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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  • Message from Henry: “Selfless”

    MCZCNovember 8, 20162 min read

    To study the self is to forget the self; to forget the self is to drop the body and mind of self and other... -Dogen There are different meanings of “selflessness.” In common parlance we call someone selfless who acts on behalf of others, thinking little about themselves. If their behavior, in thought, word and deed, shows that their primary concern is for others, not themselves, they are “selfless.” Secondly, in meditative Dharma training there is a...

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  • Birth and Death 3

    MCZCNovember 7, 20161 min read

    It is a mistake to suppose that birth turns into death. Birth is a phase that is an entire period of itself, with its own past and future. For this reason, in buddha-dharma, birth is understood as no-birth. Death is a phase that is an entire period of itself, with its own past and future. For this reason, in buddha-dharma, death is understood as no-death. In birth there is nothing but birth and in death there is nothing...

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  • Is Zen Foreign?

    MCZCNovember 4, 20163 min read

    If you’re a Christian, Zen practice will make you a better Christian; if you’re a Jew it will make you a better Jew. A question that I’ve been asked several times, concerning the seeming “foreignness” of meditation and Zen. How foreign is it? And is it compatible with other traditions such as Judaism or Christianity, for example? The first response is a simple: yes, fully compatible. Since meditation is a way of opening up to our humanity ever...

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  • Teisho: Ruben Habito: Zen is Countercultural, Zen is Queer

    MCZCNovember 3, 20161 min read

    Description: A powerful, luminous talk by Ruben Habito Roshi, one of Henry’s teachers. He takes three culturally conditioned drives – to have, to know, and to experience pleasure – and shows with force and clarity how Zen deconstructs these, challenging our cultural norms, and delivers us, through a process of “stopping and seeing,” to a state of unshakeable inner peace and quiet joy, while not closing us off from the sufferings of the world. Post & Featured...

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  • Message from Henry: Dharma and the Waves

    MCZCNovember 1, 20163 min read

    If you got it right, the wave would pick you up and carry you a hundred yards or more, your face inches from the frothy surface, spume churning behind your shoulders. The beaches of Cornwall where my father used to take his children each summer were lovely. At high tide many of them would be no more than steep narrow strips of coarse sand. But at low tide they opened out in broad expanses. One in...

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  • Rio Grande Mindfulness Institute (RGMI) Brings Educators to MCZC

    MCZCOctober 31, 20161 min read

    On Saturday, October 22, Henry Shukman led a full house of Santa Fe public school educators in mindfulness exercises at Mountain Cloud.  They discussed the importance of having a "full cup" in order to be most effective with those they serve as educators and counselors. This half day workshop brought together two great oranizations, Mindful Education Santa Fe (MESF) and the Rio Grande Mindfulness Institute (RGMI), a project of Mountain Cloud Zen Center, John Braman, director Guided meditation and walking meditation periods...

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  • Rio Grande Mindfulness Institute: Living from Happiness Interview with Henry Shukman and John Braman

    MCZCOctober 28, 20161 min read

    Listen to Melanie Harth's recent interview with Henry Shukman and John Braman for her weekly radio program Living from Happiness broadcast on KSFR, 101.5 FM. Melanie, Henry and John have a wide ranging discussion about Zen, Mountain Cloud and the new Rio Grande Mindfulness Institute (RGMI) which supports public and private school teachers with mindfulness practice in northern New Mexico and beyond. Click here to listen. Melanie Harth, PhD, is a psychologist-trained transformational coach, writer for The Huffington Post,...

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  • Teisho: Case 37 Book of Equanimity, Isan’s “Karma-Consciousness”

    MCZCOctober 27, 20162 min read

    Isan asked Kyôzan, "Suppose a man asks you, saying, 'All living beings are tossed in a vast karma-consciousness; does this karma consciousness have any origin from which it arises?' How would you check him?" Kyôzan said, "If such a person appears, I call out to him, ‘Mr. So-and-so!' When he turns his head, instantly I say, 'What is this?' If he hesitates, then I say to him, ‘Not only is there a vast karma-consciousness, but also...

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  • A Brief Message from Henry

    MCZCOctober 25, 20161 min read

    Perhaps the deeper we go, the more alike we become. That’s a happy thought.

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  • Birth and Death 2

    MCZCOctober 24, 20161 min read

    Those who want to be free from birth and death should understand these words... If you search for buddha outside birth and death, it will be like trying to go to the southern country of Yue with your spear heading towards the north, or like trying to see the Big Dipper while you are facing south; you will cause yourself all the more to remain in birth and death and loose the way of emancipation. Just understand...

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  • Birth and Death 1

    MCZCOctober 21, 20161 min read

    Because a buddha is in birth and death, there is no birth and death. It is said also... Because a buddha is not in birth and death, a buddha is not deluded by birth and death. These statements are the essence of the words of the two Zen masters,  Jiashan and Dingshan*.  You should certainly not neglect them, because they are the words of those who attained the way. * Jiashan and Dingshan are ninth century Chinese masters.   Translated by Arnold...

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  • Teisho: Case 36 Book of Equanimity, Master Ba is ill (Part 2 of 2)

    MCZCOctober 20, 20162 min read

    "Sun-faced Buddha, Moon-faced Buddha." Description: Henry opens with questions: In these geopolitically turbulent times, how do we open to all that exists? To all that we may not like? How do we exclude nothing?  Henry then continues opening up the koan, Master Ba is ill.  Some scholars see Baso as having played a pivotal role in the history of Zen.  Baso’s intent in this brief koan is to point to an entry place, to create a place...

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  • More on The Path

    MCZCOctober 17, 20161 min read

    "All created things are impermanent." Seeing this with insight, One becomes disenchanted with suffering. This is the path to purity. "All created things are suffering." Seeing this with insight, One becomes disenchanted with suffering. This is the path to purity. "All things are not-self." Seeing this with insight, One becomes disenchanted with suffering. This is the path to purity.         Text from The Dhammapada, translation by Gil Fronsdil, Shambhala Publications, 2005; page 72 Images: Tawny Owl and Blue 277 by Flickpicpete, CC by-ND 2.0 from Flickr.com...

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  • Beyond McMindfulness, by David Loy and Ron Purser, Part 2

    MCZCOctober 14, 20165 min read

    Right Mindfulness is guided by intentions and motivations based on self-restraint, wholesome mental states, and ethical behaviors — goals that include but supersede stress reduction and improvements in concentration. Read part 1 of Beyond McMindfulness. Most scientific and popular accounts circulating in the media have portrayed mindfulness in terms of stress reduction and attention-enhancement. These human performance benefits are heralded as the sine qua non of mindfulness and its major attraction for modern corporations. But mindfulness, as...

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