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.

  • 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...

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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. 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...

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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...

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  • Dharmatalk: Beginners Mind & Four Levels of Practice

    MCZCJanuary 25, 20221 min read

    "... The beauty of Zen is its simplicity. The challenge of Zen also is its simplicity ..." Description: This Sunday morning talk by Henry Shukman starts with a guided meditation on beginner’s mind. No matter how far along we may be in our practice, we may maintain a beginner’s mind by welcoming every moment as fresh and new, here and then gone, like a wave rolling onto the shore. This is followed by a discussion...

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  • Sitting Alone in an Indivisible World: Rohatsu Talk Six, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCJanuary 24, 20221 min read

    This final talk from the Rohatsu sesshin asks the question from case 26 of the Blue Cliff Record or Hekiganroku, “What is a matter of extraordinary wonder?” Master Hyakujo answers intimately. How will we respond?

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  • Nothing Special: Rohatsu Talk Five and Q&A, Henry Shukman (Videos)

    MCZCJanuary 24, 20221 min read

    Henry explores kensho, awakening, zen death and the destruction of Zen. What Sanbo Zen is really trying to convey, says Henry, is the non-existence of Sanbo Zen, but that's no so easy to achieve. If we get that, we are free. Life becomes simple and ordinary - nothing special.To illustrate, this Henry turns to Case 42, Nan'yo and the Water Jug, from the Book of Serenity. Henry closes this talk exploring the Three Refuges, Buddha,...

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  • The Apposition of Opposites: Q&A Session with Scott Thornton (Video)

    MCZCJanuary 21, 20221 min read

    Watch the question and answer portion of Scott Thornton's December 16 dharma talk. Scott's talk was on Unmon's Medicine and Disease, Case 87 from the Blue Cliff record. Click here to watch his talk.

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  • Message from Henry: Belated Solstice/Christmas Message

    MCZCJanuary 17, 20224 min read

    Okay, this message is late. But on the other hand, it’s truly not. At this time of year, that often brings pain and poignancy with it, when perhaps dear loved ones are gone, or unable to be with us, we can take a collective pause, which allows us to reflect. At this special time, I want to make a plea for the infinite value of our life. No matter what challenges, sorrows and frustrations we...

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  • Sounds of the World: Rohatsu Talk Four and Q&A with Valerie Forstman (Videos)

    MCZCJanuary 14, 20221 min read

    In this fourth talk of Rohatsu, Valerie explores the reality of awakening through the koan, “Who hears?” The talk draws on Master Bassui’s teaching on how to work with this koan; on music-making as a portal; and on the koan’s namesake bodhisattva, Kannon, hearer of the cries of the world. [embed] Watch the Question and Answer period from Rohatsu Day Four, with Valerie.

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  • Thoughts in Meditation, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCJanuary 12, 20221 min read

    Sitting in silence is a way to enter a state of mind in which we rest in the space of the unconditioned. ~ Silvia Ostertag Zazen—silent sitting—is an invitation to ‘rest in the space of the unconditioned.’ This ‘space’ is another name for present moment experience, undivided attention, or what is sometimes called ‘choiceless awareness.’ In other words, awareness without judgment . How do we arrive in this space? As one master put it, “Think...

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  • Dharmatalk: A Precious Path

    MCZCJanuary 11, 20221 min read

    "... When we find a path and follow it ...  we will be able to say, this was a precious path ..." Description: Henry describes the heart break and love that goes along with completely letting go. He further talks about finding a spiritual path and begins with a short reading from Dostoevsky's The Brother's Karamazov which includes: "Every one of us has sinned against all people.... everyone is really responsible to all people, for...

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  • Waking to the World, Illness and All: Dharma Talk with Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCJanuary 10, 20221 min read

    Valerie begins this talk with a look at palindromes as a cipher for Zen’s gateless-gate. She then takes up case 83 of the BOE, “Dogo’s Nursing the Ill,” as a pointer to what the masters call “that matter” and to finding our deepest wellbeing right in this midst of this broken world. [embed] Recored in our virtual zendo December 2, 2021 Photo by Simon Berger on Unsplash

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