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.

  • Introduction to Meditation Weekend, Talk One: What is the Shout?

    MC PodcastAugust 23, 20221 min read

    Listen to this talk by Valerie Forstman from the April 2021 Introduction to Meditation Weekend Retreat. A talk at a Zen retreat is traditionally called a teisho which means, Presentation of the Shout. Valerie asks What is the Shout? It's just this, presenting the fact of who we truly are and offering pointers on how to practice. And,

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  • Presence, Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCAugust 22, 20221 min read

    Your consciousness does not exist separately from what it contains. ~ Henry Shukman Henry explores presence from several different angles, including Internal Family Systems (IFS). The word presence includes some of what mindfulness means, and more. All you have to do is taste it.  Presence is really about coming back to yourself, to your own experience.  I am here. It requires no blistering kensho experience, but presence softens the way we cling to ourselves. Images by Mark Paul Petrick...

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  • Best Teisho Ever, Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCAugust 22, 20221 min read

    Enjoy this restful, quiet teisho from Henry. The best teisho you are ever going to hear. Just listen. Photos by Mark Paul Petrick

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  • Message from Henry: Why Meditate?

    Henry ShukmanAugust 17, 20222 min read

    You might ask, why bother with meditation at all?   It’s hard. We have restless minds and emotions that are difficult to tolerate. In general, often in life we try to stay busy so we don’t have to feel these difficult emotions or reckon with our restless minds.  Many of us suffer from overwhelm too – strong, confusing mental states where we’re trying  to manage many aspects of our lives, and feel like we’re swamped,...

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  • Introductory Day of Zen: Beginner’s Mind with Valerie Forstman

    MC PodcastAugust 16, 20221 min read

    Valerie examines beginner's mind and explores the question"what is Zen?" during our March 2021 one-day Introduction to Meditation retreat. Suzuki Roshi – a Japanese Zen master who brought Zen teaching to America in the mid 20th century – said: Beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. As Zen practitioners we turn this compassion toward ourselves. Valerie describes the four motivations that bring people to Zen meditation.1. Curiosity2. Seeking well-being3. Wanting to develop a practice or...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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."...

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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...

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