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.

  • Returning to Square One: Talk 4 from the Original Love 3 Retreat, Henry Shukman

    MCZCNovember 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]...

    Watch the video
  • The Unadjusted Step, Dharma Talk by Valerie Forstman

    MCZCNovember 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] Find this and many other talks and discussions on the

    Watch the video
  • Dharmatalk: A Lineage of Humility

    MCZCNovember 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...

    Listen to the talk
  • What is Mu? Talk 2 from the Original Love 3 Retreat, Valerie Forstman

    MCZCNovember 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]...

    Watch the video
  • Message from Henry: The Great Teacher

    MCZCNovember 4, 20202 min read

    Who or what is the great teacher?        Is it love? Or our friends, partners, family, our spiritual guides, Jesus, Buddha? Our children if we have them? Loss? Beauty, art? This very moment? I guess there could be many fine answers. But before offering one (as of today) I want to reflect on what a great teacher would teach. Here is a random selection of possibilities: To fear less.To love more.To be able...

    Read more
  • Dharmatalk: Right Concentration

    MCZCNovember 3, 20201 min read

    "... start to experience the intrinsically fulfilling wellbeing of the lotus flower ... permeated from its roots throughout the tips of its petals with the same cool water in which it thrives in perfect stillness ..." "... Whatever needs to drop away drops away by itself ..." Description: Final talk in the series on basic Buddhism. The final fold in the Noble Eightfold Path is samadhi. This word sometimes gets translated as concentration, but it really...

    Listen to the talk
  • Meeting Mu, Dharma Talk by Henry Shukman

    MCZCNovember 2, 20201 min read

    Developing mindfulness is like creating a warm loving home inside yourself. In Henry's final talk prior to the election he acknowledges that the eyes of people all over the globe are watching our country. It's important to remember that the purposes of the Mahayana (our Zen Practice) is the reduction of suffering. Whatever outcome this election brings - this purpose goes on. The grand project of the great vehicle carries on. Henry speaks also about...

    Watch the video
  • Dharmatalk: Bringing the Mind Home

    MCZCOctober 29, 20201 min read

    "... mindfulness ... is a practice of becoming okay with what we have ..." "... We have to let be, to let go ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. The practice of mindfulness is not about adding something into our already busy lives that’s going to pick us up and make us feel better -- it’s more a matter of becoming okay with what we have, and learning to meet the present moment and appreciate...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: Bach to Koans

    MCZCOctober 28, 20203 min read

    ...a cascade of releases, a domino effect...all might drop away. Body, mind, world, all give themselves up. And we see them for what they are. Listening to unaccompanied Bach -- in particular, some performances by Itzhak Perlman given in London in the 1970s. How prodigiously difficult the pieces are, yet generations of violinists, for the last 300 years, have been held to account by them, and have risen to their challenge, and become skilled enough...

    Read more
  • Zen’s Middle Way, Talk 1 from October’s Original Love Retreat

    MCZCOctober 27, 20201 min read

    How could we ever be anywhere but at square one? .... it's always here -  just like this - and we are always equipped to find it. Henry opens this first talk from the Original Love 3 retreat by acknowledging the gap between basic mindful awareness practice and authentic awakening practice. Zen allows for both, it's the middle way that embraces mindful day to day practice with sudden awakening where body and soul fall away....

    Watch the video
  • Sangha Meeting Notes: October 17, 2020

    MCZCOctober 25, 20207 min read

    October 17 Sangha Meeting Minutes Financials In May, Damon reported that our initial budget loss of nearly $50,000, caused by the cancellation of many 2020 events, had been reduced to less than $20,000. Since that meeting, members of Mountain Cloud have been endlessly generous. Through donations and tireless efforts put forth by many individuals, the predicted budget loss of 2020 has turned into a surplus of over $30,000. This additional funding will help Mountain Cloud...

    Read more
  • Samadhi, Henry Shukman

    MCZCOctober 25, 20201 min read

    The Sanbo Zen lineage has traditionally focused on kensho (sudden awakening) experiences which offer a complete, though often brief, shift in how we see reality. To attain this shift, practitioners sit on a cushion and meditate with little instruction. This changed in the 1940s when Zen opened to western seekers and laity. An early introductory document written during this time period listed three aims for Zen, the first of which is samadhi (translated as bringing...

    Watch the video
  • Message from Henry: Kensho

    MCZCOctober 21, 20201 min read

    Kensho: opening up the bottom of the barrel will require getting disoriented. We have to let go of our ordinary bearings. There is really no other way. We are moving from a 3-D view of the world to a 4-D or 5-D one, or perhaps a zero-D view. We can't do that without disorientation. The trick is simply to let go, leap and be done with it.   From our October 19, 2020 Newsletter Image:...

    Read more
  • Dharmatalk: The Process of Letting Go of Everything

    MCZCOctober 20, 20201 min read

    "... You can only see it when you are it ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. Human beings tend to get constantly captivated by their “default mode network," which can generate a continuous stream of internal commentary. To really be able to be present without an outward task: that is the basic meaning of the kind of mindfulness we are cultivating. Zen is a process for humans to realize their capacity to awaken out of...

    Listen to the talk
footer support banner image

Support Mountain Cloud

You can show your gratitude for Mountain Cloud events, retreats, podcasts and other teachings by making a one-time gift, or by becoming a supporting member.

Donate to Mountain Cloud Become a Member