Teachings

  • Message from Valerie: An Invitation to Serve

    Valerie ForstmanJanuary 25, 20232 min read

    Mountain Cloud sangha members are currently coming together once each month to prepare and serve a delicious meal at the Interfaith Shelter, known as Pete’s Place, here in Santa Fe. For members interested in further engagement with vulnerable segments of our community, we have an opportunity to serve with fellow practitioners in Upaya’s Street Ministry project.  Upaya’s Street Ministry focuses on supporting member’s of Santa Fe’s community who are experiencing homelessness. Volunteers in the Street Ministry not only...

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  • The Two-Fold Truth: Genjokoan, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCAugust 11, 20221 min read

    Showing its back and showing its front, a falling maple leaf. ~ Ryokan, Death Poem Resolving the matter of Life and death is of prime importance. To explore this phrase, which is recited at the close of Zen sesshins, Valerie turns to Dogen's Genjokoan and digs into two truths, conventional and absolute, which are actually one truth. Dogen believes that in Zazenkai, we are practicing realizing, ripening the sweet milk of the long rivers. The entire Genjokoan essay funnels...

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  • Message from Henry: Simply Being

    Henry ShukmanAugust 10, 20222 min read

    How often do we allow ourselves to simply “be” during our sitting? All too often, we may be trying to achieve some kind of special state, or get to an imagined mental place that we’ve heard of or read about. It’s so easy to feel we must somehow avoid ourselves, just as we are, in the present moment. But we can release the whole idea that how things are right now is, for some reason, not...

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  • Dharmatalk: Compassion and Curiosity, Part 1, Valerie Forstman

    MC PodcastAugust 9, 20221 min read

    “Zen is awakening to the dynamic reality of the present moment.....Zen is finding love in all things at all times. ”   ~ Ruben Habito Valerie explores Zen practice from the mind of compassion and curiosity,  looking at the Buddhist origin story - Shakyamuni's awakening - and the fruits of practice. Valerie asks, What is Zen? A life long path of awakening and a practice to cultivate present moment awareness on and off the cushion. This...

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  • Message from Henry: Atman and Anatta

    Henry ShukmanAugust 3, 20222 min read

    The real beauty in practice and life is exactly these two – atman and anatta. The soul, and no-self. First, the journey to discover our soul, our atman, and to become more aligned with that within us that relishes itself, that loves life, that loves others, and that is already in love with the world. Then by pursuing exactly that, by letting it show itself more and more fully, we actually discover anatta -- no self. We...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 20 from the Book of Equanimity with Valerie Forstman

    MC PodcastAugust 2, 20221 min read

    “… Zazen has been described as silently not influencing anything ...” Koans can provide helpful perspectives for dealing with the uncertainty of current world events. In this talk, Valerie Forstman discusses Case 20 from the Book of Equanimity, in which Jizo tells his student that not knowing is most intimate. She deeply explores the intimacy revealed through this koan of a world that is so near to us yet so well able to maintain itself...

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  • Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, One: Summer Sesshin, Talk 6

    MCZCAugust 1, 20222 min read

    The things you know before you hear them, these are you, and this is why you are let in the world. ~ William Stafford Henry begins this final dharma talk from the 2022 summer sesshin with short poems by William Stafford and Henry Shukman; each offers caution about speach. Next Henry concludes his previous two talks on Tozan and the Three Beatings. The koan shows us that suddenly, against all expectations, someone (Tozan) can be open to...

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  • Hands and Eyes: Summer Sesshin Talk 5

    MCZCJuly 30, 20221 min read

    This world of dew is a world of dew and yet, and yet. ~ Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) Valerie takes a deep dive into compassion. She first relays the myth of Kannon and how she became the Bodhisattva of compassion with 1000 arms and hands (each with an eye) and 9 heads. But, what does she use so many hands and eyes for? To understand Kannon Bodhisattva, Valerie guides us through Case 54 from the Book of Equanimity,...

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  • One Bright Pearl, Summer Sesshin Talk 4, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCJuly 29, 20221 min read

    The entire world of the ten directions is one bright pearl. Zen Master Gensha During this summer Sesshin, we have been deeply exploring the intimacy in all things which Dogen says is "manifesting here and now." Valerie quotes from Dogen's Genjokoan which at its conclusion turns toward suffering, the reason why we practice: "the wind of the house of Buddhism reveals the great earth's golden presence and ripens the sweat milk of the long river." How does...

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  • 10,000 Year Traveller: Summer Sesshin, Talk 3

    MCZCJuly 28, 20222 min read

    Every step of the way was already the home you always longed to reach. from 10,000 Year Traveler, by Henry Shukman First, Henry gives a brief background about the Sanbo Zen lineage which is a hybrid of both Soto and Rinzai lineages. But, they are really the same and have the same root: This moment just as it is. If we get this, we've got Zen. Henry then continues with Tozan's Three Beatings koan, from the Gateless Gate...

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  • Message from Henry: Expectations

    Henry ShukmanJuly 27, 20222 min read

    What would it be like to sit with no expectations at all? Check it out. Not as a thought or an idea. Right now as we're approaching a time to sit, see if you can have no expectations of the upcoming sit. If you're feeling like you don't want to sit, honor that, recognize it, allow it, appreciate it. Then look to see if there's also some expectation active. Perhaps you are expecting that this sit will...

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  • Dharmatalk: Reflection on Dogen’s Fukanzazengi with Will Brennan

    MC PodcastJuly 26, 20221 min read

    Description: Senior Student Will Brennan gives a dharma talk, offering reflections on Dogen's Fukanzazengi, Recommending Zazen to all people. Will has recently been appointed as a Sanbo Zen Assistant Teacher and he lead Wednesdays with Will, the first two Wednesday evenings of each month in Mountain Cloud's Zendo. And, here's a link to our YouTube video of this talk. Also, check out our Upcoming Events: Original Love, Deep Clear Lake: 6 Sundays beginning July 31, 10am – 12pmAnd Weekend Retreat,...

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  • Patience, Constancy and Three Blows: Summer Sesshin Talk 2, Henry Shukman

    MCZCJuly 22, 20221 min read

    Henry opens this second talk from our Summer 2022 retreat by offering us two paramitas (virtues) which help support our practice, especially during Sesshin: patience and constancy. These two virtues are footsteps that carry us through practice, helping us to keep going. Patience is a critical starting point for the entire evolution of practice. Through patience we learn to let things be as they are, which primarily means recognizing and allowing suffering to show itself...

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  • Message from Henry: Balance, The Middle Way

    Henry ShukmanJuly 20, 20222 min read

    We’re either deconstructing difficulty, on the one hand. Or on the other hand, amplifying, expanding, opening to the good. ~ Henry Shukman All meditation is either addressing what's difficult – as we do when we sit with a hindrance, with a difficult emotion – or it's cultivating what’s good and pleasant and wholesome. And in some cases, expansive or even mind-blowing. You can see this all the way through the various practices. We’re either deconstructing difficulty, on the...

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  • Dharmatalk: Encounter of the Heart Retreat: Love (Part 6 of 6)

    MC PodcastJuly 19, 20221 min read

    "Anyone who wants to gain enlightenment, do not enter." Description: Valerie turns to Love, which knows nothing of rank and order. She looks at a koan from Keizan's Transmission of Light collection. Keizan is said to have an inscription at the entrance of his zendo (paraphrased), "Anyone who wants to gain enlightenment, do not enter." There is nothing to gain, if there is anything like enlightenment, it's the living dharma right where you are, right now. This koan...

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