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.

  • 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,...

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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] Find this and many other talks...

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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...

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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...

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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....

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  • Message from Henry: Peace

    MCZCSeptember 9, 20201 min read

    Practice is not just about clearing the mind, or tasting stillness, or coming into stillness. The point isn't a negative: to be without thoughts or without movement. The point is to know the peace, fulfillment, the gentle joy, the intrinsic wellbeing, that is here already, before we have done anything. The stillness, the quiet – these are merely the means for finding that.   Message from Henry is from our September 7, Newsletter Image: Boy...

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  • Dealing with Desire, Talk 2 of 4

    MCZCSeptember 8, 20201 min read

    How will we know when we have mastered desire? Tranquility marked by a sense that we are lucky to be living whatever life we happen to be living. ~ Dr Bill Irvine Second Talk from the Original Love One Retreat. Henry continues to explore the many facets of original love through zen practice and present moment awareness. Henry talks about the nuts and bolts of practice such as the five hindrances and three poisons, with...

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  • Dharmatalk: Right Livelihood

    MCZCSeptember 8, 20201 min read

    "... It’s almost as if there’s no point practising unless we attend to how we’re living ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. Buddha taught that when following the way of Right Livelihood, we should not engage in occupations that may promote harm. It isn’t always easy in today’s world to advance in a profession that does not in some way thrive on, or at least encourage, greed, hatred and ignorance. Even those who pursue careers...

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  • Message from Henry: Invitation Toward Discovery

    MCZCSeptember 2, 20201 min read

    When we’re sitting with a koan, at some point there can be a shift, when we start to feel something positive about the koan – a sense of hope, promise, contained in the koan – a sense that it contains something immensely good about life that we can’t quite yet see, but can come to see. It can be almost as if we start to fall in love with it. We may not yet know...

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  • Love in Present Moment Experience, Talk 1 of 4

    MCZCSeptember 1, 20201 min read

    Henry opens this first talk in the August Original Love 1 Retreat by looking at the word Love, one of the most loaded, variously understood and widely used word in the English language. Henry explores a facet of Love that and manifests as a deep inner journey into who we really are. Henry describes this journey as having four interwoven levels. [embed] Find this and many other talks and discussions on the

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  • Dharmatalk: The Reorientation of Intention

    MCZCSeptember 1, 20201 min read

    "... Right Action is part of the undertakings that are necessary if we are to pursue the path of awakening ..." Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. Right Action in the Noble Eightfold Path was first described by Buddha in terms of abstaining or refraining from causing any harm. We can also consider it in positive terms and think instead about things we can do to generate wellbeing. As practice deepens, we may discover that...

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  • The New Bodhisattva Path, Talk by David Loy

    MCZCAugust 25, 20202 min read

    David Loy finds hope for new possibilities within our many global challenges....  We may ask, how do we find hope and what can we possibly do? According to a Zen Koan, when the master is asked what are all the awakened people doing? the response is simple:  Responding appropriately.  David adds, our practice isn't about transcending the world, but rather being more fully in it so we can respond appropriately. What is it about the...

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  • Dharmatalk: The Integrity of Our Words

    MCZCAugust 25, 20201 min read

    "... we discern how to act morally as we tread between the Oneness that we encounter in meditation and the multifariousness of the world we live in ..." "Thank you very much, I have no complaints" Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. Right Speech means abstaining from uttering falsehoods, from saying malicious or harsh things, and from engaging in gossip. We maintain the precepts of Buddhism when we guard our tongues from harmful slander. Adhering...

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  • Message from Henry: A Simple Friend

    MCZCAugust 25, 20201 min read

    Can we befriend the one square yard of our sitting mat? That is the challenge, and the invitation.  The wall before us. The seat beneath us, that we sense in the lower body. Sounds all around, close and far off, and in between. Breath lightly coming and going, thoughts coming and going. Feelings stirring like weather systems in the space of the heart. Tasting a restful awareness, a quiet attentiveness. Tasting the savor of stillness,...

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