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 Bright Light Within

    MCZCFebruary 2, 20211 min read

    "... with training of the mind through zen, and of the body through yoga, discover the luminous self  ..." "... Awakening is the radical tearing up of the separation between self and the world ..." Description: In this compilation of talks given on the first day of a yoga and meditation retreat that took place at Esalen in January 2020, we consider the Zen koan, “Unmon’s Bright Light.” In response to the question, “What is your bright light?”...

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  • Video – Zen’s Origin Story: Encounter of the Heart Virtual Retreat, Talk 2, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 1, 20211 min read

    Valerie explores Zen's origin story about a flower, a smile and universal space, Case Six from the Gateless Gate. [embed]https://youtu.be/wxSokmUuUvQ[/embed] All dharma talks and Q&A sessions from the Encounter of the Heart Retreat are available on our YouTube Channel.  

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  • Video – Stop and See: Encounter of the Heart Virtual Retreat Talk 1, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 1, 20211 min read

    Empty, new and utterly fleeting, arriving now but already done. The date of this talk, 1-21-21, is a palindrome, front to back -- back to front, which ever way you enter is now. Given the events of the last several weeks, and months, Valerie reminds us that this practice is much bigger than any events, any circumstances. To be able to hear the dharma is truly rare. To do so we must: Stop and see, sit...

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  • Message from Henry: Escape

    MCZCJanuary 27, 20213 min read

    "..we all seem to yearn for something indescribably precious which has been lost to our experience." Zen is also about closing off our escape routes, so that in the end there is nowhere to go. We have no choice but to be right here, where we are. We seem to long for transcendence, to escape ourselves and our lives, and find a promised land where all is well, which somehow we intuit must exist. Whether the metaphor...

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  • Dharmatalk: The Other Power

    MCZCJanuary 26, 20211 min read

    "... Usually with training, we can become more and more creators of wellbeing ..." Description: This short talk, given on the final day of the 2019 Winter Sesshin, offers words of encouragement for practitioners in retreat. It reminds us of the points that came up in talks on the Heart Sutra throughout the prior week. To discover the reality that all phenomena are instances of emptiness manifesting, we mustn't seek it out, but rather nurture the experiential...

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  • Abundant Advantage: Talk 2 from the January Intro to Meditation Retreat, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCJanuary 23, 20212 min read

    Wander into the center of the circle of wonder, right where you sit. In accordance with this saying, let us practice. Valerie explores the dharma hall discourse that Dogen gave to his monks in 1241, The Advantage of New Years. Valerie describes the tradition of a dharma talk (or teisho which means presentation of the shout). To use Vimilikirti's language, Zen practice is entering the gate of not-two? How is this entrance achieved, and how is...

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  • Message from Henry: Journey

    MCZCJanuary 20, 20212 min read

    All things and I have one and the same root. ~ Jo Hosshi The Way invites us to turn our “situation” into a PATH. Instead of things being a certain way, they are merely a step on a path. We are on a journey. All things are on a journey. As we are is not a static thing at all. It’s always evolving. As things are is also not at all static; it too is always...

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  • Bright Light, Dharma Talk 4 from the Winter Solstice Retreat 2020

    MCZCJanuary 19, 20211 min read

    What is your own bright light? Valerie and Henry explore Unmon's Bright Light, Case 84 from the Blue Cliff Record in this final talk from our winter solstice retreat. Valerie opens with the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurring during this retreat, as a way to describe Zen practice. “Cutting the two into one... Light and darkness are one... your own great conjunction." Valerie asks "what is your own bright light?" Henry concludes with "ordinary mind...

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  • Dharmatalk: Excess of Happiness

    MCZCJanuary 19, 20211 min read

    "... as an affirmation of the absolute unity of all ..." "... How can there be suffering if there is no one who suffers? ..." Description: In this further exploration of the Heart Sutra from the 2019 Winter Sesshin, we look at the section that says: "No ignorance, and therefore no ending of ignorance; no old age and death, and no ending of old age and death." This line corresponds to the 12 Links of Dependent Origination, an important...

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  • Video – Natalie Goldberg: Three Simple Lines

    MCZCJanuary 16, 20211 min read

    Natalie speaks about her new book Three Simple Lines: A Writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku. Listen to this engaging and enthusiastic talk by Natalie about her deep dive into Haiku. The final section includes a short exchange with Sanbo Zen teachers Ruben Habito and Maria Reis Habito who were part of the audience. [embed]https://youtu.be/zWNBtokzobg[/embed] Nathalie would love you to purchase her book, at a local bookseller if possible, or on Amazon or other online...

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  • Invitation to Simply Trust: Talk 1 from January’s Introductory Retreat, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCJanuary 16, 20212 min read

    When you sit, the whole world is sitting... We really don't have to do anything, just show up. The invitation of Zen practice is to sit with the world, just as it is - keenly critical now, during challenging and distressing world events. At the same time, this practice is larger than any circumstances. Valerie encourages us to entrust ourself to this practice and to the silence which has the capacity to be thoroughly transformative. She...

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  • Message from Henry: Fulfillment

    MCZCJanuary 13, 20213 min read

    ...allowing ourselves to be fully what we are. We chase our fulfillment elsewhere. This is our fundamental human problem. We think that we will find true fulfillment in other experiences than this one, right here and now. It will come from achieving something, or having something, or being with someone. While all kinds of experiences, events and relationships in our lives can be conducive to our fulfillment as human beings, there is only one place that...

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  • Dharmatalk: A Heart Retreat

    MCZCJanuary 12, 20211 min read

    "... sutra is conveying the great love and fundamental energy that pervades throughout the universe ..." "... Hating our suffering and fighting against it will inevitably make it worse ..." Description: This third talk given during the Winter Sesshin of 2019 considers how all of the senses and sense objects that are named in the Heart Sutra can serve as foundations for awakening. The truth that the bodhisattva realizes can be accessed through smell, taste and feeling alike. The...

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  • Beginner’s Mind, Dharma Talk 3 form the Winter Solstice Retreat 2020

    MCZCJanuary 8, 20211 min read

    The knot of self has become untied. Henry returns to the basics of practice in this third talk from the winter solstice retreat picking up on Valerie's theme of trees and photosynthesis. "Pick up your Practice with a lot of hope. Know that your sitting is doing the photosynthesis of the world. Allowing the human to be." Henry quotes from William Shakespeare, physicist David Bohm, writer David Hinton and Bodhidharma "when we get to the other shore...

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