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: 2nd Revisitation of Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers
April 6, 20172 min read
Case 52: Ôbaku instructed the assembly and said, “You are all drinkers of lees [dregs]. If you continue to go on your Way like this, when will you have your ‘today’? Do you know that in this great empire of Tang there is no Zen master?” Now a monk came forward and said, “What would you say to the fact that in various places there are people who accept students and direct their assemblies?” Ôbaku said,...
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Foreword to Flowing Bridge: The Miscellaneous Koans, by Ruben Habito, Part 2 of 3
April 1, 20174 min read
Kensho is a realization, in all immediacy, of what the Heart Sutra affirms: Form is no other than Emptiness, Emptiness no other than Form. Read Part 1 of The Miscellaneous Koans As one continues Zen practice, enjoying the different manifestations of this first fruit in one’s life, there may come a moment, unexpected, unprepared for, whereby one is hit by a sudden flash of realization. “This is it!” As noted above, this could be a...
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Teisho: Revisitation of Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers
March 30, 20172 min read
Case 52: Ôbaku instructed the assembly and said, “You are all drinkers of lees [dregs]. If you continue to go on your Way like this, when will you have your ‘today’? Do you know that in this great empire of Tang there is no Zen master?” Now a monk came forward and said, “What would you say to the fact that in various places there are people who accept students and direct their assemblies?” Ôbaku said,...
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Foreword to Flowing Bridge: The Miscellaneous Koans, by Ruben Habito, Part 1 of 3
March 25, 20174 min read
This first fruit of Zen is about con-centration...coming together toward the center of one’s being or centering... The Zen experience of kensho, or “seeing one’s true nature,” is a pivotal point in a practitioner’s spiritual path. While for some it can be a spectacular event that takes one entirely by surprise, accompanied by spontaneous outbursts of laughter and tears, or both, for others it can be simply an unobtrusive, yet nonetheless momentous and life-changing, quiet,...
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Teisho: Henry Explores Reincarnation
March 23, 20173 min read
"If you think such a theory (that there is a soul that exits the body at death and re-enters another upon birth) constitutes the Buddha’s teaching, you are even more foolish than someone who picks up a roof tile thinking it’s a gold coin.” ~ Dogen "All other lives are not separate from you yourself. Where can you reincarnate? A grain of sand contains all time and space. When will you reincarnate?" ~ Henry Shukman...
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The Practice of Zen, By Ruben Habito
March 18, 20171 min read
Enjoy these wise words from Roshi Ruben Habito, Sanbo Zen Teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. This piece is taken from the MKZC website. As we look around us, we see how there is so much woundedness on different levels, individual, social and ecological. Some of us may already be engaged in tasks of social change or in some form of ecological action, yet in all this we also come to realize...
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Teisho: Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers
March 16, 20172 min read
Case 52: Ôbaku instructed the assembly and said, “You are all drinkers of lees [dregs]. If you continue to go on your Way like this, when will you have your ‘today’? Do you know that in this great empire of Tang there is no Zen master?” Now a monk came forward and said, “What would you say to the fact that in various places there are people who accept students and direct their assemblies?” Ôbaku said,...
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The Suffering of Self, Part 4 of 4, by David Loy
March 11, 20174 min read
Instead of being experienced as a sense of lack, the empty core becomes a place where there is now awareness of something other than, greater than, my usual sense of self. Read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 of The Suffering of Self. So what happens when we don’t run away from that hole at our core? That’s what we are doing when we meditate: we are “letting go” of all the physical and...
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Teisho: Case 52, Book of Equanimity: Sozan’s Dharma Body
March 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...
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