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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  • Earth as Witness: International Dharma Teacher’s Statement on Climate Change

    MCZCMay 12, 20188 min read

    We can use the climate crisis as a catalyst to acknowledge the consequences of our craving for more and more material wealth and the pursuit of power and realize we must change our assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors. A group of Dharma teachers have issued the following statement describing core Buddhist insights into the root causes of the climate crisis and ways to minimize its potentially tragic consequences. Over 500 Dharma teachers from around the globe...

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  • Teisho: Case 66, Book of Equanimity: Kyûhô’s “Head and Tail”

    MCZCMay 10, 20181 min read

    "... the movement into service ..."   Description: Henry begins by explaining how koans are a doorway into the deepest aspects of our existence. Zen is about letting go of everything we think we know, of all our beliefs and opinions. It is a process of purification that allows for the discovery of another dimension of our existence. In Case 66, this dimension is described as “Opening the eyes and not perceiving the dawn.” Everything is gone—time and space and...

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  • Cottage Opening Celebration Photos

    MCZCMay 8, 20181 min read

    Saturday May 5 Celebration   Ryoun Roshi cuts the ribbon... Sit and short talk with Ryoun Roshi   Interior Photos...     Chris Wuest manager/overseer of the entire project. Thank you Chris. Many bows!  

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  • Message from Henry: Cup of Tea

    MCZCMay 8, 20181 min read

    There is a hump we can get over, a corner we can turn, and it's getting less mysterious by the week, as contemplative neuroscientific research keeps after it. *** The practice is multi-valent. It can meet any number of different angles and perspectives from which we might plug into it, and any number of different reasons for doing it, and any number of different intentions with which we may approach it. *** Is this the heart of our humanity,...

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  • The Nonduality of Good and Evil, David Loy

    MCZCMay 5, 20185 min read

    If only there were evil people somewhere, insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? —Alexander Solzhenitsyn Because it emphasizes mindfulness of our thought processes, Buddhism encourages us to be wary of antithetical concepts, not only good and...

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  • Between the Human Animal and the Animate Earth (Part 1b of 6)

    MCZCMay 3, 20182 min read

    "... when we speak, the world is speaking through us ..." Description: This is the first in a three-part series of spontaneous conversations between Henry and David Abram. David is a cultural ecologist, geo-philosopher, and performance artist and the author of Becoming Animal and The Spell of the Sensuous. His writings have catalyzed the emergence of several new disciplines, including the burgeoning field of Ecopsychology. He is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, recently held the...

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  • Message from Henry: Delusion

    MCZCMay 1, 20181 min read

    ...all things without exception are in fact impermanent, and incapable of providing lasting peace... Are we hardwired for joy, wonder, appreciation, gratitude, and caring, compassion, love? Basically, yes. But we are also misled and deluded by the three poisons, desire, aversion and delusion. We have to be freed of them in order to taste intrinsic primordial joy. Of the three poisons the third, delusion, is in a sense the strongest and most pervasive. Without it, the other...

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  • Arrested by Light

    MCZCApril 28, 20181 min read

    I was suddenly arrested in the long, crunching path of the ridge by an exceedingly pointed awareness of the light.  The moment I paused, the full impact of the mood was upon me. I saw more clearly than I’d ever seen before, the minute detail of the grasses, the small flotsam of the forest, the motion of the high clouds streaming above the peaks. I dreamed that for a moment... time stood quietly and the vision became but the...

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  • Between the Human Animal and the Animate Earth (Part 1a of 6)

    MCZCApril 27, 20182 min read

    "... the sacredness of our human inter-being with the rest of nature ..." Description: This is the first in a three-part series of spontaneous conversations between Henry and David Abram. David is a cultural ecologist, geo-philosopher, and performance artist and the author of Becoming Animal and The Spell of the Sensuous. His writings have catalyzed the emergence of several new disciplines, including the burgeoning field of Ecopsychology. He is a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Nonfiction, recently...

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  • Message from Henry: Ordinary Marvel

    MCZCApril 24, 20182 min read

    A superior vessel takes longer to make (old Japanese proverb) It’s good to have devotion to your teacher, but not to the point of quitting if for some reason you lose them. The Zen way requires a teacher but is not about the teacher. Our commitment is to the Way. The teacher is only another expedient means. To make the ordinary the marvel that it is: Zen training. *** Sometimes the old Zen masters said that they were holding nothing...

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  • Are Human’s Special? Part 3 by David Loy

    MCZCApril 21, 20186 min read

    Let one’s thoughts of boundless love pervade the whole world — above, below, and across — without any obstruction, without any hatred, without any enmity.  ~ Metta Sutra We are featuring some of David Loy's recent writing on our website to introduce you to this thoughtful and brilliant Zen teacher, writer and environmental activist. David will be offering an Eco-Dharma lecture and Workshop at Mountain Cloud, May 18-20.  Click here for details about the Eco-Dharma weekend.  Click to...

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  • Teisho: A Map of Zen Training (Part 5)

    MCZCApril 19, 20181 min read

    "... There is no self, no witness, and no world and it is marked by a sense of deep relief and joy ..." To reach satisfaction in all, desire its possession in nothing.                      John of the Cross Description: This is the fifth and final talk from the Fall 2017 sesshin. To wrap up the journey through a map of Zen training, Henry begins by pointing out that John of the Cross, in...

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  • Message from Henry: Healing

    MCZCApril 17, 20182 min read

    The real healing is the dropping away of the unreal self... Recently while teaching in San Diego, during a question-and-answer session, someone asked about the healing aspects of practice. I said something like: first there's the wound of separation, that we feel separate from all else. That "heals," in a sense. But it happens through the practice dealing us a greater wound, an infinite wound, an absolute gulf of a wound. As a result of that,...

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  • Are Human’s Special? Part 2 by David Loy

    MCZCApril 14, 20184 min read

    ...we are creatures that know we are creatures; moreover, we are creatures that create, and know that we create. We are featuring some of David Loy's recent writing on our website to introduce you to this thoughtful and brilliant Zen teacher, writer and environmental activist. David will be offering an Eco-Dharma Workshop at Mountain Cloud, May 18-20.  Click here for details about the Eco-Dharma weekend.  Click to read Part 1 of this essay on our website. Creatures that Create In...

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