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: Book of Equanimity Case 21, Ungan Sweeps the Ground

    MCZCApril 7, 20162 min read

    Description: Case 21, Book of Equanimity: Ungan Sweeps the Ground When Ungan was sweeping the ground, Dôgo said, "You are working hard, aren’t you.” Ungan said, "You should know there is one who does not work hard." Dôgo said, “Is that so? You mean there is a second moon?" Ungan raised his bamboo broom and said, “What number moon is this?" Dôgo was silent. Gensha said, "That is precisely the second moon." Unmon said, "The man-servant greets...

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  • Message from Henry: A Little Word

    MCZCApril 5, 20163 min read

    Zen is not a palliative. Zen is not a contentment device. It is not a path to bliss, or to some Lotus-land in the distant West. It is a path to life itself. Zen is a small word, and has been visiting our language for less than a century, which is a short time. Yet it has already had to live through the kind of abuse and misuse you’d think would take much longer to...

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  • Ninth and Tenth Oxherding Pictures, by Ruben Habito

    MCZCApril 4, 20164 min read

    The ninth stage is described as a return to the source. Now, after having forgotten both my “self” and the “world” (that is, what is thought to be “outside of myself,” what emerges? There’s a bamboo shoot. There is a plum blossom. There is a rock beside a gently flowing stream. Beyond that we don’t see anything. This is just the realization of the way things are, as they are, in their naturalness. It is...

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  • Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Oxherding Pictures, by Ruben Habito

    MCZCApril 1, 20162 min read

      The sixth stage is riding the ox home. We are now able to feel that we are on our way home. We can ride the ox and it doesn’t try to jump and throw us away like a bucking bronco anymore. It is now fully one with us, and we are comfortable riding the ox. But still, there is more to come.           The seventh stage is about forgetting the...

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  • Teisho: Book of Equanimity Case 20, Jizo’s “Most Intimate”

    MCZCMarch 31, 20162 min read

    “Real spirituality is about going beyond who we think we are”  Description: Case 20, Book of Equanimity: Jizô's "Most Intimate" Jizô asked Hôgen, "Where are you going, senior monk?" Hôgen said, "I am on pilgrimage, following the wind." Jizô said, "What are you on pilgrimage for?" Hôgen said, "I don't know." Jizô said, "Not knowing is most intimate." Hôgen suddenly attained great enlightenment. Henry explores “Not knowing is most intimate.” There are two kinds not-knowing in Zen:  first...

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  • Message from Henry: TLC

    MCZCMarch 29, 20163 min read

    When we sit, whether we know it or not, we are recognizing and acknowledging the many, many things that create our existence. Some people come to practice to get enlightened. Some come because they want to be less troubled and distressed, less subject to anxiety, depression, stress. Some want to be more at ease in the face of death. Some want to have better sleep or digestion, or to relate with people better, or be...

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  • Fourth and Fifth Oxherding Pictures, by Ruben Habito

    MCZCMarch 28, 20162 min read

    The fourth stage is now the catching of the ox. After having sighted it we go closer to it and are maybe even able to lasso it and as the picture in one version shows, the little child holds a rope around the ox’s neck. Now, we have the ox closer at hand. But still the ox is unwieldy and it can still run away from us. It is still not under control. We have...

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  • Second and Third Oxherding Pictures, by Ruben Habito

    MCZCMarch 25, 20164 min read

    The second stage is described as “finding the ox’s traces.” Now one gets a sense of where one may go in pursuing that question and is inspired to go on further. The ox here is a symbol of the true self in the same way that the circle also is the true self. And so now one sees traces, like hoof prints, or perhaps some droppings, that makes one suspect that the ox must be...

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  • Teisho: Mu Koan

    MCZCMarch 24, 20161 min read

    “Clearly I have seen: no person, no Buddha, not one thing. And what is it after all? Nothing special. Just this, just this.” Yamada Koun Roshi Description: Koan A monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog have Buddha nature?”  Joshu answered, “Mu.” Traditionally the first talk during a sesshin is about the great “barrier koan” Mu. That’s what this talk focuses upon. Henry asks, How do we forget the self?  It’s not that the self disappears and...

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  • Message from Henry: Let it Burn

    MCZCMarch 22, 20164 min read

    Do your practice. Whatever it takes, learn to sit in the fire of the Three Treasures. Pick and choose no more. Whole Ox Zen. Let it burn. Last week I talked about “stealing the Dharma:” the student must steal the Dharma from the teacher. How do you do it? You come to dokusan. As some masters advise, any time dokusan is offered, go. Don’t miss a chance. It’s the chief privilege of becoming a student:...

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  • First Oxherding Picture, by Ruben Habito

    MCZCMarch 21, 20162 min read

    The first picture in the classic versions depicts a little child who is supposed to be perplexed, or is searching for something. An inscription in Chinese characters goes, “In the beginning, suddenly emerged from confusion.” Another description found in other versions of this same first picture of a child just beginning to open its eyes and wonder about things is “the awakening of the fact.” Our version, sketched by an artist friend of the Maria...

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  • The Zen Oxherding Pictures: Overview, by Ruben Habito

    MCZCMarch 18, 20164 min read

    We look at the ten oxherding pictures as a mirror that can tell us where we are in our practice. “The Ten Oxherding Pictures” is a set of ten calligraphic works that portray the different stages in the journey to the realization of the truth, or the realization of the true self. I will first give a general introduction, summarizing each of the ten so that we have a broad picture. We look at the...

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  • Teisho: Book of Equanimity Case 28, Gokoku’s “Three Disgraces” Part 2 of 2

    MCZCMarch 17, 20162 min read

    “That’s why we are here--to make our experience of the world fuller… therefore, to be more at peace... to be able to act not harmfully.” Description: Case 28: Book of Equanimity: Gokoku’s "Three Disgraces” Part 2 of 2 A monk asked Gokoku, “How about when a crane perches on a withered pine tree?” Gokoku said, “It is a disgrace when seen from the ground.” The monk asked, “What about when every drop of water is frozen...

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  • Message from Henry: Crazy Wisdom

    MCZCMarch 15, 20162 min read

    The heart of the Buddha is lineage. I recently read the strange and fascinating, The Mahasiddha and his Idiot servant, by “Sir” John Riley Perks, who was personal butler to Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Trungpa showered Perks, an Englishman, with many honors, courtly and military, bestowed by his self-styled Kalapa Court: “Commodore,” “Warrior,” “Major,” “Chamberlain,” “Knight,” etc., Perks was all of them and more. The “crazy wisdom” portrayed in the book has echoes of Carlos Castaneda,...

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