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.

  • Rohatsu 2022: Day 2, What Matters Most with Henry Shukman

    MC PodcastJanuary 12, 20231 min read

    Henry asks the question, matters most? When you reflect on this question, have any open mind, beyond ordinary or day to day concerns. He asks, what is this experience and what is it to be alive? And... who is having this experience? Watch this exploration of what actually matters and why. And,

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  • Message from Valerie: Homecoming

    Valerie ForstmanJanuary 11, 20232 min read

    Last month Mountain Cloud joined with Zen practitioners all around the world in celebrating the Buddha’s awakening with a Rohatsu sesshin. Rohatsu translates as “eighth day of the twelfth month,” the day associated with Shakyamuni’s enlightenment while sitting under the bodhi tree. Sitting through the night – assailed by Mara, demon of delusions, but to no avail - Siddhartha Gautama looked up and saw the morning star. Suddenly there was just one shining. Awakened, he...

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  • Rohatsu 3: One All-inclusive Awakening, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCJanuary 8, 20231 min read

    In celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s awakening, Valerie takes up the Head Chapter of the Denkoroku or Transmission of Light. “I and the great earth and all beings simultaneously attain the Way.” The invitation of this practice is to taste and see: Our sitting, standing, bowing, walking is nothing but that awakening - fully expressing it in every breath, every gesture. 

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  • Diamond Sutra and Living Beings, Maria Habito (Video)

    MCZCJanuary 7, 20232 min read

    Abiding no-where, mind comes forth. Diamond Sutra 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...

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  • Message from Henry: Surrender

    Henry ShukmanJanuary 4, 20231 min read

    Life uses us and does not care how we feel about it. It lives through us, as us. We object and resist, or concur and are pleased – it makes no difference either way. Only when we surrender our will, and along with it our notions of identity, can we touch our real life, and enter it, and taste at least a little more intimately what it is to be alive. As so many masters said...

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  • Rohatsu 2022: Day 1, Light Sitting in Light with Valerie Forstman

    MC PodcastJanuary 3, 20231 min read

    In this talk from the first day of the Rohatsu sesshin, 2022, Valerie offers a tribute to Sr. Elaine MacInnes, Roshi, who died a week ago and whose celebration of life will be December 8. Drawing on the experience Sr. Elaine described as “light sitting in light,” Valerie turns to the koan, Mu – a tiny spark that can ignite an inexhaustible flame, opening our eyes to a world of boundless clarity and infinite love. And,

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  • Rohatsu 2: What Matters Most? Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCJanuary 2, 20231 min read

    Henry asks the question, what matters most? When you reflect on this question, having an open mind is important, seeing beyond ordinary or day to day concerns. Henry asks, what is this experience and what is it to be alive? And... who is having this experience? Watch this exploration of what actually matters and why.

    Watch the video
  • Rohatsu 1: Light Sitting in Light, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCJanuary 2, 20231 min read

    Light Sitting in Light: the tiny spark of Mu In this talk from the first day of the Rohatsu sesshin, 2022, Valerie offers a tribute to Sr. Elaine MacInnes, Roshi, who died a week ago and whose celebration of life was December 8. Drawing on the experience Sr. Elaine described as “light sitting in light,” Valerie turns to the koan, Mu – a tiny spark that can ignite an inexhaustible flame, opening our eyes to...

    Watch the video
  • Message from Henry: Koan Exchange

    Henry ShukmanDecember 21, 20221 min read

    If I truly talked about Zen, then there wouldn’t be a single companion at your side. ~ Kyozan Koans are not riddles. They are not talking points for discussion. They are not devices to be used for psychodrama. Nor are they checklists to be knocked off in some deluded idea of progress. They are opportunities to change the way we experience our very lives. They grant us the chance to change our experience from something...

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  • Message from Henry: The Great Space

    Henry ShukmanDecember 14, 20222 min read

    At its best Zen leads us out of the hell of self-obsession, by showing us that what we took to be the seat of our self was a chimera, a mirage. At its less than best, it devolves into mindless rote, a home for control freaks, for OCD sufferers who’d prefer not to have a diagnosis. Or it devolves into a mish-mash of pop psychology, self-help, and New Age catchphrases. Or it devolves away from...

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  • Dharmatalk: Zen Jhanas with Stephen Snyder

    MC PodcastDecember 13, 20222 min read

    Guest speaker Stephen Snyder of the Jhana tradition visits Mountain Cloud and offers a teisho on the Buddha’s first and last practice. Jhana practice predates the Buddha by at least 1000 years and is the origin of our Sanbo Zen lineage. Stephen offers an introduction: what is Jhana practice? How are the lineages entwined? And,

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  • Dharmatalk: Life is Not Suffering with Rick Hanson

    MC PodcastDecember 8, 20221 min read

    It is said that the Buddha teaches only suffering and its end, but what is suffering? Guest speaker Rick Hanson attempts to define this suffering, challenging that suffering is only a small part of everything that exists. Understanding this can help break the pattern of seeing meditation and mindfulness practices as a solution to suffering, rather than a practice worth immersing yourself in. While there is suffering in this world, this world is not all...

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  • Message from Henry: Whole Ox Zen

    Henry ShukmanNovember 30, 20221 min read

    The intention of Zen is not to rescue us from life but to bring us into the midst of our human experience. The closer we get to life, to our core humanity, the closer we get to Manjusri’s great sword. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form: this is no recipe for withdrawal, but rather for total immersion. That’s why in the last three or four ox-herding pictures, that long-sought ox has vanished altogether. He’s not...

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  • Dharmatalk: Towards Healing with Peggy Sheehan

    MC PodcastNovember 29, 20221 min read

    "We don't study koans, we use koans to investigate our life." ~ Maezumi Roshi Guest teacher Peggy Sheehan from Zen Center Denver says that koans have been a life long practice, for her. In this talk she explores Case 3 from the Gateless Gate, Gutei's Finger. Peggy's work as a pediatrician informs her interest in this koan. Babies become interested in their finger from a young age; first simply pointing upward then, then pointing at...

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