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.

  • Time flies but it doesn’t fly away, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCApril 26, 20231 min read

    Unless we know exactly where we are, we can’t answer where we are going ~ Ryoun Roshi Everything is constantly changing but not going anywhere. Valerie asks, What is time? What is this moment, is there anything outside of this now? What does this say about us about who we truly are, and about this practice?  Case 53 from the Blue Cliff Record, Hyajkujo and the Wild Duck points directly to this matter. When a...

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  • Spring Retreat Talk 1, Joshu’s Dog: Crossing Over, Fully Arrived with Valerie Forstman

    MC PodcastApril 25, 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 first teisho in a Zen sesshin. Valerie mentions a choral chant version of the Heart Sutra from...

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  • Living Heart of Zen: Spring Retreat, Talk 4: Gathering the Heart Mind

    MCZCApril 22, 20231 min read

    Dwelling no-where, mind comes forth. From the Diamond Sutra This final talk or our Living the Heart of Zen retreat, Valerie opens to the emptiness and the fullness of oneness. Heart mind directs us to the fundamental point of who and what we are. In Chinese there is one term for this, Heart Mind. No hyphen necessary, simply one. Contemporary Sanbo Zen teacher Migaku Sato wrote a poem with this line: In nothing at all-ness,...

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  • Living Heart of Zen, Spring Retreat Talk 3, the Boat is on the River

    MCZCApril 19, 20231 min read

    Valerie explores the clarity and simplicity of Master Hogen who came to be known as the dharma eye of deep clarity. Focusing on Case 51 from Book of Equanimity, Valerie illuminates mind and consciousness through Hogan’s clarity. If you want to study buddha-dharma, everything you see is buddha dharma, a door, a window and the exquisite beauty of the boat is on the river. For Hogan there is no difference between phenomena (worldly dharma) and...

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  • Message from Valerie: Flowing

    Valerie ForstmanApril 19, 20231 min read

    Sitting in zazen, we embody the silence in all sound and the stillness in all movement. We come home, again and again, to the here and now. Dogen call this ‘the still-still state,’ or ‘mountain-still sitting.’ He also calls it ‘flowing.’ Zazen, as Dogen coveys, is all-inclusive. And it is constantly changing.  One all-inclusive flowing. Nothing fixed; nothing excluded. Not only our practice - brand new each time we sit - but also the seasons....

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  • Living Heart of Zen, Spring Retreat Talk 2: Crossing Over

    MCZCApril 16, 20231 min read

    Something puts our feet on this path, starting from the ordinary dualistic world. Gradually, as we practice and practice, in some unguarded moment, everything falls away, and it’s just this. Heaven and Earth: without any space for a conjunction. Then we practice, practice, practice…. and return to the ordinary world, but it’s upside down. This great return is a bridge, a crossing over. Continuing with Joshu from the previous day’s talk on Mu, Valerie looks...

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  • Discount Registration

    MCZCApril 15, 20231 min read

    Thank you for registering for our Online Retreat Preparation Workshop. This is where you register for the summer retreat using the 25% discount.

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  • 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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