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.

  • Teisho: Sesshin Day 1, Koan Mu (Jôshû’s Dog)

    MCZCJune 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...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: Seize the Jewel

    MCZCJune 13, 20173 min read

    We’re not here for us. We’re here to dispel illusion - our own primarily, and then we see where we go from there. Sometimes we think we like practice, we know what it is and believe it’s good for us. We have no idea. The dragon sleeps with the mani-jewel in its jaws. The wish-fulfilling jewel is the dharma: the one fact that is no fact and all facts, and never changes yet is all...

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

    MCZCJune 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...

    Read more
  • Teisho: Tokusan and Consciousness

    MCZCJune 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...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: Most Foolish Person

    MCZCJune 6, 20172 min read

    It is said: Someone who does not know is Buddha. In a book on Soen Nakagawa Roshi, I recently read a story about a master who gave his servant a staff, saying “This staff is for the most foolish person in the land. Find someone more foolish than yourself, then give it to him or her. Until then, always keep it with you." Feeling mortified, the servant took the staff and searched high and low,...

    Read more
  • 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...

    Read more
  • 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...

    Listen to the talk
  • 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?...

    Read more
  • 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...

    Read more
  • 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...

    Listen to the talk
  • 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...

    Read more
  • 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...

    Watch the video
  • 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...

    Listen to the talk
  • 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....

    Read more
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