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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  • Poetry by CM Brown

    MCZCOctober 10, 20202 min read

    Mountain Cloud Zen Center Sitting on the ground. The howl of the coyotes. No thing. No sitting.   Zazen At the Zen Center in Sante Fe sit in silence, eating our breakfast of oatmeal and fruit. The shapes of tables, the shapes of eyes and arms, the shapes of the chevrons carved into the backs of the wooden chairs, the shapes of straw, and the shapes of tiny cracks in the adobe walls are still and always listening. After the last of the oatmeal disappears I walk into the kitchen with my empty bowl and place it...

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  • Bodhidharma’s Vast and Void, Dharma Talk by Hannelore Mueller

    MCZCOctober 6, 20201 min read

    Guest Speaker Hannelore Mueller opens this beautiful talk recognizing the seriousness and major impact of Covid 19 world wide. We are asked to learn the intimacy of life, sickness and death, and to pay attention to the personal responsibility of our common fate. Hannelore next speaks on the koan, Bodhidharma's Vast and Void. When Bodhidharma arrived in China, Emperor Bu asks him, What is the ultimate meaning of the holy truth? Bodhidharma answers, Vast...

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  • Dharmatalk: Dharmas within Dharmas

    MCZCOctober 6, 20201 min read

    "... We observe the unfolding of our awareness like a butterfly ... opening up its wings ..." "... Let the breath show itself to your awareness ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. In our exploration of the Four Noble Truths, we have seen how the Buddha keeps re-slicing the pie, going into the nature of our human experience in yet more and more minute detail. By following his teaching, we learn to contextualize the imaginary scenes that it...

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  • Message from Henry: Thought Banners

    MCZCSeptember 30, 20201 min read

    Thoughts are little banners waving in the old city, trying to get your attention and draw you back. One day you’ll go, but not yet. The city doesn’t really need you now. Let yourself rest where you are, in a deeper rest, a deeper belonging. Don’t be pulled back to the old city just yet. Those thoughts - remember, they’re only old flags, waving from afar.  From our September 29 Newsletter Image: American Modern by Fotocitizen, from...

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  • Dharmatalk: The Four Foundations of Mindfulness

    MCZCSeptember 29, 20201 min read

    "... Letting it be as it is, we have to drop the wish that it be otherwise ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. To achieve concentration in practice, one must have established the four foundations of mindfulness. Having ardent alertness, clearly comprehending all that arises within and around the body, its feelings, the mind, and other phenomena, the practitioner overcomes the unwholesome states of mind that pose as hindrances to a fruitful practice. For the introduction to...

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  • Message from Henry: Zen Death

    MCZCSeptember 23, 20202 min read

    To awaken is to see through it all. It is to see that real nature. But then what? The Zen death. If you've been through it, you know you have, even if you can't say much about it. The consequences are clear. It happens at a moment in time. Yet, it is always this moment, now, that it shows itself as. This world is a kind of game, a setup, where each of us is a player whose...

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  • Announcement: Valerie Forstman Roshi joins Mountain Cloud

    MCZCSeptember 22, 20202 min read

    Mountain Cloud is thrilled to announce a milestone in its history. As of Tuesday last, the center opened its doors in a wide welcome to a second "full time" teacher -- Valerie Forstman Roshi. Some of you have already tasted Valerie's remarkable clarity and depth as a dharma teacher, and Henry and she have been colleagues in Sanbo Zen for about a decade, and both have long studied side by side under Yamada Ryoun Roshi, Sanbo's current...

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  • Dharmatalk: Right Mindfulness

    MCZCSeptember 22, 20201 min read

    "... bringing awareness back to the present moment whenever our minds wander ..." "... Here, a person dwells, contemplating the body in the body ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. The original sanskrit word smrti, which often gets translated as “mindfulness,” also means “remembering to be aware.” Modern culture offers us many ways to distract ourselves when feelings of discomfort or unease arise. By ardently doing our best to stick to the practice, by bringing awareness back...

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  • Oak Tree in the Garden, Dharma Talk by Carmen Afable (Video)

    MCZCSeptember 21, 20201 min read

    Listen to this personal and powerful talk from Carmen Afable, Sanbo Zen teacher from Manilla. Carmen presents Case 37 from the Mumonkan cannon (The Gateless Gate), The Oak Tree in the Garden. Ryoun Roshi says this koan has a strangle power to remove and delete delusions, concepts and unnecessary attachments. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqDdSfXFNDw&t=2s[/embed] This talk was recorded on September 17, 2020 in our virtual zendo. Find this and many other talks and discussions on the Mountain Cloud You Tube...

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  • Residing in the Present Moment, Talk 4 of 4 from our August Retreat

    MCZCSeptember 20, 20201 min read

    ...become this very moment, Life as it's happening, life as it is. Final talk from the August 2020 Original Love One Retreat. Henry concludes this exploration of original love. More will come in the September and October original Love Retreats. Once the hindrances that stand in the way of how we experience the present moment are resolved, we may reside in present moment experience and perhaps eventually.... become this very moment, Life as it's happening, life as...

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  • Finding Peace, Talk 3 of 4 from our August Retreat

    MCZCSeptember 15, 20201 min read

    The human body at peace with itself is more precious than the rarest gem. Finding Peace is the third talk from the Original Love One August Retreat. Henry continues the great exploration about how we find peace within ourselves. The human body at peace with itself is more precious than the rarest gem. Henry talks more about the hindrances, mindfulness practices and the Zen practice of just sitting. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpfrDJdFPFg[/embed] Find this and many other talks and discussions on...

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  • A Precious Path, by Henry Shukman (Video)

    MCZCSeptember 15, 20201 min read

    Henry describes the heartbreak and profound 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 all people and for everything...how is it we didn't realize this? When we find a path and follow it, when we get to the end...

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  • Dharmatalk: Cultivating Meditative Awareness

    MCZCSeptember 15, 20201 min read

    "... In our right effort we are developing the capacity to work on the unwholesome ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. Right effort in practice, the sixth fold in the Noble Eightfold Path, consists in working to diminish unwholesome states of mind or being. Likewise, the practitioner should work to cultivate states of mind that promote the arisal of wholesome speech and action. Once they get a taste of the true Dharma, and the delusion of...

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  • Message from Henry: Step into the Unkown

    MCZCSeptember 15, 20201 min read

    There are maps of practice. The six paramitas, the eightfold path, the seven factors of awakening, Zen's ox-herding pictures. But from the point of view of our own practice, the real map of our own journey is only ever seen in retrospect. The map appears behind us, after we have taken a step.  The forward step is always, always into the unknown. If we know what's coming, it's not a growth or development in practice. And...

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