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.
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Dharmatalk: Case 19, The Gateless Gate: Ordinary Mind is the Way
May 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...
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Can Buddhism Meet the Climate Crisis? Part 2 of 2, by David Loy
May 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...
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Dharmatalk: Case 28, Book of Equanimity: Gokoku’s “Three Disgraces”
May 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...
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Can Buddhism Meet the Climate Crisis? Part 1 of 2, by David Loy
May 11, 20199 min read
The challenge that confronts us is spiritual because it goes to the very heart of how we understand the world, including our place and role in this world. Is the eco-crisis the earth’s way of telling us to “wake up or suffer the consequences”? It is no exaggeration to say that today humanity faces its greatest challenge ever: in addition to burgeoning social crises, a self-inflicted ecological catastrophe threatens civilization as we know it and...
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Dharmatalk: Case 81, Book of Equanimity: Gensha Reaches the Province (Part 2)
May 9, 20191 min read
"... We can drop our construction of self and world, space and time ..." Description: This talk begins with the sound of rain and gentle rolling thunder. It is a continuation of the exploration of Case 81, with a focus on Gensha’s comment at the end of the story. Gensha is trying to help us to appreciate what we really are by sharing with us a reality that can never be known by our mind....
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Dharmatalk: Case 81, Book of Equanimity: Gensha Reaches the Province (Part 1)
May 2, 20191 min read
"... This world is one single act of love ..." Description: Koans can open up the potential of a human being. Case 81 is a Dharma dialogue between Gensha and Shôtô. They converse about a party the day before—all the revelry is right here, right now. The point of Zen training is to experience this one fact and to make it our ongoing experience. Post & Featured image: Heart Universe Love by geralt, Pixabay License.
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“This”
April 27, 20191 min read
This has no time. This has no place. This has no words. This has no characteristics at all. Anything that comes into this, dissolves and evaporates... like a snowflake in a furnace, as Kakuan said of the eighth ox-herding picture. This is reality. This is home. This is the truth. People don’t generally seem to know this, though it can only always be here. It’s not here, but it’s never gone. This connects to nothing...
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Dharmatalk: Case 80, Book of Equanimity: Suibi and the Chin Rest
April 25, 20191 min read
"... How incredible to wake up into the heart of this moment ..." Description: Koans are not confined by our typical assumptions about reality. Case 80 refers to the story of Bodhidharma, who is credited with bringing Zen from India to China. What did Bodhidharma bring? In this koan, Ryûge is asking Suibi and Rinzai this very deep question, and they respond, showing us what it is to have “no meaning.” Post & Featured image:...
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