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 (Guest): John Gaynor: Zen Master Dôgen Kigen (Part 1 of 2)

    MCZCJune 27, 20191 min read

    "... If one person is harmonizing this experience of Dogen’s, then we all are ..."    Description: John Gaynor is a Zen Teacher with The Oxford Zen Centre. This wonderful talk was presented at The Meditatio Centre in London. Using the wisdom gleaned from Master Dôgen’s first work, Fukanzazengi (Universally Recommended Instructions for Sitting Meditation), the why, how and what of meditation is explored. It begins with an overview of Dôgen’s life (1200-1253). This talk was hosted by...

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  • Message from Henry: Go Slow

    MCZCJune 25, 20191 min read

    Go slow... If that feels difficult, try to find the sense of rush in the body. Where is it? Allow it to show itself to you. Give it some space and attention, allow it to be as it is. Tend it, love it, embrace it. Once again, go slow. Sloooooww…... Time - in practice, we let it dissolve. We let it expand.  Turns out there is plenty of time. Who would have thought? No end of time. Message from Henry...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 84, Book of Equanimity:Gutei’s One Finger

    MCZCJune 20, 20191 min read

    "... Whatever you experience, if you can see it clearly, it shows itself to be hollow, empty, insubstantial ..."   Description: In Case 84, Master Gutei responds to whatever he is asked with the same gesture—he holds up one finger. Where is the wisdom in his teaching? Where is the compassion? This talk explores these questions, beginning with the story of how Gutei came to a moment of profound awakening after surrendering and deciding to seek help. Post...

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  • Message from Henry: Lessons

    MCZCJune 18, 20191 min read

      Just because we had a good time on one retreat doesn’t mean we will in the next. On the other hand, having a hard time during a retreat may in fact have taught us things that will stand us in better stead next time around. Funny how it goes. Message from Henry is from our June 17, 2019 Image: Foxglove by MabelAmber, Pixabay.com

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  • Dharmatalk: Infinite Heart Opening (Practice Basics)

    MCZCJune 13, 20191 min read

    "... The Way is never apart from you right where you are ..." Description: There are a myriad of ways to parse the human experience and find clarity. This talk is a basic overview of practice, beginning with the centrality of breath and closing with beautiful words from Master Dogen. Post & Featured image: Forest by PublicDomainPictures, Pixabay License.

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  • Message from Henry: Basic Reality

    MCZCJune 11, 20191 min read

    The Dalai Lama says: the basic reality of all human beings is shared. It’s our oneness. And our differences are secondary. Likewise, he says our basic nature is compassion. And anger and violence are secondary.   From our June 10, 2019 Newsletter Image: Dandelion by Dewdrop157, Pixabay License  

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 83, Book of Equanimity: Dôgo’s Nursing the Ill

    MCZCJune 6, 20191 min read

    "... The whole universe is offering unconditional love ..." Description: The focus of this talk is Case 83, which features Master Isan and Master Dôgo. These masters are completely free; they have thoroughly seen through self and world and the delusion of separateness is gone. How do we nurse the ill and help all become free from suffering? There is a path and it leads to boundless compassion. Post & Featured image: Love by klimkin, Pixabay License.

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  • Message from Henry: Concentration

    MCZCJune 4, 20191 min read

    ...we see truly... Of all the seven “factors of awakening” the most important is concentration. All the contemplative traditions concur on this. If you can just get clearly and strongly focused and gathered around one point, in single-pointed awareness, you can see through. And once that happens, you can break through, and the whole structure of personality and reality can collapse, and we see truly at last.   Message from Henry from our June 3, 2019 Newsletter Image: Landscape by enriquelopezgarre,...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 82, Book of Equanimity: “Sound” and “Color”

    MCZCMay 30, 20191 min read

    "... It’s about entering the moment in a more immediate, intimate and clearer way ..." Description: In the koan, “Sound” and “Color,” Master Unmon is essentially talking about the main emphasis of Zen—the experience of waking up. This can be suddenly triggered by one of our sense channels. What is a sense experience? When we are still in our minds and bodies, it is possible for this to become clear and boundless love reveals itself. Post & Featured...

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  • Message from Henry: Like a Koan

    MCZCMay 28, 20191 min read

    A retreat itself is like a koan -- the more we let go of the self and its understandings, the more the retreat makes sense. The more beautiful and wonderful it becomes. Like a koan. What we need to do is just trust, and just let go. Message from Henry is from our May 27, 2019 Newsletter Image: Landscape-Freedom by SOFCOR,  Pixabay License

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 19, The Gateless Gate: Ordinary Mind is the Way

    MCZCMay 23, 20191 min read

    "... Ordinary experience is extraordinarily miraculous. It is “as vast and boundless as the great empty sky ..." Description: This talk focuses on a teaching story from very early in Master Jôshû’s training with his teacher, Master Nansen. Nansen tells Jôshû that the ordinary mind is the Way. What is ordinary mind? What is the Way? Ordinary experience is extraordinarily miraculous. It is “as vast and boundless as the great empty sky” and it is always right here. Post...

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  • Message from Henry: Authentic Fulfillment

    MCZCMay 21, 20192 min read

    ...to be more free of “me" -- and to begin to taste a far more real and profound fulfillment. The basis of what used to be called a religious life, and nowadays we might call a life of spiritual practice, is learning to stop serving the sense of self. It’s pretty radical for many of us, as we live in a culture and society that seem to want us to believe that the whole point of life...

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  • Can Buddhism Meet the Climate Crisis? Part 2 of 2, by David Loy

    MCZCMay 18, 201913 min read

    “...clinging to emptiness” can function in the same way as cosmological dualism, both of them devaluing this world and its problems If you missed part one of this article by David Loy, click here to read it. The Challenge A few years ago I was reading a fine book by Loyal Rue, titled Everybody’s Story: Wising Up to the Epic of Evolution, and came across a passage that literally stopped me in my tracks, because it crystallized so...

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  • Dharmatalk: Case 28, Book of Equanimity: Gokoku’s “Three Disgraces”

    MCZCMay 16, 20191 min read

    "... At the deepest level, nothing is separate from the Dharma ..." Description: This talk focuses on Henry’s trip to Germany, beginning in Nuremberg, then on to Benediktushof, a former Benedictine monastery, now a spiritual center, then to Sonnenhof Zen Center in the Black Forest, and, finally, to Domicilium, a joint hospice and Zen center. This leads into Case 28 where Gokoku expresses what Buddha realized. At the deepest level, nothing is separate from the Dharma,...

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