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.

  • Last Word, Part 1 with Henry Shukman

    MCZCMarch 6, 20231 min read

    Henry begins this dharma talk by connecting the heartbreaking upheaval in Ukraine with the three poisons of Buddhism: greed, aversion and ignorance. We watch, stunned and horrified, as these forces reshape our world. Although conflicts like that in the Ukraine may come as a sudden shock, we are all susceptible to these poisons, therefore our world is as well. In this talk from March 3, 2022, Henry Shukman explores "Tokusan Carries his Bowls," Case 13  from...

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  • Summer 2023 Retreat: In-person Payment

    MCZCMarch 1, 20230 min read

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  • Application for Summer 2023 Sesshin – Onsite Attendance

    MCZCMarch 1, 20233 min read

    Please fill out this application if you wish to attend our June 26-July2 summer sesshin in person. This applies to those who plan for indoor lodging onsite, camping on our land, or commuting from home or a local lodging venue. Due to space considerations, not all applicants will be accepted. Private students of our teachers and MCZC members have priority. That said, you may still apply if this doesn't apply to you. A six day...

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  • Message from Valerie: Spreading Seeds

    MCZCMarch 1, 20232 min read

    Setting up the zendo for the Intro Class this past Sunday, a longtime member asked if she could help. We spoke of the wind, blowing with an intensity unlike anywhere I’ve lived. “Yes,” she said. “It drove me crazy the first few years we lived here – until I realized that’s how seeds are spread.” A grateful moment, entrusting the day with its unsettling turmoil to nature’s great release. Entrusting ourselves to the moment at...

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  • Rohatsu 2022: Day 5, Cannot Get Wet, Cannot Get Dry with Valerie Forstman

    MC PodcastFebruary 28, 20231 min read

    In this talk from day 5 of the Rohatsu sesshin, Valerie picks up on the previous day’s talk by Henry where he presents the title and first line of the Heart Sutra. Turning to the figure of Kannon, Kanzeon, or Avalokiteshvara, bodhisattva of great compassion, Valerie asks, “What is compassion?” In response, she lifts up the phrase, “Just compassion,” then turns to a koan that addresses the heart of the matter: who we truly are....

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  • Dwelling nowhere – pointing the way, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCFebruary 26, 20231 min read

    Come, come, whoever you are,wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, it doesn't matter.Ours is not a caravan of despair.Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times.Come, come again, come. ~ Rumi In this talk from our February Zazenkai, Valerie turns to two Zen women, centuries apart. One, a wise old woman, known to us through a single encounter with a turning word; the other, a young Irish woman who entered a Japanese monastery, practiced...

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  • Buddha’s Parinirvana – The Great Unbinding,Teshin Matt Sweger (Video)

    MCZCFebruary 23, 20231 min read

    Celebrated on February 15, Teshin commemorates the passing on of the Buddha - parinirvana - and looks at the ways we understand death, the central question to be resolved in our lives. Teishin explores how we, as Zen practitioners, approach our own unbinding - how do we untangle the knot of self? What is it to be unbound? Teshin Matt Sweger is the resident teacher at the North Carolina Zen Center. He began his Zen...

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  • Message from Valerie: Beneficial Action

    Valerie ForstmanFebruary 21, 20232 min read

    Foolish people think that if they help others first, their own benefit will be lost, but this is not so. Beneficial action is an act of oneness, benefiting self and others together. – Eihei Dogen Years ago, I was at a seven-day intensive Zen retreat, asked to step in and serve as jiki or monitor just before the retreat began. The first day of the sesshin we were all settling in, adjusting to the forms, finding...

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  • Nursing the Ill in an Indivisible World, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCFebruary 20, 20231 min read

    In this talk, Valerie begins with an imperative from the masters – ancient and alive – to see and be the catastrophes of the world. Can there be any real solace that doesn’t spring from uncompromising oneness? As a response to the litany of suffering, personal and collective, Valerie turns to case 83 of the Book of Equanimity. “Where do you come from?” one master asks another. “I come from nursing the ill.” This is...

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  • Everyday a Good Day, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 18, 20231 min read

    Speaking in the wake of multiple mass shootings, Valerie turns to Unmon (Yunmen) and his living koan, “Every Day is a Good Day.” The talk begins and ends in music - the “grant us peace” from a chorus performing while masked to the thunderous silence of a typhoon’s downpour on a small teahouse in Japan, an awakening moment. In between, the talk explores the fulcrum experience that plunges us into the heart of this broken...

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  • Message from Valerie: Freedom and Support in the Forms of Zen

    Valerie ForstmanFebruary 15, 20232 min read

    Every week in the Intro Class we talk about posture, breathing, and stilling the mind – the three basic components of zazen. It’s a repetition that never grows old, an instruction that brings to mind the adage from Zen (and from linguistics), “It’s impossible to say the same this twice.” Zen is an embodied practice, on the cushion - or bench, or chair - and off. Our bodies are the vehicle for practice as well as...

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  • The Heart of Dogen’s Fukanzazengi

    MCZCFebruary 13, 20231 min read

    Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced. ~ Soren Kierkegaard Valerie unpacks the first paragraph of Dogen’s Fukanzazengi, Universally Recommended Instructions on Doing Zazen. This opening paragraph makes four statements, each followed by a challenging question. The Fukanzazengi is the first essay Dogen wrote, at age 27, after returning to Japan from China where he had deep awakening experiences guided by Chinese master Rujing. Valerie looks at this...

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  • The Capacity to Awaken, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 12, 20231 min read

    In this talk from the first Zazenkai of 2023 at Mountain Cloud, Valerie turns to Mahapajapati, mother to Siddhartha Gautama after his birth mother dies and the first female dharma ancestor of the Buddha. After a long absence, Mahapajapati sees the Buddha and recognizes his deep transformation. Her heart is pierced. She asks – for herself and on behalf of the many women gathered in practice - for the chance to be ordained and enter...

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  • The Advantage of New Years, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 11, 20231 min read

    In this first talk of 2023 at Mountain Cloud, Valerie opens with a dedication of the year to hearing the cries of the world, responding in wisdom and compassion, and realizing the Way of awakening that calls to us moment-to-moment. She then turns to a new year’s Dharma Hall Discourse by Dogen, “The Advantage of New Years.” Dogen celebrates the newness of the year, the day, and the morning by raising the question, “Is there...

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