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: 2nd Revisitation of Case 53, Book of Equanimity: Obaku’s Drinkers

    MCZCApril 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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  • Message from Henry: Brief Bulletin

    MCZCApril 4, 20173 min read

    A day without work, a day without food. This week we have our first work retreat going on at Mountain Cloud. This is more or less the first phase of the “First Phase” of our development plans. A crew of varying size is working on moving Cabin 1 and creating the new maintenance shed out of it, in preparation for the construction of our residency “cottage” later in the year. Master Hyakujo lived to the ripe...

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  • Foreword to Flowing Bridge: The Miscellaneous Koans, by Ruben Habito, Part 2 of 3

    MCZCApril 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

    MCZCMarch 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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  • Message from Henry: The Third Paramita – Kshanti, Patience, part 1 of 3

    MCZCMarch 28, 20173 min read

    ....there is a peace, wellness and intrinsic joy that is not dependent on conditions, and that compels us to forget what we thought ourselves to be, and instead live for whatever benefit we can offer other beings. Fortitude in adversity, temperance in prosperity, said Francis Bacon, the great Elizabethan essayist and Renaissance man. To withstand the pressures, disappointments, frustrations that the world inevitably tests us with, and not be pulled away from the "truth" –...

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  • Foreword to Flowing Bridge: The Miscellaneous Koans, by Ruben Habito, Part 1 of 3

    MCZCMarch 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

    MCZCMarch 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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  • Message from Henry: The Great Way

    MCZCMarch 21, 20172 min read

    When we taste the great way, we know that falsehood is an impossibility – all is already revealed, in intimacy and completeness. This piece continues Henry's discussion of the six paramitas. Each paramita is a pointer to the great way. It perfectly embodies it. By following its guidance, we can find the reality of the great way. Just by refraining from the kinds of harm indicated in the second paramita, sila, we can get a...

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  • The Practice of Zen, By Ruben Habito

    MCZCMarch 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

    MCZCMarch 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,...

    Listen to the talk
  • Message from Henry: Sila

    MCZCMarch 14, 20173 min read

    ...the practice makes us stand for various things, two of which fall under this second paramita – namely, truth (so far as it can be ascertained) and kindness. The second paramita is sila – ethical living, practicing restraint, especially refraining from the five grave errors, namely killing, stealing, lying, misusing sex, and intoxication. Politics, naturally, are an aspect of ethics. Although in the zendo our primary concern is helping people along a path of unification...

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  • The Suffering of Self, Part 4 of 4, by David Loy

    MCZCMarch 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

    MCZCMarch 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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  • Message from Henry: Six Paramitas

    MCZCMarch 7, 20173 min read

    ...they (paramitas) are actually based on a deep acceptance of imperfection. A little exploration of the six paramitas... the so-called “perfections,” or virtues, or qualities, or good approaches to practice. Right off the bat, since these qualities or attributes are called "perfections," the first thing to acknowledge is that they are actually based on a deep acceptance of imperfection. Humans and attempts at perfection don’t always mix so well. It's often bad news when people...

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