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.
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Teisho: Sesshin Day 1, Koan Mu (Jôshû’s Dog)
June 15, 20171 min read
"This is a practice of allowing and loving." Description: This teisho is the first of the Spring 2017 sesshin. Traditionally, the first talk, during sesshin, is about the first koan, Mu, or “Jôshû’s Dog.” Henry begins by discussing prostrations and poses the questions, what does the term “buddha” mean?, which leads into why do we do a sesshin? (what are we doing, sitting all day, for days) and two great questions of zen—how to live as...
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Be Still & Know: A Zen Reading of a Biblical Saying, by Ruben Habito, Part 3 of 3
June 10, 20176 min read
Be Still and Know that... I AM. Read Part 1 and Part 2 of Be Still & Know My teacher Yamada Koun gives an account of his own experience of opening to this infinite and boundless “I am.” In 1953, he wrote to his own teacher, Soen Nakagawa, about how he was riding a train and reading a passage by Dogen that said, “The mind is no other than mountains and rivers, the great wide...
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Teisho: Tokusan and Consciousness
June 8, 20172 min read
We are born into this life, and we can decide that we know certain things about it. We can become convinced that we know enough… and therefore stop noticing that we have absolutely no idea what this is. Consciousness is Zen’s realm. ~ Henry Shukman Description: What is this experience called life? What is consciousness? Henry talks about how these questions form a major scientific quandary. We don’t know what consciousness is or where...
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Be Still & Know: A Zen Reading of a Biblical Saying, by Ruben Habito, Part 2 of 3
June 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...
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Teisho: Obaku’s Drinkers Revisited
June 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...
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Be Still & Know: A Zen Reading of a Biblical Saying, by Ruben Habito, Part 1 of 3
May 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...
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Special Presentation: Teisho by Yamada Ryoun Roshi
May 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...
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Sanbo Zen & Unconditional Well Being, Video Clip
May 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...
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Teisho: Buddha’s Heart
May 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...
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