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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  • Be Still & Know: A Zen Reading of a Biblical Saying, by Ruben Habito, Part 2 of 3

    MCZCJune 3, 20177 min read

    Insofar as this little “I,” secluded from the boundless “I AM,” reigns in our lives, we are blocking the infinite capacity that is the totality of ourselves as enveloped by the boundless “I AM.” We have fallen from grace. Read Part 1 of Be Still & Know We are invited to sit in silence, and to immerse ourselves in the vast and boundless ocean of “to be,” and to know that with this, there is nothing else...

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  • Teisho: Obaku’s Drinkers Revisited

    MCZCJune 1, 20172 min read

    I don’t say there is no Zen, just no Zen Teachers. ~ Obaku     If you think you are going to get something through effort, you won’t get anywhere or anything, you are still in the midst of craving.     ~ Henry Shukman Description: Henry introduces the verses that are attached to each Koan in the Book of Equanimity. He explicates the charming, powerful verse from Case 53, Obaku’s Drinkers (which Henry spoke about in several earlier podcasts)...

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  • Message from Henry: Sixth Paramita

    MCZCMay 30, 20172 min read

    Not knowing is most intimate. So what about the last paramita, the sixth, prajna, generally translated as “wisdom”? Pra-jna: before knowing; beyond knowing. Wisdom that can start to show itself once knowing ends, or before knowing has begun. Knowing is not the Way, as Nansen said. Manjusri wields the sword of wisdom, the one thing that has the capacity to cut through everything. Nothing it cannot cut through. What kind of sword would that be? A monk asked Joshu: You...

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  • Be Still & Know: A Zen Reading of a Biblical Saying, by Ruben Habito, Part 1 of 3

    MCZCMay 27, 20178 min read

    Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. - Matthew 5:8 We are looking at the Beatitudes as our pointer to the source of the living waters, where we may drink and never thirst again, as Jesus in John 4:13-14 told the Samaritan woman at the well. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8) What is it to be “pure of heart”? The centuries-old tradition of Zen practice, centered...

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  • Special Presentation: Teisho by Yamada Ryoun Roshi

    MCZCMay 25, 20172 min read

    "When we “mu” the self becomes one with mu." ~ Ryoun Roshi Description: On March 9, 2017 Sanbo Zen Abbot, Ryoun Roshi, visited Mountain Cloud and gave his first ever teisho in our Zendo. He explored authentic Zen by looking at the Gateless Gate, Case 1, Joshu’s Dog, Descartes, the Heart Sutra, Zen’s ox-herding pictures and quantum dynamics. Roshi asks, what is the central reason we practice Zen? He answers, to discover our true nature.  He also asks the...

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  • Message from Henry: The Paramitas

    MCZCMay 23, 20173 min read

    Whatever our life truly may be, whatever the world and universe are, they are surely gifts, abundantly and freely given. After a break of a few weeks,  Henry continues his series on the Paramitas. Circling back belatedly to the first "perfection," dana, or generosity. Interesting that generosity is the first paramita. The implication of its being the first would seem to be that we won't be able to cultivate any of the others unless we have first learned...

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  • Sanbo Zen & Unconditional Well Being, Video Clip

    MCZCMay 20, 20172 min read

    It’s not so much that are our existence is separate, it just IS other beings. Henry Shukman briefly previews Sanbo Zen ... and shares his thoughts on where/how "unconditional well being is to be found." He is interviewed by Mountain Cloud board member Chris Hebard “Zen derived from a Chinese word Chan, which derives from the Sanskrit word dyana, which basically means meditation or meditative absorbtion.” The Sanbo Zen line is not concerned with the forms of worship, liturgy...

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  • Teisho: Buddha’s Heart

    MCZCMay 18, 20172 min read

    If you put store in things that are not permanent you will never find peace… everything in our sense experience is one river of lightning Description: This talk focuses on “heart.” Henry recaps Shakymuni’s awakening. After years of grueling and ultimately unsuccessful austerity practices, Shakymuni recalled a buried moment from childhood where he was sitting calmly beneath a tree watching the spring plowing festival. He saw plows grind up a field and demolish thousands of tiny insects, shattering...

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  • Message from Henry: Love, Gratitude, Humility

    MCZCMay 16, 20172 min read

    ...[the practice] will also hold up a mirror time and again, to show us what we would rather not see. Zen is not just about waking up, but growing up. “Owning our stuff.” Being prepared to recognize our interpersonal and emotional habits. Going through the gritty work of not immediately projecting our “stuff” onto others - generally the first thing we tend to do if we feel bad, blaming something or someone outside of ourselves. Which...

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  • Sanbo Zen: Yamada Ryoun Roshi

    MCZCMay 13, 20177 min read

    Nurturing and supporting “kensho”, realization of the way in Zen, is Sanbo Zen’s primary mission. It may be the only practice dedicated solely to awakening, followed by the complete integration of that direct experience into every aspect of life. It’s goal is to deepen and perfect the clarity of this direct experience. Who is this guy? This is Zen Master Masamichi Yamada, also known as Ryoun Yamada Roshi, the head Abbot of Sanbo Zen. Here’s a little history of his business...

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  • Teisho: The Three Treasures

    MCZCMay 11, 20171 min read

    I return full-heartedly to the Buddha I return full-heartedly to the Dharma I return full-heartedly to the Sangha ~ Henry’s Translation of Ti Sarana Description: In this episode, Henry gives further background and context on the levels and possibilities of Zen practice. Broadly speaking, there are three kinds of practice at Mountain Cloud. Each layer corresponds with a reason why we might want to practice at all. Those, in turn correspond with a different level of possibility that practice offers....

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  • Message from Henry: Freedom Through Love

    MCZCMay 9, 20172 min read

    You have to run along a ridge of ice, said Mumon. You have to keep a tight fit and never led the wind pass through...One slip, and down we go. After the retreat we recently had at Sonnenhof, I met with my mum for three days, who flew down to Basel so we could spend some time together in the Black Forest. She was born eight years before the Second World War began. When she got off...

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  • The Meeting: Zen’s Challenge to An Individual, Interior Spirituality, Part 7 of 7

    MCZCMay 8, 20173 min read

    Understanding across difference, whatever the difference, lies at the center of spiritual life and aspiration. This is the final installment of Henry's series The Meeting. Read  Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 and Part 6. Connection is not, however, only about connection with people. For Zen students, it is something to extend to all beings, even inanimate ones. The Zen virtue of menmitsu, a tender caring for objects, extends mindfulness beyond inwardness to...

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  • The Meeting: Zen’s Challenge to An Individual, Interior Spirituality, Part 6 of 7

    MCZCMay 6, 20174 min read

    When a Zen student sits with a koan, she is also sitting under the wing of her teacher, and indeed of all the ancestral teachers, historical or mythological, stretching back through time immemorial. Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 and Part 5 of The Meeting. Given that experiencing intimate connection with others has been the abiding concern of Zen over the centuries, it follows that the engineering of conditions that make this possible has...

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