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: The Sharpest Sword

    MCZCNovember 2, 20211 min read

    "... Mu cuts through our false sense of separation..." Description: A monk asked Haryo, “What is the sharpest sword?” He replied, “Each branch of corral reflects the moon.” Taking up the lens of this koan, Valerie invites us to see through the habitual grid of separateness and be illumined by the reality Haryo conveys: one single moon, reflected in many drops of dew. The sword that is so sharp it can cut even a hair blown...

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  • Brain Savvy Spaciousness and Contentment, Rick Hanson (Video)

    MCZCNovember 1, 20211 min read

    Dr. Rick Hanson was our guest speaker on October 14. He offered a guided meditation and dharma talk, Brain Savvy Spaciousness and Contentment. Enjoy! [embed]https://youtu.be/AVEzmkvooaA[/embed]    

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  • Message from Henry: In the Dust

    MCZCOctober 27, 20212 min read

    I was up on the gravel of the Medicine Wheel where we were camping in the Santa Monica Mountains. The wheel was an area with four radii of colored rocks. I was tidying up various pieces of the colored gravel - pink, grey, sandy, white - that had got dislodged from where they belonged. It was so nice. Just to be lifting little stones out of the dust and resettling them in their dedicated places seemed...

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  • Dharmatalk: Mu

    MCZCOctober 26, 20211 min read

    "... we must drop all the schemes and agendas we may bring to our sitting ..." "... I want to devote myself to the capaciousness of my heart ..." Description: Many of us who practice Zen are familiar with the koan Mu. How could spending the inordinate amount of time that we do on the cushion, concentrating on this one syllable, ever be beneficial? In this talk given on the first day of Mountain Cloud’s Spring 2020...

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  • Heartwood, Dharma Talk by Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCOctober 23, 20211 min read

    Henry talks about the heartwood sutra, an early teaching from the pali cannon that uses a tree as its metaphor for the journey of practice. A tree has numerous layers of bark (each layer is a level of practice), the deepest layer or the core layer is the Heartwood which is total universal freedom. Next, he returns to the wash your bowls koan from the Gateless Gate and Mumon's commentary. Henry explores the unknowable zen journey...

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  • Message from Henry: Sitting in an English Village in Late Summer

    MCZCOctober 20, 20212 min read

    The village is settled deep in its ancient self: probably here since late Neolithic times. Three things emerge into awareness. First, pigeons cooing, their soft fluting in mid morning. In a way it’s not exactly theirs. The sound is more like the sound of rest agreeing with itself. The daytime roost is an ease offering itself as the sweet soft music of the pigeons’ contentment. The pigeons hardly say it themselves. The rest speaks through them to itself,...

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  • Dharmatalk: Spiritual Habits

    MCZCOctober 19, 20211 min read

    "... how we can make significant changes in our lives if we start out small ..." "... Little by little, a little becomes a lot ..."   Description: Behavioral coach Eric Zimmer breaks down for us how we can make significant changes in our lives if we start out small and set realistic goals for ourselves. He clarifies some of the pitfalls many people fall into when trying to cut out negative behaviors and talks about strategies for...

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  • Inequalities: Dharma Talk with Shosan Victoria Austin

    MCZCOctober 18, 20211 min read

    Zen practice is the royal road to being able to respond rather than react. Watch this dharma talk focusing on the heart and mind of compassion with in the context of inequality and history by Shosan Victoria Austin, teacher at the San Francisco Zen Center and certified Iyengar teacher. Shosan also takes some questions at the end of the talk. [embed]https://youtu.be/K3z2ZIVHdcc[/embed]

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  • Unconditional Gratitude – Journey of the Heart Retreat, Talk 3 (Video)

    MCZCOctober 16, 20211 min read

    In this third talk of our fall ‘Journey of the Heart’ retreat, Valerie takes up case 4 in the Book of Equanimity, exploring the transformation that can come when we discover a world of unbridled sufficiency and offer ourselves to it in gratitude beyond measure. https://youtu.be/tu8nIV_-0B4

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  • Message from Henry: Flow

    MCZCOctober 13, 20212 min read

    There seem to be different flavors of flow. There’s being thoroughly engrossed in a task to the point that self-consciousness of doing the task disappears. You are taken up by the activity, and only notice that you have been utterly engaged in it when you pop out, or “come up for air,” and realize it. Wow, we may feel, that was great - very fulfilling. And perhaps we plunge back in, and once again get so...

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  • Dharmatalk: No Choosing

    MCZCOctober 12, 20211 min read

    "... Focusing on the breath, we learn how to tame the delusive mind ..." Description: Master Joshu features in several important koans in the Zen canon. He is often heard giving poignant clarification to bemused monks about how “the great way dislikes picking and choosing.” In this talk, Rollie del Rosario from the Manila Zen Center in the Philippines discusses how through sitting we may gradually learn to avoid the traps of dualistic thinking that we...

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  • Falling into Fall – Journey of the Heart Retreat, Talk 2 (Video)

    MCZCOctober 9, 20211 min read

    Valerie turns to Unmon’s teaching in case 27 of the BCR, “Complete Exposure of the Golden Wind,” exploring the human longing for authenticity and Zen’s invitation to come home exactly as you are. https://youtu.be/TZ6P7HKicXE

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  • Dharmatalk: On Time

    MCZCOctober 5, 20211 min read

    "... Reflect now whether any being or any world is left out of this present moment ..." Description: Valerie Forstman leads us through an examination of what it means to use time, and to be used by time. Whether regretting lost time, feeling rushed because we don’t have enough time, or ruing that we may run out of time; of all the anxieties that we grapple with, time is often central to them. Our sitting practice...

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  • The Borderless World of Mu – Journey of the Heart Retreat Talk 1 (Video)

    MCZCOctober 2, 20211 min read

    Valerie's first talk at the Journey of the Heart retreat returns to Mu with the question... What is the ‘barrierless barrier’ Mumon and so many others have ‘broken through’ with this koan and who sets it up? https://youtu.be/Aa9gcZJ6vyI

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