Dharma – Page 43 – Mountain Cloud Zen Center

The Dharma of Alienation: Part 1 of 2

New media technologies sometimes encourage a kind of “hyper-individualism” because we spend less and less time meeting and interacting with other people – often not even with members of our

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Enter…the Bodhisattva, Part 2 of 2

Is there something specific within the Buddhist tradition that can bring these two types of transformation together in a new model of activism connecting inner and outer practice? Enter…the bodhisattva.

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Toward a New Buddhist Story: Part 3 of 3

We who have language assume we are superior to animals. In fact, our linguistic representations of the world are superior to the world itself, since they can control it. Ironically,

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The Unfamiliar Familiar: Part 6 of 6

…the koan’s purpose is to see things from buddhanature’s point of view, as it were, rather than instill an idea about it from our own point of view. Click here

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The Unfamiliar Familiar: Part 4 of 6

The scriptures do not merely speak about the deconstruction of preconception; they enact it. Click to read The Unfamiliar Familiar Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. In the early

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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 3 of 3

Joan Rieck presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 – the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment

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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 2 of 3

Joan Rieck presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 – the very temple where Dogen had his great enlightenment

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Sanbo (Three Treasures) Zen: Part 1 of 3

Joan Rieck Roshi presented this piece at an international conference held at Tiantong Monastery in China in the Fall of 2014 – the very temple where Dogen had his

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Blue Cliff Record 69, Nansen Draws a Circle

Episode Description: This talk delineates the classic koan, Nansen Draws a Circle, Blue Cliff Record Case 69. Roshi Henry describes the brilliant craziness of this koan and draws on wisdom

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The Art of Being Wrong: Part 1 of 4

Nearly always, in great literature, there is some kind of turning point in a narrative arc which is also a turning back—something like Dogen’s “backward step that shines the light

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Rohatsu Sesshin 2014, Day 1 of 4

In this first teisho of the sesshin, Henry introduces Dogen’s fascicle on Continuous Practice, and starts to explore what Dogen meant by that term. The talk includes poetry by Yeats,

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Message from Henry: The Mongol Longsword

Just as we receive power and help (tariki) in our sitting, so our own sitting actively offers help throughout the universe. The interconnection is actual, not conceptual. …our meditation is

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Jōshū’s Oak Tree

A monk asked Jōshū in all earnestness, “What is the meaning of the patriarch’s coming from the West?” Jōshū said, “The oak tree in the garden.” There are several things

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Some Thoughts about Practice

If we want to sum up the precepts into one handy “take-home,” it might be: practice kindness. Or just: kindness. Or simply: be kind. Zazen gives us a chance each

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