begins and ends with gratitude for the life and practice of a longtime practitioner, a woman of Ukrainian descent who died several months into the war. We hear the teaching of Karen Boreham on practice-awakening, unconditional love, beauty, bravery, empty-handed acceptance, and death. In between, Valerie takes up Case 149 from Dogen’s “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.” The koan presents this...

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  • Rohatsu 2022: Day 6, Vibes, Awakening and What then? with Henry Shukman

    MC PodcastMarch 7, 20231 min read

    For this final Rohatsu talk, Henry looks at three questions. What are we doing here, just sitting with each other? What is awakening? and What then? We are living "it" every moment. And,

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  • Message from Valerie: Sangha as Treasure

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 6, 20232 min read

    Sitting at my desk, the Jemez mountains shimmering in the distance call to mind the sangha treasure: the community of practitioners - at Mountain Cloud and in the cloud - and the 10,000 myriad things, including the clouds gathered over the snow-capped mountains. Support all around. Each time we sit, we are immersed in the support of the Three Treasures: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Buddha: The Awakened One and awakening itself - boundless, timeless, infinite possibilities,...

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  • Last Word, Part 2 with Henry Shukman

    MCZCMarch 6, 20231 min read

    Henry begins this talk by addressing a question that may nag at our practice: How at a time like this, with the world upended by the war in eastern Europe can we concern ourselves with koans? Continuing from his previous talk on March 3rd 2023, Henry returns to Case 13 of the Gateless Gate, providing additional commentary on the “Last Word.” Photo by Mark Paul Petrick

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