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.

  • Surrender: Rohatsu Talk One, Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCDecember 29, 20211 min read

    Tenderness is what remains when you stop trying to fix anything. How can we make the world a safer, just and healthy place? Work for the Oasis, the little cell of joy and peace in a harried world, says Dorothy Day. We can create this in our zendo without walls while remembering the suffering in the world, hunger, violence, fear, and illness. Henry asks us to reflect on why we do this practice. It is...

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  • Dharmatalk: Life and Death, Zen and God

    MCZCDecember 28, 20211 min read

    "... from a Zen perspective God is indeed everywhere ..." "... Does a practice lead to God where one forgets about God?. ..." Description: Sanbo Zen teacher Marlis Muting discusses how her determination to resolve the problem of life and death led her to Zen. She focuses on the koan, Tosotsu’s Three Barriers, in which a group of monks are asked, “At this moment, where is your self-nature?” Drawing on her Christian background, Marlis explains...

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  • Introduction to Meditation: Tuesdays at 5-6pm Online

    MCZCDecember 22, 20214 min read

    The beginner’s mind is the mind of compassion. – Shunryu Suzuki Roshi The new year is an opportunity to recognize that we are always beginning. Beginning now. No boundary, no basis for comparison, no preconceived notion on which to base expectation. That’s the invitation of this practice, to sit in silence with thoroughgoing attention and entrust ourselves to the unfettered newness of this moment. To sit and find our home in ‘the mind of compassion.’...

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  • Dharmatalk: Courage to Grow, Henry Shukman

    MCZCDecember 21, 20211 min read

    "... Have courage. Have trust. Let go. Surrender. Grow. ..." Description: Traditionally in Buddhism, there were three phases in the growth of practitioners. One must move beyond sati and samadhi -- mindfulness and “unification of mind” -- to reach prajna, wisdom. Developing along these lines requires us to let go of the many delusions we have been carrying around, especially our sense of self. In this talk, we consider how we may contribute to systemic...

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

    MCZCDecember 20, 20211 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 Book of Equanimity, “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] Photo by Patrick Schneider on Unsplash  

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  • Freedom: Dharma Talk with Maura Noone (Video)

    MCZCDecember 14, 20211 min read

    Senior student Maura Noone offers a courageous and heart felt teisho sharing how dedicated dharma practice supports her significant health challenges and allows her to know profound trust. Once awareness reveals itself, there is no longer a problem. My job is to welcome the desire for everything to be different, to love the pain, make space for it all...There is nothing to fix, how freeing. ~ Maura Thank you Maura for this priceless offering. Not...

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  • Dharmatalk: A New Bodhisattva Path

    MCZCDecember 14, 20211 min read

    "... how modern-day bodhisattvas may direct their efforts toward the benefit of all beings ..." "... Nondual, non-selfish engagement with the world is an essential part of our practice ..." Description: Buddhism does not prescribe any simple, straightforward method for dealing with the societal problems that we face today, but it does tell us how we should live as dharma practitioners, having an engaged response to the world’s suffering. In this talk, David Loy explains...

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  • The Wholeness of Brokenness, with Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCDecember 14, 20211 min read

    Valerie looks at the art form of kintsugi as a cipher for the human heart then takes up case 22 of the Blue Cliff Record, “Seppo’s Poisonous Snake,” to explore the great homecoming that is possible when we meet things just as they are. This talk was given at our November 2021 Zazenkai. [embed]  

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  • The monk who sat for many years without awakening, Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCDecember 12, 20211 min read

    Has civilization institutionalized the three poisons - greed, hatred, and delusion? The extent to which we see life through our many delusions, we are contributing to ongoing suffering. We come to a practice like Zen to sit still, reflect, and seek wisdom. The basic point, since the beginning of Buddhism, is to end suffering. Henry reflects on how koan practice addresses suffering and presents a koan in which a student sits for many, many kalpas...

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  • Homecoming: Dharma Talk with Will Brennan (Video)

    MCZCDecember 12, 20211 min read

    Listen to this dharma talk about Buddhist practice from Will Brennan, long time Mountain Cloud sangha member who has recently been appointed assistant Sanbo Zen teacher. Enjoy this delightful talk by Mountain Cloud's newest teacher. [embed]  

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  • Message from Henry: What’s the Point?

    MCZCDecember 8, 20211 min read

    If a line is the shortest distance between two points, awakening is the shortest distance between all points. Awakening makes all points one. It makes all things one. How can it not break your heart?

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  • Dharmatalk: Sound of Silence

    MCZCDecember 7, 20211 min read

    "... the silence that is our very essence ..." "... The reality of silence knows no birth and no death ..." Description: In this talk, Migaku Sato Roshi discusses how the reality that we have the potential to awaken to in Zen is universally available to all human beings. Some indeed have this experience without doing any meditation practice. Migaku Roshi surmises that Paul Simon may have been describing such an experience when he wrote...

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  • Dharmatalk: The Great Matter

    MCZCNovember 30, 20211 min read

    "... What holds us back from experiencing the boundless freedom of who we truly are? ..." Description: In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd in 2020, Valerie takes up a koan in which a master asks a student struggling to attain liberation, “Who is binding you?” After searching, the student realizes, “No one.” In the face of all the bindings that constrain us and our fellow human beings today, we may   remember...

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  • Keichu’s Cart: Dharma Talk with Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCNovember 24, 20211 min read

    Henry takes us into Keichu's Cart, case eight from the Gateless Gate. Keichu was a legendary cart maker. What happens if the wheels and both axels are removed from the cart, what would become clear about the cart? What might it be to remove a wheel, if the cart is you - as you ordinarily function? Consider what the two wheels might be: dualistic pairs that we take for granted, high and low, life and...

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