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.

  • Message from Henry: Understanding

    MCZCMarch 3, 20212 min read

    ...when “understanding” no longer has its claws in us, and we are free... It can be tempting to go through life at the leading edge of our understanding, always thinking that we have seen and understood all there is to understand. The Zen way is best followed with a different attitude – that most likely none of us will ever understand very much, though even that we can't be sure of. It’s just possible we...

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  • Dharmatalk: The Flipside of Impermanence

    MCZCMarch 2, 20211 min read

    "... Every moment, if I pay attention, I feel a way I’ve never felt before. It’s totally new!  ..." Description: The main part of this compilation of talks consists of a question and answer session conducted by Henry Shukman and Tias Little on the last full day of the January 2020 yoga and meditation retreat at Esalen. Questions revolve around similarities between yoga and zen, how to maintain a meaningful sitting practice in the midst of...

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  • Virtual Zendo – FAQ

    MCZCMarch 1, 20212 min read

    Welcome to our Virtual Zendo This page... answers frequently asked questions about zoom access and provides the zoom links for sits, retreats and the Introduction to Meditation Tuesday class. It also lists our online sitting schedule and offers help with time zone conversion Zoom Access FAQ and Guidance To participate in our virtual sits, talks the intro class and some retreats on your computer/tablet or other device, click on this zoom link....  sit.mountaincloud.org Passcode: mountain22...

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  • Dharmatalk: Inquiry into Experience

    MCZCMarch 1, 20211 min read

    "... Zen is an effortless practice. It’s just letting go ..." Description: In these two short talks given at the Esalen Institute in January 2020, we hear about Zen's emphasis on awakening, which is closely linked to the original meaning of the word "Buddhism." Zen is a unique spiritual path in that it is more interested in the heart-to-heart transmission of the awakening experience than it is in rhetorical dogma. Koans have a central place in...

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  • Dharma Talks from Valentine’s Weekend Introduction to Meditation Retreat, 2021

    MCZCFebruary 26, 20211 min read

    Zen is awakening to the dynamic reality of the present moment.....Zen is finding love in all things at all times. ~ Ruben Habito Valerie's first talk from our Valentine's weekend Intro retreat explores Zen practice from the mind of compassion and curiosity. Valerie looks at the Buddhist origin story - Shakyamuni's awakening - and she discusses some of the fruits of practice. Valerie also asks (and simply answers) What is Zen? A life long path...

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  • Message from Henry: The Non-Domesticated Dharma

    MCZCFebruary 24, 20214 min read

    We allow the vast unknown, the beyond-wild energy of the Dharma to take us over. Attempts to domesticate the Dharma seem misguided and sad. The true Dharma is wild, powerful and unknowable. It can’t be domesticated. Nor can it be commercialized. Any efforts to turn it into a lifestyle product end up selling something different. The Dharma slips out. It can’t be put into any kind of human category, let alone one from which we...

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  • Dharmatalk: The Intersection of Yoga and Zen

    MCZCFebruary 23, 20211 min read

    "... who we are in the present moment--this very moment ..." "... Housebuilder, I have seen you! You will never build your house here again  ..."   Description: In this dialogue, which took place at the Esalen Institute in January 2020, yoga teacher Tias Little and zen teacher Henry Shukman talk about the similarities and differences between these two great traditions. Both yoga and zen share an emphasis on inquiry. When we inquire deeply within our...

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  • Video – Maria Reis Habito, Nansen Kills the Cat

    MCZCFebruary 22, 20211 min read

    Guest speaker Maria Reis Habito's teisho explores Case 14 from the Gateless Gate, Nansen Kills the Cat. She looks at this koan from a compassionate perspective about how to become "unstuck." Maria is Sanbo Zen teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas, TX and international program director for the Museum of World Religions in Taiwan. [embed] Visit the

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  • Message from Henry: The Deep Middle

    MCZCFebruary 17, 20212 min read

    There’s more gratitude in the middle, and with that comes more humility, more of a sense of the bounty around us, and naturally enough, more desire to act out of kindness. I used to think equanimity sounded boring. Being centered sounded dull. Like many artists I swung regularly from exaltation to despondency and back again. I didn’t really want to hang around in the middle, apparently. Yet what meditation can teach us is that the...

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  • Dharmatalk: Seeing through the Self

    MCZCFebruary 16, 20211 min read

    "... Nothing changes, but everything changes, through the path of meditation  ..." Description: In these talks, given during the 2020 Esalen meditation and yoga retreat, we consider certain questions about the nature of reality, taken from the Buddhist canon. Several anecdotes pose a simple question, which is something that every human being must reflect on at some level: What is the meaning of my life? The answer may not be what we expect, if it’s given...

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  • Sangha Meeting Minutes: January 30 2021

    MCZCFebruary 15, 202110 min read

    Board of Director's Update Presented by Sondra Byrnes, Board President We would like to thank Michael Waldron and Chris Hebard for their service on our board. While their terms have come to an end, they will continue to be involved in various capacities at Mountain Cloud. Thank you! Due to these changes, we move to elect three new board members, Josue Damian-Martinez, Sarah Giffin, and Mark Petrick. Sondra Byrnes has been elected as President of...

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  • Video – Dosho Port: Record of Empty Hall

    MCZCFebruary 14, 20211 min read

    Dosho Port speaks about his new book The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans. [embed] Dosho Port teaches with the Vine of Obstacles: Online Support for Zen Training and at the Nebraska Zen Center in Omaha, and he has been practicing Zen since 1977. The Record of Empty Hall is his new translation and commentary on a classic collection of koans by Xutang Zhiyu (1185-1269), an important figure in Ch’an/Zen Buddhism. Port illuminates these remarkable...

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  • Video – Empty Hands, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCFebruary 12, 20211 min read

    We are always looking for the lack, like Eka (Huike) searching for his mind - this lack is so convincing and so untrue. It blinds us to who we really are and blinds us to see the astonishing beauty of one and other. In this Dharma Talk, from February 4, Valerie helps us open our eyes to authentic reality.  She reads Thomas Merton's awakening experience and explores an enigmatic line from a verse in the...

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  • Message from Henry: The Seeker

    MCZCFebruary 10, 20213 min read

    Forget seeking, forget not-seeking, forget all sense of gain. Don’t underestimate or undervalue the seeker within you. The seeker is right. There is something worth seeking, something worth finding. Remember Dogen’s words: “I went to China, body and mind fell away, and I found the Dharma.” The Dharma is what the seeker is looking for. The seeker knows intuitively that the Dharma exists, and that it must at all costs be found. It just doesn’t...

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