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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  • Buddhism in the West, by Maria Reis Habito, Part 3

    MCZCAugust 22, 20168 min read

    Even though the development of Buddhism in the West followed different trajectories in different countries, there are certain common characteristics. One of them is the emphasis on an existential and meditative search for new ways of living. Click here to read Part 1 and Part 2 of Buddhism in the West Buddhism comes to the West Buddhist source texts became known in Europe only in the 19th.century, but enthusiastic reports about Chinese civilization and religions by the Jesuit...

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  • Buddhism in the West, by Maria Reis Habito, Part 2

    MCZCAugust 19, 201611 min read

    In Buddhist teaching, the notion of an independent, individual self is the root of the illusion and suffering because it gives rise to distinction between self and other, and with that to likes and aversions... it leads us to behave in ways that create suffering for ourselves and for others, in ways that disregard our deep interconnectedness.  Click here to read Part 1 of Buddhism in the West. Indian and Asian Beginnings The canonical stories paint a very...

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  • Teisho: What are people for?

    MCZCAugust 18, 20161 min read

    "I have a function, it’s seen in the twinkling of an eye.” ~ Kyogen "... we are not simply aware of the universe, we are the universe becoming aware of itself ..." Description: Having overheard a youth ask the question, Henry picks it up as a theme for this  teisho: what people are people for?  He explores Master Kyogen’s awakening, and the critical meetings with his teacher Isan, and elder dharma brother Kyozan, that followed.  Henry shares stories...

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  • Message from Henry: Middle Way

    MCZCAugust 16, 20162 min read

    Far better to throw away both emptiness and all things.  --Mumon Last time I sat with my teacher Joan Rieck Roshi she mentioned a Buddhist teaching: “Don’t be attached to Dharmas, don’t be attached to no-dharmas.” This is a perfect statement of practice - but maybe takes a little unpacking. Our ordinary sense of things, of phenomena as phenomena, is blind to things not being things, to phenomena not being phenomena. Most of us might hear such...

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  • Buddhism in the West, by Maria Reis Habito, Part 1

    MCZCAugust 15, 20166 min read

    Does Buddhist spirituality in the West lead to self-indulgence, rather than self-realization? “I am not religious, but I’m spiritual”. This is a commonly heard statement, especially among younger people, many of whom are disaffected with organized religion, but seek some form of secular spirituality.  For many Westerners who would describe themselves in the above way, the teaching of Buddhism holds great attraction.  Different from the Abrahamic religions, Buddhism is not based on a revelation by God,...

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  • Buddhism for a Post-Axial Age, Review of David Loy’s A New Buddhist Path, Part 4

    MCZCAugust 12, 20166 min read

    This post concludes Ruben Habito's review of A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution and Ethics in the Modern World by David Loy. Click to read Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. The portrayal of a “Buddhism for a post-Axial” age that David Loy undertakes in this book, which is no other than a path of awakening that traverses the middle way between the two poles of transcendence and immanence, and that also brings these two...

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  • Teisho: Lineage (Part 3 of 3)

    MCZCAugust 11, 20161 min read

    "Lineage is simply the continuum of practicing humans.”  Description: Henry In this last teisho in the lineage series Henry explores what practice actually is, for human beings. He shows us that Zen points to who/what we find ourselves to be, once we are less compelled by our relentless and isolating sense of self-identity. When looking at the possibilities of Zen practice, Henry asks, what reality are we talking about? What is it?  Who is it? He takes...

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  • Message from Henry: Tree Truth

    MCZCAugust 9, 20162 min read

    Sit like a tree, without desires. In conversation recently with a friend who is a linguist and ecologist I learned that the words “true” and “tree” are cognate. Drus is the ancient Greek word for “oak”; dris is Sanskrit for “tree”; “tree” and “Druid” in English are related (a Druid is a “tree-person” or “tree–worshipper”), and tree and true come from one and the same Indo-European root, which shows up across western Eurasia. This offers a way...

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  • My Real Dwelling, Ikkyū Sōjun

    MCZCAugust 8, 20161 min read

    One short pause between The leaky-road here and The never-leaking Way there: If it rains, let it rain! If it storms, let it storm! **** My real dwelling Has no pillars And no roof either So rain cannot soak it And wind cannot blow it down! Two poems by the famous poet and zen master 一休 宗純 Ikkyū Sōjun” (1394–1481) Ikkyu 一休 is a dharma name he was given by his master Kaso meaning “one pause or one...

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  • Buddhism for a Post-Axial Age, Review of David Loy’s A New Buddhist Path, Part 3

    MCZCAugust 5, 20168 min read

    ...in seeing through and overcoming the delusion of a sense of self as separate from the natural world, provides a key toward addressing and overcoming the roots of our ecologic crisis. Ruben Habito reviews A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution and Ethics in the Modern World by David Loy, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2015.  Click to read Part 1 and Part 2 of his review. What is particularly insightful, thought-provoking, and challenging in David Loy’s work is his...

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  • Teisho: Lineage (Part 2 of 3)

    MCZCAugust 4, 20161 min read

    "Our practice is about being human. Zen is a label put on a practice of being peacefully, thoroughly human.”  Description: Henry continues with his discussion about lineage. He opens with the thesis that “Mahayana Buddhism is really about lineage.”   He describes some of the concerns and misunderstandings westerners have regarding lineage, and delves into more depth about the unparalleled type of meeting that can occur between student and teacher.  Henry gives historical background about individualism in the...

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  • Message from Henry: Dharma Gate

    MCZCAugust 2, 20162 min read

    Everything is a Dharma door, every phenomenon, every experience. Every moment opens to infinity. The other day my son took me to the gym where he likes to work out. Afterward he wanted to go to the sauna. We sat down on the wooden boards. They were fiercely hot. “Wow,” I said. Even through the swim shorts it was a strong sensation, and my first impulse was to move or even get up. “Dad!” he said with...

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  • Moon and Sky in a Dewdrop, from Gengokoan

    MCZCAugust 1, 20161 min read

    The attainment of enlightenment is like the moon reflected on the water. The moon does not get wet, and the surface of the water is not broken. For all the breadth and vastness of its light, the moon comes to rest in a small patch of water. The whole moon and the sky in its entirety come to rest in a single dewdrop on a grass tip--a mere pin point of water. Enlightenment does not destroy man...

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  • Buddhism for a Post-Axial Age, Review of David Loy’s A New Buddhist Path, Part 2

    MCZCJuly 29, 20167 min read

    Loy forges a middle way between...a “transcendentalist” view that looks to Buddhism for an escape from the toils and troubles of this world... and an “immanentist” view that regards Buddhism as a source of empowerment for equipping us frail... beings with the props ...for navigating through...a brutal and competitive world...     Ruben Habito reviews A New Buddhist Path: Enlightenment, Evolution and Ethics in the Modern World by David Loy, Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2015.  Click to read Part...

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