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.

  • Coming Home,Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 17, 20222 min read

    The true Buddha is sitting in the recesses of the house Joshu (Chao-chou) There’s a short memoir by the American Zen master, James Ishmael Ford, about his experience on the Zen path entitled, If You’re Lucky, Your Heart Will Break. The title points to all the ways our human hearts break in the course of navigating our lives and to the fundamental invitation of Zen practice - to let your heart break all the way open....

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  • Message from Henry: Kensho

    MCZCFebruary 16, 20221 min read

    Kensho -- it’s not about your sitting. If you enter a deep clear empty space in your sitting that feels wonderful, infinitely quiet, boundlessly spacious, very empty - that’s great, and something to be gratefully, unobtrusively welcomed and let go of. But it’s unlikely to be kensho. Kensho is about you. You yourself. It’s a massive overturning of all your basic assumptions about you are and what your life has been - what your very...

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  • Dharmatalk: Fierce Compassion

    MCZCFebruary 15, 20221 min read

    "... This very moment is awakening ..." Description: Valerie Forstman's dharma talk probes Case 23 from the Blue Cliff Record, Hofuku and Chokei on an Outing. Hofuku says "This very moment is awakening. Exactly," responds Chokei, "but it's regrettable." And,

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  • No Cover or Fence: Zazenkai with Valerie Forstman (video)

    MCZCFebruary 13, 20221 min read

    In this talk from the first Zazenkai of the New Year, Valerie turns to the life and poetry of Qiyuan Xinggang, a 17th c. Chinese nun, master, and abbess, whose experience invites us to find our seat on a meditation cushion with ‘no cover or fence.’ There we can bare our hearts, drop our assumptions, and find our home in this achingly broken world without the slightest gap. Recorded in our virtual zendo on January...

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  • Methods of Practice,Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 9, 20221 min read

    Art by Christy Hengst A single meditation cushion has no cover or fence. Qiyuan Xinggang Sitting in silence and becoming at home in our own breath is an ancient practice that is as contemporary as the present moment. Some 2500 years ago, Siddhartha Gautama was moved to search for a resolution to all suffering. Deeply determined, nearly dying of his austerities, the one who became the Buddha - “awakened” - turned to a middle way....

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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.’ 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...

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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”...

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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,

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  • Retreat Registration Reduced Fee

    MCZCFebruary 1, 20220 min read

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