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.

  • Dharmatalk: Diamond Sutra and Living Beings with Maria Habito

    MC PodcastMarch 17, 20231 min read

    "Abiding no-where mind comes forth." Maria Habito returns to Mountain Cloud's zoom zendo and talks about the Diamond Sutra. When we enter deep silence, the diamond cuts through every notion we carry. It can show us intimate awareness of no self, no other, no sentient beings and no time. In this talk, Maria focuses on Living Beings, which refers to those who are not yet enlightened. However many species of living beings there are, Bodhisattvas...

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  • Message from Valerie: Practice-Awakening

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 15, 20232 min read

    Something is happening at Mountain Cloud. Practice. Or, as Dogen put it, practice-awakening.  On Sunday morning, springing forward in daylight savings time, we gathered in the zendo and online for shared practice. It was quiet. The silence held us and spread out. Outside, clouds settled in close, and even the birds and critters seemed hushed. Mountain-still sitting.  What is that silence? Joshu said, “It’s alive!” Another master called it “a silence heard round the world.”...

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  • Longing to Belong, Shana Smith (Video)

    MCZCMarch 13, 20232 min read

    Shana relays a personal story—about walking her dogs while trying to listen to a dharma talk on her phone—as an example of how what we are seeking and longing for – is already right HERE. She explores the koan “Seijo’s Soul Is Separated” Gateless Gate Case 35) as a pointer to seeing into the reality our non-dualistic true self, which helps us compassionately understand that we, by our very nature, belong to the world. Shana...

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  • Life-and-death – the one and the many, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCMarch 13, 20231 min read

    On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, Valerie begins and ends with gratitude for the life and practice of a longtime practitioner, a woman of Ukrainian descent who died several months into the war. We hear the teaching of Karen Boreham on practice-awakening, unconditional love, beauty, bravery, empty-handed acceptance, and death. In between, Valerie takes up Case 149 from Dogen’s “Treasury of the True Dharma Eye.” The koan presents this...

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  • Rohatsu 2022: Day 6, Vibes, Awakening and What then? with Henry Shukman

    MC PodcastMarch 7, 20231 min read

    For this final Rohatsu talk, Henry looks at three questions. What are we doing here, just sitting with each other? What is awakening? and What then? We are living "it" every moment. And,

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  • Message from Valerie: Sangha as Treasure

    Valerie ForstmanMarch 6, 20232 min read

    Sitting at my desk, the Jemez mountains shimmering in the distance call to mind the sangha treasure: the community of practitioners - at Mountain Cloud and in the cloud - and the 10,000 myriad things, including the clouds gathered over the snow-capped mountains. Support all around. Each time we sit, we are immersed in the support of the Three Treasures: Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Buddha: The Awakened One and awakening itself - boundless, timeless, infinite possibilities,...

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  • Last Word, Part 2 with Henry Shukman

    MCZCMarch 6, 20231 min read

    Henry begins this talk by addressing a question that may nag at our practice: How at a time like this, with the world upended by the war in eastern Europe can we concern ourselves with koans? Continuing from his previous talk on March 3rd 2023, Henry returns to Case 13 of the Gateless Gate, providing additional commentary on the “Last Word.” Photo by Mark Paul Petrick

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  • Last Word, Part 1 with Henry Shukman

    MCZCMarch 6, 20231 min read

    Henry begins this dharma talk by connecting the heartbreaking upheaval in Ukraine with the three poisons of Buddhism: greed, aversion and ignorance. We watch, stunned and horrified, as these forces reshape our world. Although conflicts like that in the Ukraine may come as a sudden shock, we are all susceptible to these poisons, therefore our world is as well. In this talk from March 3, 2022, Henry Shukman explores "Tokusan Carries his Bowls," Case 13  from...

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  • Summer 2023 Retreat: In-person Payment

    MCZCMarch 1, 20230 min read

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  • Application for Summer 2023 Sesshin – Onsite Attendance

    MCZCMarch 1, 20233 min read

    Please fill out this application if you wish to attend our June 26-July2 summer sesshin in person. This applies to those who plan for indoor lodging onsite, camping on our land, or commuting from home or a local lodging venue. Due to space considerations, not all applicants will be accepted. Private students of our teachers and MCZC members have priority. That said, you may still apply if this doesn't apply to you. A six day...

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  • Message from Valerie: Spreading Seeds

    MCZCMarch 1, 20232 min read

    Setting up the zendo for the Intro Class this past Sunday, a longtime member asked if she could help. We spoke of the wind, blowing with an intensity unlike anywhere I’ve lived. “Yes,” she said. “It drove me crazy the first few years we lived here – until I realized that’s how seeds are spread.” A grateful moment, entrusting the day with its unsettling turmoil to nature’s great release. Entrusting ourselves to the moment at...

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  • Rohatsu 2022: Day 5, Cannot Get Wet, Cannot Get Dry with Valerie Forstman

    MC PodcastFebruary 28, 20231 min read

    In this talk from day 5 of the Rohatsu sesshin, Valerie picks up on the previous day’s talk by Henry where he presents the title and first line of the Heart Sutra. Turning to the figure of Kannon, Kanzeon, or Avalokiteshvara, bodhisattva of great compassion, Valerie asks, “What is compassion?” In response, she lifts up the phrase, “Just compassion,” then turns to a koan that addresses the heart of the matter: who we truly are....

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  • Dwelling nowhere – pointing the way, Valerie Forstman (Video)

    MCZCFebruary 26, 20231 min read

    Come, come, whoever you are,wanderer, worshiper, lover of leaving, it doesn't matter.Ours is not a caravan of despair.Come, even if you have broken your vow a hundred times.Come, come again, come. ~ Rumi In this talk from our February Zazenkai, Valerie turns to two Zen women, centuries apart. One, a wise old woman, known to us through a single encounter with a turning word; the other, a young Irish woman who entered a Japanese monastery, practiced...

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  • Buddha’s Parinirvana – The Great Unbinding,Teshin Matt Sweger (Video)

    MCZCFebruary 23, 20231 min read

    Celebrated on February 15, Teshin commemorates the passing on of the Buddha - parinirvana - and looks at the ways we understand death, the central question to be resolved in our lives. Teishin explores how we, as Zen practitioners, approach our own unbinding - how do we untangle the knot of self? What is it to be unbound? Teshin Matt Sweger is the resident teacher at the North Carolina Zen Center. He began his Zen...

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