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.
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Video – Natalie Goldberg: Three Simple Lines
January 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] Nathalie would love you to purchase her book, at a local bookseller if possible, or on Amazon or...
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Invitation to Simply Trust: Talk 1 from January’s Introductory Retreat, Valerie Forstman
January 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....
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Dharmatalk: A Heart Retreat
January 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...
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Beginner’s Mind, Dharma Talk 3 form the Winter Solstice Retreat 2020
January 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...
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Dharmatalk: A Goad for Training
January 5, 20211 min read
"... This being here like this is a marvellous arising of a mirage ..." Description: This talk, the second one given during the 2019 Rohatsu Sesshin, further discusses the group of lines from the Heart Sutra that starts, “No eye, ear, nose,” etc. The sutra breaks down our entire perception of reality by the sense organs, sense objects, and the process of sensation; and to all of these repeats - No! We may be tempted to...
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The Origin Point, Dharma Talk 2 from the Winter Solstice Retreat, 2020
January 2, 20211 min read
Standing Still is the meaning of solstice...it's as if the sun stands still. To explore the origin point of practice, Valerie revisits the Old Plum Tree, Case Zero, from the Transmission of Light Collection. This case is the the Head Chapter which we read on Rohatsu that narrates the awakening of Shakyamuni Buddha and the simultaneous awakening of all existence, past, present and future. Springing from the one branch of the old plum tree, Valerie...
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Dharmatalk: Firsthand Experience
December 29, 20201 min read
"... Practice is always, only about this moment ..." Description: The first talk given during the Winter Rohatsu sesshin of 2019 continues an ongoing exploration of the Heart Sutra by looking, in particular, at the line: “No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind.” Allowing this negating assertion to infuse our practice, we may find ourselves able to encounter and overcome the Five Hindrances more gracefully. Post & Featured Image: Sunset in Keszthely Bay by csakisti, purchased...
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It’s All Empty: Talk 1 from Winter Solstice Retreat, 2020
December 28, 20201 min read
This moment - just as it is - is our reality. In this first talk from our Winter Solstice Retreat, Henry describes how meditation practice exclusively focused on awakening (kensho) can bypass the enormous gains practice offers our ordinary lives. Zen practice directly meets our daily anxieties, joys, losses, and gains. It meets and supports us right where we are. The whole thrust of deep Buddhist teachings is to meet our lives in normal everyday...
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Dharmatalk: Negation as Strategy
December 22, 20201 min read
"... The Heart Sutra puts forth the radical assertion that knowing is delusion, and not knowing is most intimate ..." "... This is not a morning talk on Zen ..." Description: The word “no” gets repeated over many times throughout the Heart Sutra. This talk examines why negation is such a core element of Mahayana Buddhism. What is it that gets negated through engaging in this practice? The idea of gaining some sort of knowledge so...
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Dharmatalk: The Wisdom before Knowing
December 15, 20201 min read
"... We, our mind, the world we experience with our mind; are all the same ..." [caption id="attachment_22573" align="aligncenter" width="940"] Surrealism. Woman's eye with galaxies in deep space[/caption] Description: In this first talk given during the Fall 2019 sesshin, we continue our former discussion about the Heart Sutra by looking at how Prajna Paramita is “neither stained nor pure,” and is “neither born nor dies.” The text is worded as a series of negations because in...
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