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.

  • Dharmatalk: The Cessation of Suffering

    MCZCJuly 21, 20201 min read

    "Unshakable is the liberation of my mind" ~ Shakyamuni Buddha Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. The Third Noble Truth concerns the cessation of suffering. When Buddha gave his first sermon, he was sparing in his description of this Noble Truth in comparison to the three others, teaching that the cessation of suffering, also known as Nirvana, doesn’t cause or lead to anything. It is rather a release of all the causes that have always led...

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  • Question Mark ?

    MCZCJuly 18, 20201 min read

    ? A question mark Standing firm, Defending it's ground A question mark That it will never allow itself to become a full stop Not till its questions are answered! But slowly So slowly that it doesn't even notice The question mark is becoming more flexible Slowly, ever so slowly … it is unraveling Its bends and edges get straightened out, The curves become gentler And the question mark becomes A line at first, then the...

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  • Message from Henry: Wondrous Being

    MCZCJuly 15, 20202 min read

    This is not mind, this is not Buddha, this is not a thing. Today's message is an excerpt from Henry's memoir One Blade of Grass describing as aspect fo his path of training. Read Inside Out to put this week's piece in context.  This kind of state, according to the old way of thinking, would obviously wear off after a while. Yet, year after year, if anything, the wonder and gratitude grew, the space of the heart welling up...

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  • Dharmatalk: Letting Go of Clinging

    MCZCJuly 14, 20201 min read

    "Loss brings us to our senses. It actually gives us our life"  Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. In continuing the series of talks about the Four Noble Truths, we examine clinging from a traditional and a modern perspective. Craving to always be right, we may cling to fixed viewpoints and become rigid in our attitudes and ideas. Holding on to things, we create stress and tension in our bodies, which we can make it...

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  • Lost in the Forest of Mind

    MCZCJuly 11, 20201 min read

    Lost in the forest of mind running  from shadow to shadow looking for the light I never dared to open my eyes to... Running without aim running always till the dreams that at once comforted me become nightmares Lost in the forest of mind with tomorrow as the only hope... finally the shadows hunted me down and tied be to the ground ... still Still... I finally looked up and saw the beauty of your...

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  • Message from Henry: Inside Out

    MCZCJuly 8, 20201 min read

    Today's message is an excerpt from Henry's memoir One Blade of Grass describing as aspect fo his path of training. Read Great Peace (last weeks message) to put this week's piece in context.  In those early days, it was like being born again--or not again, but for the first time. Finally I knew what my life was. Not in the metaphysical or ontological sense, but in terms of the old Zen language. When one monk "awoke" under the...

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  • Dharmatalk: Seeking to Satisfy Dissatisfaction

    MCZCJuly 7, 20201 min read

    "When there really is just this, there is no place for thirst, or craving"  Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. We begin to address the Second Noble Truth: that the cause of suffering is craving, or Tanha in Pali, which literally means “thirst.” Seeking to satisfy the everyday pangs of thirst in our lives leads us to an unending cycle of craving for an end to craving. This will never happen. But when we learn...

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  • Flower Sermon

    MCZCJuly 4, 20201 min read

    Once upon a time the world honored one was at Vulture Peak.  Before a vast crowd of lay practitioners, nuns, and monks, angelic creatures, and even gods, he held up a single flower and twirled it. Of the assembled crowd only the disciple Mahakashyapa, responded, breaking into a wide grin. The Buddha, lord of wisdom, physician of the heart, announced... I have the eye treasury of the true Dharma, the marvelous mind of nirvana,  the true form of...

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  • Message from Henry: Great Peace

    MCZCJuly 1, 20202 min read

    Today's message is an excerpt from Henry's memoir One Blade of Grass describing as aspect fo his path of training. Click here to read Zen Death (a previous installment) to put this week's piece in context.  A war was over. It wasn't clear if I had won or lost--but presumably lost. The contents of the war, its causes and rationales, its bitterness and rage, had already become vague memories. It was a great absolution. ...Eihei. Eihei. Eihei....

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  • Dharmatalk: Developing Compassion with Equanimity

    MCZCJune 30, 20201 min read

    "Suffering can be the door, or the path, to practice and training"  Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. Continuing the discussion of the first of the Four Noble Truths: How can we transform our reactions to the various states of suffering (fear, grief, anger) that we experience on a daily basis? Develop compassion with equanimity. This is important advice for us when sitting. Find the difficult feeling in the body, accept and allow it to...

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  • Falling into Beauty

    MCZCJune 27, 20201 min read

    I don't regard my life as insufficient. Inside the brushwood gate there is a moon; there are flowers. ― Ryōkan Photo: Circle of life... a contemporary Enso circle by Rosa Bellino

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  • Message from Henry: Absolute Inclusivity

    MCZCJune 24, 20201 min read

    Today's message is an excerpt from Henry's memoir One Blade of Grass describing as aspect of his path of training. Zen may undermine false assumptions, but its goal is to help us live more helpfully - not in servitude to an imaginary tyrant called "me," but in the service of others. In the core of "ancestral Zen," this happens through the collapse of the prior notion of who we are.  It's hard to believe that what is then...

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  • Dharmatalk: Aligning with Reality

    MCZCJune 23, 20201 min read

    "Who is it who dies?"  Description: Ongoing series on basic Buddhism. The themes are: dukkha, dissatisfaction or suffering; Buddha’s instruction on illness and death; the eight worldly conditions; and the characteristics of existence. How have humans typically approached the problem of suffering? The role of practice at various levels of experience is examined. For the introduction to this basic Buddhism series, please visit Venus Twinkling.   Post & Featuredimage: Life and death by taviphoto, purchased from depositphotos,...

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  • Message from Henry: Thoughts on Wisdom

    MCZCJune 17, 20202 min read

    Some ways of looking at the term wisdom... 1. Basic practice: it is wise to begin where we are: always from things just as they are. Beginning in acceptance. Human foibles, world troubles: we start by accepting that they are as they are. From there the work begins, of improving things: that’s wisdom too. 2. Responding appropriately. Unmon said: “One preaching, in accordance.” It is only one teaching, but it always accords with what is...

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