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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  • Sample Sesshin Schedules

    MCZCFebruary 7, 20171 min read

    Schedules for Sesshins and the Weekend Intro Retreat   Multi-day Sesshin Sample Schedule (for 5-7 day retreats) Opening day 4.00 to 6 pm Arrival, find your accommodation and settle in 6 pm Dinner 7.30 to 9 pm Introduction and orientation / Sitting Daily 5:00 am Wake up: tea and coffee 5:30-5.45 Walking outside 6:00 Kentan – morning greeting Sitting 7.45 Breakfast 8:15 Work practice 9:30Rest 10:00 Sitting 10:25 Talk (teisho) 11:00 Sitting    12:00 Lunch 1:30 pm Tea (self-service) 2:00 Yoga/movement practice 2:30 Sitting 4:00 Outside walking and break 4:45 Sitting 6:00 Supper 7:30 Sitting 9:00 Daily closing / retire Closing Day As...

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  • Message from Henry: Doubt and Humility

    MCZCFebruary 7, 20171 min read

    ...humility is the cure not just for doubt as a hindrance, but for many of our ills. Pure Land Buddhists say the hindrance of doubt is self-generated. Doubt involves some measure of unwillingness to give the Way the benefit of the doubt – a reluctance to let go of what we think we know. It may involve a grain of pride. On the other hand, humility is the cure not just for doubt as a hindrance, but...

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  • Teisho: Rohatsu: Case 49, Book of Equanimity, Tôzan and the Memorial Service (Part 4 of 5)

    MCZCFebruary 2, 20172 min read

    "Avoid seeking elsewhere, for that is far from yourself. Now I travel alone, everywhere I meet it. Now it is me, now I am not it. It must be thus understood to merge with thusness." ~ Tozan "... There is no other other essential reality, there is “just this,” beyond any description ..." ~ Henry Shukman Description: Case 49: When Tôzan held a memorial service for Ungan before his portrait, he mentioned the episode with the portrait. A monk...

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  • Message from Henry: A Clear Mind and Heart

    MCZCJanuary 31, 20171 min read

    “Just sitting” practice (shikantaza) is also sometimes described as the practice of “doing nothing.” Doing nothing doesn’t mean that nothing is going on. Rather, we become clear that whatever is going on, we don’t need to do anything about it. ***** What fills the gap (if there is one) between awakening and ordinary life is love, appreciation, tenderness, caring. Then eventually there isn’t a gap any more. ***** From the perspective of a clear mind and heart, perhaps every...

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  • The Earth as Witness: International Dharma Teachers’ Statement on Climate Change, by David R Loy

    MCZCJanuary 28, 20178 min read

    ...craving, aversion, and delusion are also the root causes of climate change. Climate change is perhaps humanity’s greatest teacher yet about how these mental forces, when unchecked in ourselves and our institutions, cause harm to other people and the living environment. 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 150 Dharma teachers from...

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  • Teisho: Rohatsu: Case 48, Book of Equanimity, Vimalakirti’s “Not-Two” (Part 3 of 5)

    MCZCJanuary 26, 20172 min read

    Then Manjusri asked Vimalakirti, "All of us have finished giving our explanations. Now you should give your explanation. What does it mean that the Bodhisattva enters the Dharma-gate of Not-Two?" Vimalakirti remained silent. ~ from Case 48 "...  what is that roar of silence? ..." ~ Henry Shukman Description: Henry uses a computer software metaphor for describing practice: Zen Practice is about changing our software, running a new operating system, with the main feature that it doesn’t generate...

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  • Message from Henry: Koan Training in the West

    MCZCJanuary 24, 20173 min read

    We have a tendency in the West to understand Buddhist meditation practice as primarily an individual effort for individual benefits. It’s certainly true that we ourselves must do the “heavy-lifting” of maintaining a practice, yet it’s a communal practice... Two points about koan training in the West: 1. Keeping koan training “true” -- in the sense of upright, aligned with its intention. One way to understand this is as follows: The meditation teacher Shinzen Young says there are...

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  • Teisho: Rohatsu: Gateless Gate and Doubt (Part 2 of 5)

    MCZCJanuary 19, 20172 min read

    Zen makes the mind of Buddha its foundation. It makes no gate, the gate of dharma. If it is no gate from the start, how can we pass through it? Haven’t you ever heard…things that come in through the gate are not family treasures. Description: In this second talk of the Rohatus sesshin Henry continues to look at Mu with the help of Mumon’s Preface to the Gateless Gate. In this talk, Heny focuses on doubt....

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  • Message from Henry: Poem from Sonnenhof

    MCZCJanuary 17, 20171 min read

    The snow falls like so many old ideas long forgotten, like so many words that once meant so much and now, who needs them?   Image: Winter, CC0 Public Domain, from Pixabay.com

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  • The Bodhisattva Path in the Trump Era, by David Loy, Part 2 of 2

    MCZCJanuary 14, 201713 min read

    ...our task is to do the very best that we can, not knowing if anything we do is going to make any difference whatsoever. Click here to read Part 1. The second thing I want to talk about is perhaps the most important thing that Buddhism has to offer us at this particular point: the bodhisattva path. The most essential thing about the bodhisattva path is that the bodhisattva has a double practice, or a two-sided practice. On...

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  • Teisho: Rohatsu: Mu Koan (Part 1 of 5)

    MCZCJanuary 12, 20171 min read

    The great way has no barrier There are a thousand different roads If you pass through this barrier once You will walk this universe alone.         ~ Mumon Description: In this opening talk of our Rohatsu sesshin, Henry explores the Why, What and How of the koan Mu, which has come to be called the gateless barrier of the Zen sect.  Henry poses these simple questions: Why do we do this practice? What are...

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  • Message from Henry: Occupant or Host

    MCZCJanuary 10, 20172 min read

    ...our practice can over time become more like the ability to play host to whatever kind of experience arises. It’s so easy to get blown off course in practice. In fact although there may be periods when we are staying true to the Path, most of the time it can be a matter of repeated course-correction. For example, we start practicing, and after some time trying to settle into it, we may start to taste good, quiet...

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  • The Bodhisattva Path in the Trump Era, by David Loy, Part 1 of 2

    MCZCJanuary 9, 201711 min read

    So how much has the election of Donald Trump shaken us up, and maybe, in the process, is it waking us up in a way that the election of Hillary Clinton would not have done? Nov. 22, 2016  It’s been two weeks today since the election, and many of us are still in a state of shock — traumatized, disheartened if not depressed, anxious, angry, fearful and somewhat confused, wondering what’s going to come next...

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  • Spiritual Practice for a Global Sangha, by Ruben Habito, Part 6

    MCZCJanuary 7, 20174 min read

    ...we embrace all that sangha is, which is none other than the reality that we are as interconnected with one another and with all living beings. The Maria Kannon Sangha Here in Dallas, Texas, we are blessed to have a community of persons who come together to practice Zen meditation on a regular basis, at a small zendō we call the Maria Kannon Zen Center. As “Kannon” is the Buddhist icon of compassion, “Maria” is the Christian...

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