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.

  • Message from Henry: Value

    MCZCJanuary 23, 20182 min read

    On the great road of Buddha ancestors there is always unsurpassable practice, continued and sustained.  ~Dogen We naturally like demonstrable value. In the case of meditation, what tangible benefits does it bring? It doesn't matter if you happen to feel drawn to it – what will it actually do for you? Typically, apologists for meditation point to two values – it can help us to suffer less; and make us a kinder, better person to...

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  • Karma Note

    MCZCJanuary 20, 20181 min read

    ...perhaps we shouldn't take all the credit. The first of Bodhidharma's four pieces of practice advice is to accept our karmic conditions... That is, if bad things happen to us, to accept it as the ripening of karmic causes. Likewise, if good things happen, to accept that also as the ripening of karmic causes. In other words, when bad things happen, maybe it's not all our immediate fault. And when good things happen, perhaps we...

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  • Teisho: Case 68, Book of Equanimity: Kempô’s “One Line”

    MCZCJanuary 18, 20182 min read

    "... the core message of Zen—it is all right here, just this, right now ..."     Description: The focus of this talk is the koan, “Kempô’s “One Line,” from the Book of Equanimity. It also appears in The Gateless Gate. A monk says to Master Kempô, “I wonder where the Way is.” Kempô lifts up his stick, draws a line and says, “Here it is.” This koan expresses the core message of Zen—it is all right here,...

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  • Message from Henry: Finding our Bearings by Ruben Habito

    MCZCJanuary 16, 20182 min read

    Our Zen practice is a way for us to find our bearings... a point wherein we find a place of peace. This week we have the end-of-year message that Sanbo Zen Teacher, Ruben Habito wrote for his sangha, the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. Enjoy! With love and gratitude, Henry As the year 2017 winds down, we are invited to look at the milestones, the highlights, and lowlights, of the year about to end. Each...

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  • Stephen Batchelor: The Practice of Speech

    MCZCJanuary 11, 20182 min read

      Description: Stephen Batchelor is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer and a self-described scholar practitioner. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. The central topic of this talk is the practice of speech. The meaning of the word practice is “to bring something into being.” When we practice something, we bring it into being. The Buddha symbolizes an integrated...

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  • Message From Henry: On the Enlightened Way

    MCZCJanuary 9, 20184 min read

    What is this “unsurpassable enlightened way” that we vow with our whole heart and whole being, to embody? This week we have a piece written by Ruben Habito, Sanbo Zen Teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. Enjoy! ~~~~~~~~~~~~   The enlightened way is unsurpassable ...I vow to embody it. This is the fourth vow of the bodhisattva. This is the aspiration that propels us in our practice. What is this “unsurpassable enlightened...

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  • Dogen: Colors of Mountains

    MCZCJanuary 7, 20181 min read

    Colors of the mountains, Streams in the valleys; One in all, all in one, The voice and body of Our Sakyamuni Buddha. ~ Dogen   Text from The Zen Poetry of Dogen: Verses from the Mountain of Eternal Peace, by Steve Heine Image: Mountains by Skeeze from Pixabay.com,  CC0 Public Domain

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  • Teisho: Case 68, Book of Equanimity: “Kassan Brandishes the Sword”

    MCZCJanuary 5, 20182 min read

    "... It is all makyô, or deceptive phenomena. The dust is swept away, and we see “Buddha,” and the dust reveals itself to be none other than Buddha all along ..."   Description: In exploring the koan, “Kassan Brandishes the Sword,” Case 68 from the Book of Equanimity, Henry begins by giving us a taste of the teaching of Master Kassan, who points to the fact that the “Way” cannot be taught because it is precisely who...

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  • Message from Henry: Wedges and Nails

    MCZCJanuary 2, 20182 min read

    ...where students and teachers of all levels go to have "wedges and nails pulled out," as Setcho put it, and to be sledged and sawed until they split open for real... In many ways we have been well served by our western forebears. Young ingénue hopefuls who went east and sat and sat, at the feet of masters, scalding their knees with pain, enduring the unscalable enigmas of their inscrutable teachers, without even knowing exactly...

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  • From Dogen’s Echizen

    MCZCDecember 30, 20171 min read

    For so long here without worldly attachments, I have renounced literature and writing; I may be a monk in a mountain temple, Yet still moved in seeing gorgeous blossoms Scattered by the spring breeze, And hearing the warbler's lovely song— Let others judge my meager efforts. ~ Dogen   This kanshi, one of a series of fifteen verses on Dōgen's Echizen "mountain retreat," expresses his creative ambivalence toward the tension between spiritual discipline and aesthetic...

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  • Teisho: Introductory Talk #6: Three Essentials of Zen Practice

    MCZCDecember 28, 20172 min read

    "... three elements that are essential to serious Zen practice: great faith, great doubt and great determination ..."   Description: This talk covers three elements that the 11th century master Tahui and the 18th century master Hakuin developed as “essential” to serious Zen practice. (The first and third equate to the 3rd and 4th paramitas - patience and resolve or vigor; the second equates to the quest or search that set Shakyamuni on his journey.) These are: great...

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  • Message from Henry: Zen and not-Zen

    MCZCDecember 26, 20171 min read

    Are we paying attention... or not? The difference between Zen and not-Zen is simply whether attention is being paid... or not. Are we paying attention, or are we not? The difference between Zen and not-Zen is simply whether there is someone paying attention, or not. Is there someone, or is there no one? Quantitative practice. Qualitative practice. Zen of practice. Zen of principle. But what about the difference between Zen and not-Zen? ****** 10,000 hours? Is that...

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  • Teisho: Introductory Talk #5: Five Kinds of Zen

    MCZCDecember 23, 20172 min read

    "... Supreme way practice has no objective. It is associated with the practice of just sitting. There is no desire to realize anything—it is simply, this ..."   Description: This talk covers the five kinds of zen: ordinary practice, outside practice, lesser vehicle practice (Theravada), greater vehicle practice (Mahayana) and supreme way practice. Ordinary practice is practice for ordinary benefits, like decreased anxiety, increased focus, improved health and more harmonious relationships. Outside practice refers to someone...

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  • Nutshell Zen

    MCZCDecember 23, 20171 min read

    Zen... it's as if we set up constraint, restriction, confinement, in order to force our dissatisfaction into a tight box of intensity... so that we can be squeezed out through a gate too tiny otherwise to be found, let alone passed through. ~ Henry Shukman Image: Universe in a nutshell by Christoph Settgast, CC by-SA 2.0 from Flickr.com

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