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.

  • Buddha Holds up a Flower: Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCAugust 8, 20211 min read

    This talk examines the koan, "Buddha holds up a flower" from the Gateless Gate collection.  Henry takes a turn through the strange world of spin-bowling in the English game of cricket, in order to shed light on the weird world of Zen koans. From the Suffering and Beauty: How the Heart Opens Retreat. [embed]  

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  • Ocular Distortion: Dharma Talk by Michael Taft (Video)

    MCZCAugust 7, 20211 min read

    Podcaster, writer and eclectic meditation teacher Michael Taft explores ocular distortion and awareness. What's the view we see the world through, and how does it distort reality? Our everyday view of the world is invisible to us in that we don't realize that we see through a distorted view. To see the distortions, we have to look at our own mind and ask; what thoughts, feelings and beliefs are forming our everyday view? And even...

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  • Coming Home to Mu: Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCAugust 6, 20211 min read

    Valerie takes up Mu as a way of exploring the matrix of suffering and beauty, and the fulcrum, the zero point that opens the heart beyond any boundary. From the Suffering and Beauty: How the Heart Opens Retreat. [embed]  

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  • Message from Henry: Ensnared

    MCZCAugust 4, 20211 min read

    So easily we get caught in fantasies of self-advancement and self-protection, of self-satisfaction. How hard it can be to recognize that we have been “ensnared” or caught in loops of desire, in silken skeins of aversion. They arrive in subtle ways, surreptitiously, and before we know it we are fleeing or pursuing dreams, and battling imaginary obstacles to our imaginary fulfillment. Not realizing the fulfillment is here already. Message from Henry is from our August...

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  • Dharmatalk: Being Open to Help

    MCZCAugust 1, 20212 min read

    "... to learn to surrender to forces beyond our control ..." "... From the Zen point of view, every moment is holy ..." Description: In continuing the discussion about levels of Zen practice, tHenry looks at the level of tariki, “other power.” Whether we adhere to a religious outlook or not, it is easy to see how our existence depends on the functioning of many and various organisms and processes. Amidst the widespread uncertainty of the pandemic,...

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  • Primordial Wisdom: Dharma Talk with Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCAugust 1, 20211 min read

    Henry reads from a piece by Chan master Jing Hui, titled “On Chan” (part 5), in which he discusses fundamental points of Chan/Zen. Jing Hui was born in 1933 and trained under Chan master Xu Yun (who died in 1959 at the age of 120) at Yun Men monastery, where Unmon or Yunmen (864-949) taught. The recent abbot of Joshu's old temple, Ming Hai, studied with him. Chan (Zen) is a path.... "of seeking for...

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  • Falling… In Love: Dharma Talk with Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCJuly 30, 20211 min read

    Valerie continues to explore the phrase, ‘preaching facing oneness.’ She invites us to follow Tozan on his final pilgrimage to a liberating encounter with what Zen calls his original face - an experience the poet, Ikkyu, describes as "love at first sight." [embed] Featured image by Mark Paul Petrick  

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  • Dharmatalk: The Whole Earth Is Medicine

    MCZCJuly 28, 20211 min read

    "... Koans are invitations to pass through the gate of separation ..." Description: How can we learn through the pandemic crisis to let go of the sense of separateness that is the source of so many of the world’s problems? This talk takes Case 87 from the Blue Cliff Record, where Unmon states that “Medicine and disease correspond to each other,” and asks what the disease might be if the whole world, including current events like...

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  • Message from Henry: The Pivot

    MCZCJuly 28, 20211 min read

    In Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, the young novice monk Alyosha falls to the ground, on the night of the wake for his recently deceased beloved spiritual mentor, and has a profound epiphany. When he gets back up he knows his soul has changed permanently, and for the rest of his life he will look back on this moment as a time something entered him that could not be turned out. Somehow, he got out of the way...

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  • Methods of Practice

    MCZCJuly 27, 20211 min read

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  • Four Kinds of Practice

    MCZCJuly 27, 20211 min read

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  • Three Fruits of Practice

    MCZCJuly 27, 20211 min read

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  • Present Moment Awareness

    MCZCJuly 27, 20211 min read

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  • Thoughts

    MCZCJuly 27, 20211 min read

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