Ecodharma May 

Mountain Cloud is bringing back Ecodharma May for its second year, including more teacher voices, more participant-leadership, and more ways to participate. This program centers the depth of zen practice in the emerging field of Ecodharma. With public programs, a-la-carte retreat options, and a special residency, there are many ways to engage. Join us for this unique opportunity to resource ourselves, dive deep into practice, embrace the transformative power of sangha, and cultivate skillful action in the face of uncertainty and multiple intersecting crises.

If you’ve ever wondered how the natural world might take a more pivotal place in your awakening journey, if you feel a call to action in your meditation practice, or if you want to experience sangha support more fully as a lay-practitioner, then this month is for you! 

Ecodharma May Includes:

  • Weekend Retreat with Nic Redfern – Friday May 8 – Sunday 10
  • Daylong Retreat with Karen Waconda-Lewis – Saturday May 16th
  • Weeklong Sesshin with David Loy – Monday 18 – Sunday 24
  • Book Group Series – Wednesdays in May (public, hybrid) 9-10am MST
  • Wisdom Wednesday Series – Wednesdays in May (public, hybrid) 5:30-6:30pm MST
  • Dharma Talk Series – Thursdays in May (public, hybrid) 5:30-7pm MST

There are 3 primary ways to engage with the month:

  1. Public Programs:
    • Daily Sitting with our residents and Tea & Toast M-F
    • Wisdom Wednesdays and Thursday Teishos will bring in Ecodharma speakers and themes
  2. Retreats Bundle
    • Join for one of our Ecodharma retreats – each with a different teacher and different format!
    • Want to do them all? We will be offering an Ecodharma Retreat Bundle so that you can attend all three at a discount. This option is is for retreat Commuters (or campers!) and is aimed to make this experience more accessible to our local sangha. To receive an update when registration opens, fill out this form.
  3. Residency: The residency (including onsite lodging and commuter options) will include all of the events listed above, PLUS a special action-learning project on the land, intentional communal living, co-created activities and visioning circles, workshops with local organizers and educators, daily meditation sits, 1-1 guidance with Zen Teachers, and extended time connecting with the land. Learn more about residency here, and to receive an update when registration opens, fill out this form.

To receive an update when registration opens, fill out this form.

Ecodharma is Zen dharma.

Sanbo Zen offers lay practitioners a pathway for discovering our true nature; for coming home to our inseparability with Earth and all beings. Whether we’ve tasted this truth or not, the journey of practice continuously expands our capacity to live fully, and enlivens our motivation to take care.

As we allow the practice to open our hearts, many of us become more aware of the suffering in the world, and become more willing to help relieve that suffering. In Ecodharma, we turn towards the increasing instability of our environment and the intersecting crises impacting us, the land, and our more-than-human kin. But practice is more than a way to notice, and cope. It is a vehicle for us to transform our individual and community capacity to respond. Just as our practice calls us to ask, What’s mine to do?, Ecodharma teaches us how to listen for the answer.

This special month-long residency is a chance for us to do just that. It is a chance for us to gather together in an intentional community, exploring what each of our roles are on the Bodhisattva (or Ecosattva) path, and supporting one another as a collective.

Ecodharma is an ongoing exploration at Mountain Cloud

Check out our Ecodharma Page to learn about all the ways Mountain Cloud is engaging with Ecodharma on an ongoing basis.

To receive an update when registration opens, fill out this form.

Dharma Teachers of Ecodharma May

Scott Thornton (San’un-ken) is a Teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage and a Teacher and Residency Advisor at Mountain Cloud. Scott provides practice guidance to residents and leads our weekly Book Group, monthly Aging Buddhas gatherings, and weekly Intro to Zen classes.

Scott and his wife, Guiding Teacher Valerie Forstman Roshi, came to work at Mountain Cloud in July of 2022. After an early career as an actor and singer, he turned to Clinical Psychology, a profession he has worked in for over 45 years (and from which he plans to retire in early 2026), though he still enjoys the occasional singer-songwriter gig! He began meditating on his own for 12 years before joining The Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas and beginning Koan study with Ruben Habito Rōshi in 2000. He continues his training with Henry Shukman Roshi.

Karen Waconda-Lewis is a tribal native of the Isleta and Laguna Pueblos. After her initiation into Native Medicine, she introduced traditional healing practices into an urban American Indian health clinic in Albuquerque, NM. She continues to expand this program into local hospitals, the Indian Health Service, the VA Hospital, and surrounding organizations. Karen integrates Western medicine with Native healing in preventive health, mental health, and overall well-being. She is the founder and director of the Center for Native American Integrative Healing, LLC, located in Albuquerque, where healers from various tribal nations practice their traditional medicine and extend their services to the community.

Karen is a Spirit Rock Community Dharma Leader program graduate and has been practicing mindfulness from a young age, guided by her grandparents in her traditional tribal practices of caring for the land, gardening, cooking and animals. She regularly provides dharma teachings incorporating Native teachings in her community and nationally. She has intertwined Native teachings with Vipassana meditation, incorporating these practices into ceremonies, sweat lodges, and her community at Laguna Pueblo. At Laguna Pueblo, the ancestral teachings of mindfulness have complemented the Buddhist teachings at the Detention Center, providing insight and wellness to inmates and their families. Additionally, Karen co-founded the Annual Indigenous and Native Healers Silent Retreat and the Albuquerque People of Color and Allies Sangha. She has also been appointed volunteer faculty at the University of New Mexico’s School of Medicine, where she guides faculty and staff on tribal health issues and wellness support to medical students and residents.

In her personal life, Karen enjoys spending time with her family, including her daughter and two grandchildren. She manages the family ranch and loves spending time with ancestral lands and caring for its inhabitants.

Nicola Redfern is an Insight Dialogue Retreat Teacher with an extensive background in both Zen and Vipassana meditation. With a strong belief that awakening is not simply a solo endeavor, Nic is particularly interested in getting meditation and dharma insight fully integrated and embodied in life, work, social justice, and all relationships. She has taught multiple courses on eco-dharma, unlearning racism, and Nonviolent Communication, as well as programs for LGBTQIA+. Nicola is originally from the UK and now lives near Santa Fe, NM.

David Robert Loy is a professor, writer, and Zen teacher in the Sanbo Zen tradition of Japanese Zen Buddhism. He is a prolific author, whose articles appear regularly in the pages of major journals such as Tikkun and Buddhist magazines including Tricycle, Lion’s Roar, and Buddhadharma, as well as in a variety of scholarly journals. Many of his writings, as well as audio and video talks and interviews, are available on the web. He is on the advisory boards of Buddhist Global Relief, the Clear View Project, Zen Peacemakers, and the Ernest Becker Foundation. David is one of the founding members of the Rocky Mountain Ecodharma Retreat Center, near Boulder, Colorado. Learn more about David at https://www.davidloy.org/


To receive an update when registration opens, fill out this form.


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