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...

    Read more
  • Teisho: Case 52, Book of Equanimity: Sozan’s Dharma Body

    MCZCMarch 9, 20172 min read

    Case 52: Sôzan asked Elder Toku, “The true Dharma-body of Buddha is like the empty sky. It manifests its form corresponding to things – just like the moon on the water. How do you explain the principle of this corresponding?” Toku said, “It is like a donkey looking into a well.” Sôzan said, “You put it in a nice way, but you were able to say only eighty percent.” Toku said, “How about you, Master?” Sôzan...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: Six Paramitas

    MCZCMarch 7, 20173 min read

    ...they (paramitas) are actually based on a deep acceptance of imperfection. A little exploration of the six paramitas... the so-called “perfections,” or virtues, or qualities, or good approaches to practice. Right off the bat, since these qualities or attributes are called "perfections," the first thing to acknowledge is that they are actually based on a deep acceptance of imperfection. Humans and attempts at perfection don’t always mix so well. It's often bad news when people try to...

    Read more
  • The Suffering of Self, Part 3 of 4, by David Loy

    MCZCMarch 4, 20174 min read

    Most fundamentally, Buddhism is about awakening, which means realizing something about the constructedness of the sense of self and the nothing at its core. Read Part 1 and Part 2 of The Suffering of Self. How does our repressed sense of unreality return to consciousness? As a feeling that there is something missing or lacking in my life. What is it that’s lacking? How I understand that depends upon the kind of person I am, and the...

    Read more
  • Teisho: A Talk on Jesus

    MCZCMarch 2, 20171 min read

    Description: In this Christmas-time episode, Henry gives a talk on Jesus, departing from his traditional koan-centered teisho. Henry starts by introducing Thomas Merton’s phrase “Virgin Time”... which could also be translated as “new time.” In a non-orthodox interpretation, Henry asks could it be that Jesus’ birth represents this “new time,” where all previous ordering and conditioning is pushed back, a space of... possibility, potential, and hope, just because Jesus has come into the world. Henry:...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: Middle Way

    MCZCFebruary 28, 20172 min read

    Our emotional habits are part of an imaginary house we have constructed out of empty elements. However much we may dislike some of them, they are part of our illusion of “safety.” Actually that safety is full of imagined threat and anxiety. If we would only see through it and let it go, we would find our real safety – the true “refuge.” ***** Since one of the eight tenets of Mahayana Buddhism is that all beings are...

    Read more
  • Is this Meditation?

    MCZCFebruary 27, 20171 min read

    Don’t let awareness be totally absorbed by the content of the mind .... Be aware of the space around thinking, feeling, sensing... Is this ‘meditation”? Photo and poem by Rosa Bellino

    Read more
  • The Suffering of Self, Part 2 of 4, by David Loy

    MCZCFebruary 25, 20174 min read

    A lot of social interaction is about reassuring each other and ourselves that we’re all really okay even though inside we feel that we’re not. Read Part 1 of The Suffering of Self But why is a constructed sense of self so uncomfortable? “My” sense of self is composed of mostly habitual ways of perceiving, feeling, thinking and acting. That’s all. Those impermanent processes interact with other and give rise to a conditioned sense of being...

    Read more
  • Teisho: Case 51, Book of Equanimity, Hogen’s By Boat or Land

    MCZCFebruary 23, 20172 min read

    "The Dharma is rarely encountered, even in hundreds of millions of ages. Now we see it, hear it, receive and maintain it. May we fully realize the Tathagata’s true meaning."        Gatha On Opening the Dharma Description: There is a second birth that occurs, says Henry; a waking from a cocoon of dreams. Case 51 from the Book of Equanimity addresses this birth. Inspired by a line from ‘On Opening the Dharma,’ Henry starts by noting that...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: It’s Not About You

    MCZCFebruary 21, 20172 min read

    Of all the adventures, the greatest is the one that begins with letting go of the self. Brief excerpt from Yamada Koun’s talks on the Shinjinmei... Dogen wrote the following waka poem: I hear water dripping from the eaves: Since there is no mind, That dripping is my self! If I believe that the mind has some substance I am mistaken. Mind is empty. Here Dôgen hears the sound of rain dripping from the eaves, and realizes that the mind has...

    Read more
  • The Suffering of Self, Part 1 of 4, by David Loy

    MCZCFebruary 18, 20175 min read

    Buddhism isn’t about helping us become well-adjusted. A socially well-adjusted ego-self is still a sick ego-self, for there remains something problematical about it. It is still infected by dukkha. If someone asked you to summarize the teachings of the Buddha, what would you say? For most Buddhists, probably the first thing that would come to mind is the four noble (or “ennobling”) truths: dukkha, its causes, its cessation (better known as nirvana), and the eightfold path that...

    Read more
  • Teisho: Continuation Case 50, Book of Equanimity, Seppo’s What Is This?

    MCZCFebruary 16, 20172 min read

    "If we could all just reside in our real self, we would be infinite.” “They are so imponderable, that you cannot ponder them. So what do you do? You sit, and you swallow the koan, and you wait. All things come to those who wait" ~ Henry Shukman Description: Henry delivers this talk on Rohatsu, the auspicious day of Buddha’s awakening.  He states: “Koans can be charming little stories, but are more often interpreted as knots...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: The Six Virtues

    MCZCFebruary 14, 20172 min read

    They may be understood more as six overlapping, unfolding, but loose, endlessly repeatable stages. The “paramitas” are often translated as “perfections” but that may sound a little unattainable. They are... dana - generosity: giving freely. sila - ethical restraint, guided by the precepts: in sum, refraining from harm kshanti - patience: with the vicissitudes of life, and with our practice virya - diligence, constancy: the Sanskrit word is cognate with both strength, virility and virtue, and connotes steadiness, fortitude:...

    Read more
  • Religion as Umbrella, Religion as Path, by David R Loy

    MCZCFebruary 11, 20174 min read

    For Buddhism, the issue is whether “salvation” is to be achieved by clinging to doctrines and rituals that offer the possibility of a postmortem paradise, or by following a spiritual roadmap that can transform us here and now. In his great book, The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker suggests that religions claiming knowledge of an afterlife create a “vital lie” and attempts to evade death and thus end up crippling us in life. But is religion...

    Read more
  • Teisho: Rohatsu: Case 50, Book of Equanimity, Seppo’s What Is This? (Part 5 of 5)

    MCZCFebruary 9, 20172 min read

    "It’s a series of graces falling like blows on the crown of the head." "... the inevitability of failure in Zen practice—error and mistake are the mulch which allows our humanity to grow ..." ~ Henry Shukman Description: This final teisho of the Rohatsu sesshin follows an early morning ceremony that commemorates  Shakymuni’s awakening.  Henry notes that each and every koan is a manifestation of Buddha’s awakening. Many koans actually ask some version of the question: If Bodhidharma...

    Listen to the talk
footer support banner image

Support Mountain Cloud

You can show your gratitude for Mountain Cloud events, retreats, podcasts and other teachings by making a one-time gift, or by becoming a supporting member.

Donate to Mountain Cloud Become a Member