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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  • Dharmatalk: Awakening (Part 3 of 3)

    MCZCJanuary 23, 20201 min read

    "... Each of us is an entire ferry of all beings ..." Description: This is the third part of a discussion on enlightenment. How does the Zen tradition understand awakening? If awakening is not part of a particular kind of practice, it cannot be called “Buddhism.” Awakening cannot be understood conceptually–the mind can’t get it. It is not something that we find, awakening finds us. Post & Featured image: Ferry over golden water by Patrick Robinson, unsplash...

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  • Message from Henry: No Thing

    MCZCJanuary 21, 20202 min read

    True freedom is nothing at all. Emptiness, sunyata, isn’t a thing: it’s empty! One difference between Hindu-based, Vedantic Nonduality and Buddhism, is that sometimes in the Advaita Vedanta traditions, they tend to suggest that nonduality is a thing. That is to say: there is a thing to be found, and it’s The Nondual. Sometimes modern Neo-Advaitans will call it Consciousness or Awareness, meaning an all-pervasive Something of which we have always been a part. It may...

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  • Mindful Living: Gratitude

    MCZCJanuary 20, 20201 min read

    Gratitude is a valuable process in a mindful lifestyle. Being grateful helps us break the chain of negative thinking that often plagues us and helps us cultivate loving compassion. If we make it a habit, it helps us understand that we control our thoughts––they do not control us. A gratitude chain is particularly illustrative. “If I am grateful for this, then by inference I must also be grateful for…” and so it goes. The farther out...

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  • Joy in the Ordinary

    MCZCJanuary 18, 20202 min read

    Sadly we are being waited on By eyes much wiser and knowing Than yours or mine Just to see what we will do In our circle of time ~ Navajo poem Happy small discoveries bring joy and morsels of wisdom from simple unlikely places. In one short period of time the following discoveries were made locally: Postcard art under table glass at a popular restaurant reads, “If you are more fortunate than others build a longer table, not a taller...

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  • Dharmatalk: Awakening (Part 2 of 3)

    MCZCJanuary 16, 20201 min read

    "... There is no mind to be trained ..."   Description: This is the second part of a discussion on enlightenment. It begins where the first part left off—the mindfulness movement. Often the term “awakening” is very misunderstood in some mainstream books about Buddhism. In the Zen tradition, what is awakening? It is not just well-being, it is total liberation. Post & Featured image: Green Wooden Chair on White Surface by Paula Schmidt, pexels license.

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  • Message from Henry: Liming

    MCZCJanuary 14, 20202 min read

    ...fully allow thoughts to arise, endure and pass away... Many of us don’t live in ways that involve regular doses of communal “lounging,” or hanging out – or “liming” as they used to call it in Trinidad. When I played in bands there, to “lime” was to relax, chat, do nothing much, just be hanging out together. There would be long stretches of time between rehearsals, recording sessions and performances, when there wasn’t much to do,...

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  • Finding Love & Peace

    MCZCJanuary 11, 20201 min read

    Your task is not to seek love but merely to find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it. ~Rumi We do not find love by running from or pushing away the beings who need it. We do not find peace by running from or avoiding the opportunity to create it. Awareness includes awareness of the world around us­­––even the injustice. As we mindfully observe our own response to the surrounding environment, we develop...

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  • Dharmatalk: Awakening (Part 1 of 3)

    MCZCJanuary 9, 20201 min read

    "... All the depth that is in us needs time ..." Description: This talk begins with some beautiful reflections on a recent talk by Stephen Jenkinson, author and storyteller. It is the first part of a discussion on enlightenment—how it is understood in Western practice and how it is understood by different traditions. The current mindfulness movement may not be equipped to explore this deeper reality of existence. Post & Featured image: Closeup Photo of Sprout by...

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  • New Year’s Message from Ruben Habito

    MCZCJanuary 7, 20204 min read

      Dear friends, fellow practitioners of Zen across traditions, As we welcome the new year and the new decade of the 2020’s, with a heart full of gratitude to each and everyone of you, I convey my deep-felt wishes and prayers for peace and well- being for everyone. On this occasion, allow me to offer some notes on how our practice of cultivating stillness in Zen meditation may shed some light on living in our world today. Defying the...

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  • Mindfulness: A Unique Piece of the Puzzle

    MCZCJanuary 4, 20201 min read

    Mindfulness is not meant to make us into unthinking conformists or narcissists concerned only for our own well-being and personal transformation. The point is not be free from fear, doubt, or pain, relieved of having to feel the effects of the suffering around us. Rather, by observing our fears and doubts we develop the ability to pause long enough to engage our rational minds and not be controlled by them. We reduce our own suffering enough...

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  • Dharmatalk: Wisdom

    MCZCJanuary 2, 20201 min read

    "... There is wisdom in developing personal well-being ..." Description: This talk focuses on the term “wisdom.” There are different kinds of wisdom that human beings can discover. To begin this exploration, an overview of the five kinds of Zen practice is presented. This unfolds into a more contemporary interpretation, the four zones of practice. Post & Featured image: Stack of Stones by Pixabay, pexels license.

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  • Message from Henry: Clearheaded and Kindhearted

    MCZCDecember 31, 20191 min read

    During his years of Zen training, when he was having a hard time with one thing or another, one of Henry's Zen teacher's would advise him "Don't get too caught up in it," and would then send him back to whatever koan he was working on. Henry writes about his teacher's seemingly austere but wise style in his memoir, One Blade of Grass... It helped me find over time that things did not matter as much as I often thought, even seemingly...

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  • The Meaning of Life

    MCZCDecember 28, 20191 min read

    Excellence Reporter: Henry, what is the meaning of life? Henry Shukman: I’m not too sure about the meaning of life so I’ll start with the purpose. “What is the purpose of life?” a student once asked a master. The master replied: “Play.” The student was disappointed. “I’ve come all this way to study with you, to find out about life, and that’s all you can come up with? Play?” The master shrugged. “That’s how it is. Play.” Click here to read...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 5, The Blue Cliff Record: Seppo’s “Grain of Rice”

    MCZCDecember 26, 20191 min read

    "... Being silent and still is the heart of our practice ..." Description: A koan is always talking about right now. In Case 5, Master Seppô is teaching an assembly and says, “When you pick up the whole great earth in your fingers, it’s the size of a grain of rice.” What kind of teaching is this? Is this just absurdity or not? If not, why would Seppô say something like this? These questions are the...

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