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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  • Dharmatalk: Winter Solstice Retreat: Bright Light (Part 4 of 4)

    MC PodcastApril 12, 20222 min read

    Description:  Valerie and Henry explore Unmon's Bright Light, Case 84 from the Blue Cliff Record in this final talk from our 2020 winter solstice retreat. Valerie opens with the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurring during this retreat, as a way to describe Zen practice. “Cutting the two into one... Light and darkness are one... your own great conjunction." Valerie asks "what is your own bright light?" Henry concludes with "ordinary mind is the...

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  • The Eightfold Path: Dharma Talk with Bill Bruce (video)

    MCZCApril 9, 20221 min read

    A more beautiful world our heart knows is possible. Bill Bruce is a long term Zen practitioner and sangha member. Bill opens his dharma talks with a simple story from author Charles Eisenstein about how we all need to work together to change the course of our world. Bill then takes us back to basics and gives a teisho about the first four steps on the Noble Eightfold Path. Bill draws on Thich Nhat Hanh's teachings...

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  • Lotus Blossoms in a World at War: Dharma Talk with Valerie Forstman (video)

    MCZCApril 8, 20221 min read

    Four weeks into the invasion of Ukraine, Valerie takes up case 21 of the Blue Cliff Record, “Chimon’s Lotus,” alongside the poem, “Peace,” by the German SanboZen master, Silvia Ostertag. Chimon’s surprising answer in the case becomes an invitation to taste the peace that pervades all boundaries and to offer our sitting for the peace of the whole world. https://youtu.be/y87UtRrg3no Photo by Irakli Kvaratskhelia on Unsplash Recorded in our virtual zendo on March 24, 2022. Photo by Irakli Kvaratskhelia on Unsplash...

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  • Practice as Pilgrimage

    Valerie ForstmanApril 7, 20222 min read

    The Way is never apart from you, right where you are. Why should we wander here and there to practice? Eihei Dogen Zen has deep roots in the practice of pilgrimage. From the teachings of the Buddha to the ancient tradition of monks “wandering with the wind” to meet masters and deepen their insight, pilgrimage is a way of engaging, exploring, and embodying who we truly are – the native ground that Yamada Koun Roshi called “the...

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  • Message from Henry Suffering and Awakening

    MCZCApril 6, 20221 min read

    The “conventional” perspective of practice might be that suffering is our problem, and practice can diminish it, and perhaps awakening can abolish it. But from the awakened perspective, suffering is seen differently. From there it looks more like it was a seed, a potential that can germinate, something that can grow and become marvelous. Or else we might say that suffering was a mulch that fertilized the seed, and helped it germinate, so it could bloom. When it...

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  • Dharmatalk: Winter Solstice Retreat: Beginner’s Mind (Part 3 of 4)

    MC PodcastApril 5, 20221 min read

    "... The knot of self has become untied ..." Description:  Henry returns to the basics of practice in this third talk from the 2022 winter solstice retreat picking up on Valerie's theme of trees and photosynthesis. "Pick up your Practice with a lot of hope. Know that your sitting is doing the photosynthesis of the world. Allowing the human to be." Henry quotes from William Shakespeare, physicist David Bohm, writer David Hinton and Bodhidharma "when we...

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  • This Blue Sky: Zazenkai and Q&A with Valerie Forstman (videos)

    MCZCApril 2, 20221 min read

    In this talk from our Women in Zen Zazenkai series, Valerie looks into the life and work of Chiyo-ni, the first renowned woman haiku master, reading these evocative verses alongside a recent quote from a Ukrainian mother: “If you can go outside and look at the blue sky, you should do it.” The beauty of nature and clarity of awakening intermingle in a world that is at once heart-breaking and broken all the way open. https://youtu.be/8-6tB0_uepc Featured...

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  • Q&A with Henry Shukman and Valerie Forstman (video)

    MCZCApril 1, 20221 min read

    In light of many questions coming in, Henry and Valerie have decided to dedicate this Thursday evening event to answer questions the sangha may have. More Q&A sessions will follow in the coming months. Stay tuned. Here is the first session recorded live on March 10, 2022. https://youtu.be/qsRDQruC1OY Featured photo by Mark Paul Petrick Recorded in our virtual zendo on March 10, 2022. Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

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  • Substance of Practice

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 31, 20222 min read

    Under the shadowless tree all people are in one boat. from Case 18, Blue Cliff Record; case 85, Book of Serenity When National Teacher Nanyang is about to die, his devoted student, Emperor Daizong, asks how to honor him in the years to come. Nanyang responds, “Build a seamless tomb for this old monk.” The emperor has the means to build a magnificent monument. He asks his teacher for a design. The case says, “The national teacher...

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  • Message from Henry: The Answer to Mu

    Henry ShukmanMarch 30, 20221 min read

    What if there is no answer? And we do as many koans as we do, whether it’s 400 or 600 of them, in order to undercut any sense of getting the answer. Any sense of: “now I know the answer.” We might think: “Kensho has pulverized me and now I am free and clear.” But actually, any thinking like that is proof we’re not really free and clear. When we are, we wouldn’t think like that....

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  • Dharmatalk: Winter Solstice Retreat: The Origin Point (Part 2 of 4)

    MC PodcastMarch 29, 20221 min read

    "... the awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha and the simultaneous awakening of all existence, past, present and future ..." Description: To explore the origin point of practice in this second talk of our winter solstice retreat, Valerie revisits the Old Plum Tree, Case Zero, from the Transmission of Light Collection. This case is the the Head Chapter which we read on Rohatsu that narrates the awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha and the simultaneous awakening of all existence, past,...

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  • Peace

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 24, 20222 min read

    Peace Sitting in silence you should simply let yourself fully arrive. Let yourself fully arrivein the peace of this moment.  How can you actually do that,let yourself arrive in peace,given there are so many peoplewho tragically have to suffer from the lack of peace in the world?Given there are so many peoplewho, in one way or another, find themselves in overwhelming need and unspeakable suffering?  Can it do them good if – with them in mind – others let themselves arrive in the peace of this moment? ~ Silvia Ostertag, SanboZen Master Zazen...

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  • Message from Henry: A Fly

    Henry ShukmanMarch 23, 20221 min read

    There’s a big fly on the table. Grazing around, splay-footed. Then still. Very carefully, precisely rubbing its forelegs together, like a billiards player wiping down their cue.   She walks a bit more, in her jerky multi-legged way. Then stops again - completely motionless. Not a twitch. Then suddenly she flies, and lands on the window with a kerfuffle. And now she walks more deliberately, determinedly, up the glass, the little body swaying from side to side...

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  • Dharmatalk: Winter Solstice Retreat: It’s All Empty (Part 1 of 4)

    MC PodcastMarch 22, 20221 min read

    "... This moment - just as it is - is our reality. ..." Description: Henry describes how meditation practice exclusively focused on awakening (kensho) can bypass the enormous gains practice offers our ordinary lives. Zen practice directly meets our daily anxieties, joys, losses, and gains. It meets and supports us right where we are. The whole thrust of deep Buddhist teachings is to meet our lives in normal everyday reality. As we develop loving awareness (mindfulness)...

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