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: The Sound of One Hand

    MCZCOctober 17, 20191 min read

    Unpack the gift Description: Beginning with a discussion of concentration practice, this talk focuses on the famous koan “The Sound of One Hand” and its origins. Just as we sit, Hakuin took these words from Setcho into his body: “The single hand doesn’t sound without reason.” This process is life-changing, allowing a radical change in our experience of this moment. Post & Featured image: Wedding ring tied to a white pillow with a purple ribbon by...

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  • Message from Henry: A Glimpse

    MCZCOctober 15, 20191 min read

    It’s quite simple: sit with a koan until it blows your mind.  Only then will we be beginning to glimpse a little of what it really is. But a little is often plenty. Sit diligently, durably, stably. Keep coming back to it. Message from Henry is from our October 14 Newsletter Image: Snow Winter (edited) by sorbyphotos, Public Domain, Pixabay.com

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  • Message from Henry: Pausing (part 2)

    MCZCOctober 12, 20191 min read

    Sometimes people say: I can’t meditate, my mind is too busy. Or: I’ve got so many thoughts in my head, I’m not cut out for meditation. That’s like saying: I can’t go to the gym, I’m not fit enough. They’re describing the very condition or problem that meditation can help us with. Message from Henry is from our October 7, 2019 Newsletter Image by Rosa Bellino

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  • Dharmatalk: Points of Practice

    MCZCOctober 10, 20191 min read

    We are giving ourselves to this moment  Description: This talk is about general points of practice with a focus on five areas: relaxing the body; general mindfulness; concentration (samadhi); awakening; returning to the world—to help. The common denominator to all of these elements is Love. In beautiful excerpts from Bruce Springsteen’s memoir, we can catch a few small echoes of the world of the masters and taste something of the same passion experienced in Zen practice....

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  • Message from Henry: Pausing (part 1)

    MCZCOctober 8, 20191 min read

    Samu -- work practice -- is basically loving things. Do it at a pace where you can love what you touch. Pause. Take a breath. Give love time. Message from Henry is from our October 7, 2019 Newsletter Image by Rosa Bellino

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  • Dharmatalk: Living Our Deepest Nature

    MCZCOctober 3, 20191 min read

    Description: This talk recounts a recent teacher’s retreat in Germany with the Abbot of Sanbo Zen, Yamada Ryoun Roshi. It begins with the story of Father Lassalle, a Jesuit priest and Zen teacher who built the zendo in Germany where the retreat took place. Practice does not end; there is no I’ve-got-this moment. Or we might say there are many such moments. This is demonstrated in the ongoing training of teachers, even those who have been...

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  • Message from Henry: Heart Opening

    MCZCOctober 1, 20191 min read

    Sit and be still, be silent, and let your heart open. It doesn’t matter what your spiritual practice is as long as it teaches you to love this world. Not “teach” in the sense of telling you to. Rather, that it makes love open up in your heart. All the philosophy, theology, practices, methods and techniques, awakenings and realizations -- they’re all pointless if they don’t lead to that. That’s why Zen says: no words. Just quiet. Sit...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 7, The Gateless Gate: Joshu’s “Wash Your Bowls”

    MCZCSeptember 26, 20191 min read

    The world is nothing but metamorphosis and life is nothing but an opinion. ~Marcus Aurelius Everybody’s got a hungry heart. ~Bruce Springsteen  Description: In The Gateless Gate, the last line of this koan reads, “The monk attained some realization.” What did the monk realize? Why is this seemingly ordinary dialogue between the great master Jôshô and a monk worthy of our attention? These questions encapsulate the central theme of this inspiring talk. Post & Featured image (Edited):...

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  • Message from Henry: Purpose of Life

    MCZCSeptember 24, 20191 min read

    Which one of these statements is true? The purpose of life is to help others through it. The purpose of life is to experience love. The purpose of life is to love ourselves. The purpose of life is to awaken. Which one of these statements is true? Which one is untrue? (These are trick questions.) The answer, naturally, is that all of them can be true, depending on where we are on the path. And all can also represent tastes...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 88, Book of Equanimity: “Non-Seeing” in the Ryôgon Sutra (Part 2 of 2)

    MCZCSeptember 19, 20191 min read

    "We become the empty bowl that can receive the water." Description: Case 88, taken from a sutra, is an unusual koan. It diverges from the narrative form that typically demonstrates how Zen is continuously pointing to the ordinary moments of life. This expansive talk explores the Ryôgon Sutra and poses three key questions about “seeing”: What is there to see? Who is there to do any seeing? Is there actually any seeing? Post & Featured image (Edited):...

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  • Message from Henry: Mind-States

    MCZCSeptember 17, 20191 min read

    Are we using practice - and perhaps wandering from teacher to teacher - in order to manage moods and cultivate or “get” states of mind that we like? That’s not freedom, no matter how good some of these mind-states may feel. Real practice takes us through and beyond all that…. to one true liberation.   Message from Henry is from our September 16, 2019 Newsletter Image: Nature Reflection, Pixabay.com

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 88, Book of Equanimity: “Non-Seeing” in the Ryôgon Sutra (Part 1)

    MCZCSeptember 12, 20191 min read

    "All spiritual discipline must grow out of a sincere heart." ~Buddha Description: Case 88, taken from a sutra, is an unusual koan. It diverges from the narrative form that typically demonstrates how Zen is continuously pointing to the ordinary moments of life. This expansive talk explores the Ryôgon Sutra and poses three key questions about “seeing”: What is there to see? Who is there to do any seeing? Is there actually any seeing? Post & Featured image...

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  • Message from Henry: Self-System

    MCZCSeptember 10, 20192 min read

    I was looking at an ad in a German rail-station. It showed a misty morning in an old German village among wooded hills, along with a chilled glass of classic beer - a “Landbier” as the ad called it, a “country beer”. It set up a nostalgia in me: an old love of beer, love of an old way of life, and of hills from my childhood, all at once. And I had a little thought:...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 87, Book of Equanimity: Sozan: With or Without

    MCZCSeptember 5, 20191 min read

    "Any phenomenon experienced at any time has the power to awaken us." Description: In an exploration of Case 87, we are invited to sense how a koan can truly be experienced when we allow it into our hearts. Sozan, who would eventually become a great master and another important figure in the history of Zen, is a young man and an earnest, struggling practitioner at the time of this story. Sozan asks his teacher, Isan, a...

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