Teachings
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Dharmatalk: No Other
December 1, 20201 min read
"... Just come and sit, and let the flower of your heart open ..." Description: This talk explores the second two sentences of the Heart Sutra: “Form is no other than emptiness; emptiness no other than form…” The text is written this way to remind us not to think of emptiness as something other than the form within which it is hidden. How can anything be separate from its true nature? This is not a doctrine for...
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Talk 2 from the Original Love 4 Retreat, Just Compassion (Video)
November 30, 20201 min read
Our practice begins with suffering and ends with suffering. Valerie explores non dual experience in Case 46 in the Gateless Gate, Stepping Forward from the Top of the 100 Foot Pole. Vast and void, total emptiness, all gone, can be like sitting on top of a pole. No one is there beyond the unconditioned - this is bliss...or no bliss. [embed]https://youtu.be/FZ3d3YhLOe4[/embed] Find this and many other talks and discussions on the Mountain Cloud You Tube Channel. Image: Peace by...
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Talk 1 from Original Love 4 Retreat, The Fairytale is True (Video)
November 29, 20201 min read
Awakening ... as the primary fairytale, is true. Henry describes the various ways we have been looking at love in the Original Love retreats: loving awareness, transcendent support, deepening states of mind (samadhi), and now in this retreat, awakening. This retreat explores the ways awakening can manifest. Awakening - as the thing we most yearn for is true, as the primary fairytale - is true. The ending is happy and boundless and has always been with...
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Finding Love: Two Talks by Sanbo Zen Teacher Ruben Habito
November 24, 20201 min read
Infinite, conditional, boundless love... Listen to Ruben Habito answer the question, What is Zen? He explores how practicing Zen involves finding love everywhere, in all things. The desire to search for unconditional love lies deep in our heart. Four motivations bring people to zen practice... Curiosity Health benefits, stress reduction, practitioners find the the practice feeds the entire being. Searching for a deeper spiritual life, the search from our innermost being to discover the transcendent and ultimate, in...
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Dharmatalk: The Loving Fount of All
November 24, 20201 min read
"... dwelling in perfect wisdom, we too may begin to discover the eternally selflessly giving love that nourishes all of creation ..." "... True giving must mean relinquishing control ..." Description: The first line of the Heart Sutra invokes the bodhisattva Kanzeon, her name “Avalokiteshvara,” who represents infinite, boundless love and well-wishing for all beings. His/her name is in fact the first word of the text for a very good reason; because she is the love that is reaching...
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The Context of Practice, Henry Shukman (Video)
November 23, 20201 min read
Henry reminds us that Zen training is our own work, effort, commitment and investment of time and energy. Yet the context of practice pulls us outside of ourselves, out of what we know and allows us to uncover our authentic self. Retreats are a critical part of creating this context. Henry also reminds us that seeking an end to suffering is the reason we practice. Buddhism has the most clearly articulated meditation methodology that is...
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Dharmatalk: Great Mother Prajna Paramita
November 17, 20201 min read
"... Real knowing is not-knowing ..." Description: This talk explores the meanings of the word “Prajna.” Commonly translated as wisdom, the word etymologically comes from pra-jna. “Jna” is a root word meaning “know” (related both to the English know and to gnosis). The prefix pra can be an intensifier, suggesting “supreme” knowing, but can also be prepositional, suggesting either “beyond” or “before.” Hence prajna can indicate before knowing, beyond knowing, or supreme knowing. Either way, this talk...
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Returning to Square One: Talk 4 from the Original Love 3 Retreat, Henry Shukman
November 15, 20201 min read
Henry opens the final talk of the Original Love 3 Virtual retreat with: "The more we go into practice the more we are just beginning. We are always in square one". This talk explores the intrinsic beauty of each person as seen through the loving clarity of the Buddha eye. He also and acknowledges the enormous suffering that accompanies the beauty. This talk is about suffering, the causes of suffering and its ultimate end. [embed]https://youtu.be/L0J2o6eWMlA[/embed] Find this...
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The Unadjusted Step, Dharma Talk by Valerie Forstman
November 12, 20201 min read
Valerie offers this post-election talk and acknowledges our deeply divided nation. She introduces the taoist concept of the unadjusted step - stay where you are and don't move, as a way to face this moment. Despite our division, separation doesn't hold well. Valerie also explores the famous koan about Master Baa who is near death - Sun Faced Buddha, Moon Faced Buddha. [embed]https://youtu.be/n6gcMdUK648[/embed] Find this and many other talks and discussions on the Mountain Cloud You Tube...
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Dharmatalk: A Lineage of Humility
November 10, 20201 min read
"... To be you, fully alive, that’s your greatest offering to the universe ..." Description: A zen practitioner may spend decades studying under a teacher before they themselves can be authorized to teach. When our orientation toward needing outer things to be the way we want them shifts, through having released our grip on our separate sense of self, and having “found the dharma,” one may then be in a position to communicate the reality of “no-self”...
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What is Mu? Talk 2 from the Original Love 3 Retreat, Valerie Forstman
November 9, 20201 min read
Valerie gives the second talk for the Original Love 3 retreat. She unpacks the primary Zen koan Mu. What is Mu? asks Valerie. She quotes Sanbo Zen Teacher Ruben Habito: “It’s the sharpest sword that cuts through all delusion, and now it’s yours.” Valerie answers, "Every aspect of this question is you, originally You. Drop the figuring and calculus, become intimate with the sound. Whatever arises, Mu has the absolute capacity to handle it." [embed]https://youtu.be/2ShatPrzJoU[/embed] Find this...
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