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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  • If you are a Poet

    MCZCJanuary 15, 20161 min read

    ‘If you are a poet,’ you will see that there is a cloud in this sheet of paper. Without a cloud, there will be no rain; without rain, the trees cannot grow; and without trees, we cannot make paper.’ - Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh, **** “Without Now There would be no later Without Now There would be no before Without Now Before and later could not be joined In holy marriage. Now is the new year! Now is the past year! Forever One! Lets Celebrate it Now.” Photo and compilation by Rosa Bellino. Used...

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  • Teisho: Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen, Rohatsu Part 1 of 5

    MCZCJanuary 14, 20161 min read

    If we have not been able to make a relationship with our suffering, frustration and neuroses, the feasibility of transmission is … extremely remote. We have not even made a proper relationship with the most basic level of our experience.  — Chögyam Trungpa Description: Henry explores Hakuin Zenji’s Song of Zazen during this year’s Rohatsu sesshin. In this first of five teishos, Henry introduces us to Hakuins’ tremendous determination to find out who he really was. Henry...

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  • Message from Henry: Rewiring

    MCZCJanuary 12, 20164 min read

    We emerge from one womb when we are born. Then we construct a second one called “me.” This self seems to stay with us right through our lives. Sometimes the mind that seeks awakening (the “bodhi mind”) is active but it can’t bring about the right context to allow it to go through its process. We may have internal features in our personality, or external ones in our lives, or both, that make it hard for...

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  • Listening to the Buddha: how greed, ill-will and delusion are poisoning our institutions, Part 1 of 3

    MCZCJanuary 11, 20163 min read

    All institutions are the mirror image of the motivations that make them work. So when politics and economics are based on the worst aspects of human nature, the inevitable result are societies riddled with inequality and violence. This article, written by David R. Loy, first appeared in Open Democracy on May 12, 2014. As a Buddhist who’s passionate about social and political engagement, I’m fascinated by the contemporary relevance of Buddhist teaching. The Buddha didn’t say much about evil,...

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  • Withered Trees

    MCZCJanuary 8, 20161 min read

    Great Master Jisai of Tōsuzan in Jōshū, the story goes, is asked by a monk, Among withered trees does the moaning of dragons exist or not? The master says, I say that inside of skulls exists the lion’s roar. Dogen - Shōbōgenzō [Chapter Sixty-five] Image and creation by Rosa Bellino, used with her permission.

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  • Teisho: Zen’s Core

    MCZCJanuary 7, 20161 min read

    Description: In this illuminating teisho,  Henry explores the core of Zen training, using stories about Master Hyakujo and Winston Churchill, along with quotes from Muso Soseki  and Master Sheng-Yen, to elucidate Zen’s fundamental root. Post Image: Morning Dew Drops, by David Saddler, CC BY 2.0. Featured Image Credit: Zen Garden, by Rennette Stowe, CC BY 2.0.

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  • Message from Henry: Rice Cake

    MCZCJanuary 6, 20165 min read

    A monk asked Unmon: What is meant by the pronouncement "to go beyond the Buddha and ancestors"? Unmon answered: Country rice cake (kobyo).  --Hekiganroku, Case 77 Finding peace – after all, what could be better? To taste a peace beyond conditions, that pertains to all existence, eternal, infinite, filling the universe, and to discover that we ourselves are not separate from it – what balm for the human heart. A degree of belovedness, ease, rest, and fulfillment beyond...

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  • Teisho: Importance of Courage

    MCZCJanuary 1, 20162 min read

    Description: In this eloquent teisho, Henry talks about the necessity of courage in Zen practice.  When we sit, we divest ourselves of our habitual views, which block us from seeing clearly what’s going on within. During meditation practice, a multitude of feelings and thoughts may spin through our minds. Feelings of fear, sadness, anxiety, etc. bubble up to our surface awareness. Facing these often troubling feelings, requires courage—defined as an “attitude of acceptance” toward fear.  Once...

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  • Blue Mountain

    MCZCJanuary 1, 20161 min read

    Tozan, a famous Zen master, said: "The blue mountain is the father of the white cloud. The white cloud is the son of the blue mountain. All day long they depend on each other, without being dependent on each other. The white cloud is always the white cloud. The blue mountain is always the blue mountain." Photo and creation by Rosa Bellino, used with her permission.

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  • Teisho: Case 19 Book of Equanimity, Unmon’s Mt Sumeru, Part 3 of 3

    MCZCDecember 31, 20151 min read

    Description: Henry finishes his discussion of Unmon’s Mt Sumeru. In addition to cutting through our thought streams, Unmon’s powerful short phrase teachings also “ride the waves and sail the swells.” Henry describes how Unmon’s words go along with each student, reaching directly into the student’s understanding. Henry reads from Dogen and talks about the need to fully meet life—metaphorically, both at the peak of the mountain and in the depth of the ocean. Post Image: Sunset Ride, by...

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  • Message from Henry: Two Practice Tips

    MCZCDecember 29, 20153 min read

    Don’t be stingy. Our practice is a prayer for all beings: let’s be generous with it. 1. GENERAL This past week I happened to hear something several times, and I think it’s worth clarifying this point. Sometimes people ask whether, if they are doing some activity mindfully, with a deeper, clearer awareness than normal, doesn’t it “count” as meditation time. It may be work, or sport, or some other pastime. I’m sorry once again to be the...

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  • David R. Loy: Why We Love War

    MCZCDecember 28, 20157 min read

    ...the most important struggle is a spiritual one between ignorance and delusion, on the one side, and liberating wisdom on the other. And seeing the world primarily as a war between good and evil is one of our more dangerous delusions. War is hell, and today more than ever. Although high-tech weapons make it a videogame for some, those same weapons make it unbelievably destructive for many more. Whatever valor was once associated with hand-to-hand combat...

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  • When a Man is in a Boat at Sea

    MCZCDecember 25, 20151 min read

    When a man is in a boat at sea and looks back at the shoreline, it may seem to him as though the shore is moving. But when he fixes his gaze closely on the boat, he realizes it is the boat that is moving. In like manner,when a person tries to discern and affirm things with a confused notion or his body and mind, he makes the mistake of thinking his own mind, his own nature, is permanent and unchanging. If he...

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  • Teisho: Case 19 Book of Equanimity, Unmon’s Mt. Sumeru, Part 2 of 3

    MCZCDecember 24, 20151 min read

    Description: Henry continues his discussion of Unmon’s koan on Mt Sumeru. We learn more about Master Unmon, also known as Cloud Gate, founder of one of the five houses of zen. Unmon was famous for teaching with short phrases such as “Mt. Sumeru.” His phrases have the capacity to cut through our familiar thought streams, severing assumptions and conceptualizations while also covering the “whole of heaven and earth.” To illustrate this intriguing koan, Henry correlates the...

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