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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  • Message from Henry: Random Thoughts on Original Love

    MCZCFebruary 8, 20222 min read

    First: the Original Love program initially emerged as a corrective, in three ways. Kensho is the gateway to the hinterlands of koan training, but is notoriously unpredictable. And there are other experiences that may be kin to kensho, yet are not it. It’s not impossible for a zen teacher to be eager to usher people into the koans, and end up doing so a bit prematurely. So let’s appreciate these other experiences and learn from them,...

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  • Dharmatalk: Bodhidharma’s Vast and Void

    MCZCFebruary 8, 20221 min read

    "... ultimate meaning of the holy truth ... Vast and void, no holiness ..." Description: Guest speaker and Sanbo Zen teacher Hannelore Mueller opens this beautiful talk recognizing the seriousness and major impact of Covid 19 world wide. We are asked to learn the intimacy of life, sickness and death, and to pay attention to the personal responsibility of our common fate. Hannelore next speaks on the koan, Bodhidharma's Vast and Void. When Bodhidharma arrived in...

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  • Sangha Meeting Minutes from January 29, 2022

    MCZCFebruary 6, 202212 min read

    January 29, 2022 Sangha Meeting Minutes The meeting was held on zoom. 58 attendees were present. Agenda approved by those present Minutes from the October 30, 2021 sangha meeting were also approved. Teacher’s Reports Written versions of Henry and Valerie’s reports are at the end of these minutes. Financial Report,  Presented by Johanna Sindelar Mountain Cloud ended 2021 in strong financial postion. Looking at the financial report from 2021, we saw a total income of about $381,000 which is quite high in comparison...

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  • Zen’s True Blindness: Dharma Talk with Valerie Forstman (video)

    MCZCFebruary 5, 20221 min read

    In this talk from January 6, 2022, Valerie welcomes the new year and acknowledges the occasion by taking up ‘Unmon’s Bright Light,’ Blue Cliff Record case 86, together with readings from Jacques Lusseyran’s memoir, ‘And There Was Light.’ https://youtu.be/jM3ZWpE_XCU Recorded in our virtual zendo on January 6, 2022 Photo by Risto Kokkonen on Unsplash

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  • The Heart’s Wide Clarity, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 2, 20222 min read

    In the heart’s wide clarity, all things gather, but the heart is never overcrowded. ~ Ross Bolleter, composer and Zen teacher Zen practice is an invitation to sit in silence and discover the heart’s wide clarity. This discovery may come gradually, calming our nervous systems, melting our sense of boundedness, easing us towards more wellbeing and more agency in our lives. Or, within the context of a settled practice, there may come a sudden shift in experience, a...

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  • Message from Henry: Appearances

    MCZCFebruary 2, 20222 min read

    . Life is nothing more than an illusion. It's like a poor actor who struts and worries for his hour on the stage and then is never heard from again. All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players ~ Shakespeare When we see that this life is a kind of charade, that we are all actors on a stage; that this world, this life, and all its beings, are “appearances” - meaning that yes we...

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  • Discount Retreat Registration

    MCZCFebruary 1, 20220 min read

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  • Dharmatalk: The Oak Tree in the Garden

    MCZCFebruary 1, 20221 min read

    "... has a strange power to remove and delete delusions, concepts and unnecessary attachments ..." Description: Listen to this personal and powerful talk from Carmen Afable, Sanbo Zen teacher from Manilla. Carmen presents Case 37 from the Mumonkan cannon (The Gateless Gate), The Oak Tree in the Garden. Ryoun Roshi says this koan "has a strange power to remove and delete delusions, concepts and unnecessary attachments." And, here's a link to our YouTube video of this talk. Also,...

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  • Retreat Registration Reduced Fee

    MCZCFebruary 1, 20220 min read

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  • Meditation Tip from Valerie, Present Moment Awareness

    MCZCJanuary 29, 20221 min read

    If you wish to attain suchness, practice suchness immediately. ~ Eihei Dogen, Fukanzazengi Another translation of this famous line from Dogen reads, “If you want to realize suchness, practice suchness without delay.” Suchness is what we are, just as we are. Without delay means now, this very moment. Whatever we may seek in cultivating a daily practice of zazen, it is nowhere but here. Whatever draws us to the exploration of silent sitting, the only time it can unfold...

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  • Sitting Nowhere, Leaving no Traces

    MCZCJanuary 28, 20227 min read

    By Roshi Nancy Mujo Baker, 2000 I am one of those who find Japanese architecture and interior design extraordinarily beautiful.  This has been true for a long time. In the very early days of my practice Japanese style surroundings seemed to be a necessary part of zazen, even if in a big old landmark house in Riverdale, New York. It wasn’t a monastery in Japan, but ZCNY did its best to imitate one. This worked...

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  • Radiating Love: Wednesdays with Will Brennan (video)

    MCZCJanuary 28, 20221 min read

    In his Wednesday December 15 talk, Will talks about a couple of aspects of the journey of coming home. He refers to and quotes from Norman Fischer's book about Homer's Odyssey, Sailing Home. There are no maps for this journey... it takes effort, courage, fun, effort and intimacy. Will embellishes his talk from his many years of life with Zen practice. https://youtu.be/oCPM_Gtv80Y Recorded in our zendo on December 15, 2021 Photo by Sarah Cassady on Unsplash...

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  • Meditation Tip from Valerie, Three Fruits

    MCZCJanuary 27, 20222 min read

    For things to reveal themselves to us, we need to be ready to abandon our views about them.― Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace Zen is a path of practice that invites us to experience and embody ever deeper authenticity. Over time, silent sitting acts as a solvent for our assumed views, the grid of judgments and measures we set up and defend.  As it unfolds, softening our hearts and opening us to the moment at hand, this path can yield...

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  • Message from Henry: Small Note

    MCZCJanuary 26, 20222 min read

    When we really wake up, we see that the whole project of spirituality was just another painful game of the ego. Awakening, delusion, practice, koans, meditation, teachers, students, et cetera – to wake up is to see through the whole business. To see through it all, is to see that it never really happened. It only happened in some old strange dream. Then, now, we are actually alive. We really know this world. We might think, if we’ve...

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