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.

  • Mindful Living: Our Mind Can Be Our Friend

    MCZCFebruary 1, 20201 min read

    Our quality of life has a lot to do with how we use our brain. As we refer to our measurable intellectual capacity as our IQ, so we have a corresponding emotional intelligence which we refer to as our EQ. Self-awareness gives us insight into how our emotions affect our thinking, our reasoning, and our relationships with others and vice versa. Our thoughts trigger emotions. Conversely, our emotions can conjure up subconscious habitual patterns of...

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  • Sangha Meeting Report: January 25

    MCZCJanuary 30, 20209 min read

      Attending: Will, Stephen, Lisa, Christian, John, Karen, Peg, Gudrun, Mark, Vivian, Valerie, Paul, Laura, Christy, Rob, Dan, Henry, Chris, David H, Mary Ann, Yvonne, Rosemary, Damon, Bill, Kathryn, Katie, Sarah, Sean, Rachel, Jay, Deborah, Sandy, Dave S, Johanna Welcome: Introducing Valerie, Yvonne and Dan, and the visiting students;  Sgt Pepper’s Heart of Perfect Wisdom Band, framed art piece. Approval of Minutes of October 2019 Sangha meeting: Approved Endorsement of Board of Directors for 2020 -...

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  • Dharmatalk: Finding the Heart: 2019 Spring Sesshin (Part 1 of 4)

    MCZCJanuary 30, 20201 min read

    "... the functioning of the heart with which I was born came into play in its purest form ..." ~ Sôkô Morinaga Description: This is the first talk of the Spring 2019 sesshin. What kinds of growth and change does Zen practice engender and what are the ways Zen practice can bring them about? In response to these questions many facets of practice are explored, including the power of breath practice, the power of Mu and...

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  • Message from Henry: Down the Drain

    MCZCJanuary 28, 20203 min read

    ...ordinary beings have no illumination in their consciousness, but Buddhas have no consciousness in their illumination. ~ Dogen Zen training is like a bathtub where the plug has been pulled. At first nothing seems to be happening, but the water is surely going down. We're a plastic boat floating round, bobbing along, past the rubber duck, along the side of the tub That's interesting but no big deal. The water is going down, but too...

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  • Mindfulness: Social Emotional Learning and the Case for Mindfulness in Schools

    MCZCJanuary 25, 20201 min read

    The Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is a national standard-bearer in the field of social emotional learning or SEL. According to Tim Shriver, co-founder and board chair, “Emotion drives attention and attention drives learning…Children learn when their heart is open, engaged, connected and filled with purpose.” SEL goals include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making. Mindfulness cultivates emotion regulation, attention control and self-awareness. Although less goal oriented than common...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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