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30 Days of Zen: Dogen (Online Course)

Monday, July 1-30, with live sessions July 6, 13, 20, 27

This course is conducted virtually, and registration is required (refer to the bottom of the page).

Deepen your practice through 30 days of immersive Zen training—daily meditation, supportive sangha, practical tips, illuminating teachings from the past, and wise guidance from contemporary Sanbo Zen teachers. The theme of ‘Dogen’ explores an essential guide in the Sanbo Zen lineage.

If you’ve wanted to establish a steady meditation practice, try out the Zen path, or engage more deeply with the sangha, this program is for you. We’re here to help through:

  • Daily email teachings: teachings themed around Zen’s teaching of beginner’s mind from Zen Masters through the ages, practice tips, & reflection prompts
  • 4 Live Workshops which include a live talk, Q&A, and community discussion with Guiding Teacher, Valerie Forstman, and Assistant Teachers Shana Smith & Scott Thornton
  • Optional community forum with daily prompts to support peer learning with your cohort  

This program responds to a call from our community to make the path of Zen training accessible online, catering to both those deeply committed to the practice and those curious to explore it. We have crafted a program that authentically embodies the Three Treasures of Zen practice (Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha), incorporates the lay practice orientation of Sanbo Zen, and reflects the lens of wonder and compassion that Henry Shukman and Valerie Forstman bring to all aspects of our work here at Mountain Cloud.

The 30 day course was outstanding in every regard…little did I know the peace, calm, wisdom
and overcoming past traumas that could happen in just one month.
30-Day Course Participant 

When
  • July 1 – July 30, 2024
  • Live Zoom Events (recordings will be shared): with live workshops Saturdays July 6, 13, 20 and 27 (10-11:15am MT) 
  • You can engage in your daily practice independently or join a larger group online via Zoom. Refer to our daily sitting schedule. Feel free to register at any point during this course, and you’ll receive a digital copy of the previously sent daily emails, along with recordings of all live events.

Where
  • Daily messages via Email
  • Live events via Zoom
  • Daily connection with your cohort via our online forum.

What Makes this Program so Powerful?

Even if all of the innumerable buddhas in the entire universe combined their efforts and attempted to measure the merit of one person’s zazen (zen meditation), they could never fathom it. from Dogen’s Talk on Wholehearted Practice of the Way

Daily encouragement, teachings, and practice tips 

Each day, you’ll receive a message containing a brief teaching from the Zen tradition and a practical practice tip, designed to inspire meditators at any experience level. Your daily digest of teaching & practice tips will showcase quotes from Zen Masters, revealing profound wisdom within your everyday life and interactions. We’ll share strategies for maintaining daily practice and fostering connection with your meditative awareness throughout the day. Over the course of these 30 days, this series of messages aims to support, encourage, and deepen your practice. The chosen teachings offer a glimpse into the freedom, compassion, and wonder inherent in meditation and Zen practice.”

Your daily practice: meditation and journaling

If your schedule permits, we highly encourage you to participate in the daily cohort sitting on Zoom (refer to the daily schedule). You have the flexibility to choose both the timing and duration of your daily meditation. Engaging in the daily journal is an optional yet highly recommended component of this program. It serves as the ‘thread that deepens and builds, this through-thread, this value of continuous practice.’ Each day, we will provide participants with a reflection prompt, and we encourage you to share your response on our private online message board.”

The sangha aspect of the daily journal–reading others’ shared posts, identifying and learning from those shared posts, responding to others’ posts and getting feedback on my own posts–made me feel part of an open-hearted, like-minded community, which felt wonderful.
30-Day Course Participant 

Live workshops each week

Each week, we’ll come together on Zoom to foster connection and receive direct guidance on our sitting. These sessions will feature open discussions and small group sharing. Additionally, there will be a Q&A segment where you can pose questions to our exceptional teachers.”

Guidance from Mountain Cloud Teachers 

Consistency is crucial for developing and deepening a meditation practice, and our Mountain Cloud teachers are dedicated to providing support. They actively engage with the community forum and lead live workshops throughout the program.

Teachers

Valerie Forstman is an Associate Zen Master of the Sanbo Zen lineage. Her first teacher, with whom she continues to work, was Ruben Habito Roshi. Since 2003, she has also trained under the guidance of Yamada Ryoun Roshi, current abbot of SanboZen. Valerie joins Mountain Cloud with a shared vision of the core of the Zen path, a way of coming home to who we truly are. This includes koan training, “just sitting” practice, and breath awareness practice, and what it means to undergo the immense change of heart implied by the term “awakening.” What a joy and what a long road it can be, not just to taste this, but to embody it and live it out in lives of compassionate service.

A first-career classical musician with degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Stony Brook in New York, Valerie changed course in response to her practice and went on to earn a Master of Theological Studies and Ph.D. in Biblical Interpretation (Hebrew Bible). She recently retired from her work as Associate Dean for Admissions and Common Life at Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth, TX.

Carolyn Seburn – Sei’un An (Peace-bringing Cloud) Zen teacher Carolyn Seburn is an authorized Dharma successor of Roselyn Stone (Sei’un An – Clearing Away the Clouds) Rôshi of the Mountain Moon Sangha (Toronto and Brisbane). She has been practicing Zen meditation since 1985 and guiding Zen practice since 2015. Married, with one offspring, Carolyn is also a biologist and public servant who focuses on wildlife conservation.

Carolyn is also appointed a Zen teacher with Sanbo Zen International and is on the teaching staff of Mountain Cloud Zen Centre. The Mountain Moon Sangha of Ottawa abides by the Code of Conduct for Sanbo Zen International.

Scott Thornton is an Assistant Teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage. He has been a student of Ruben Habito Roshi for 22 years at The Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas, TX, and soon will be moving to Santa Fe to practice at Mountain Cloud and to direct its Residents Program.  He has been a Clinical Psychologist for 34 years. His first career was in Theater, and he is still an active singer/songwriter and performer.

Shana Smith discovered yoga in 1990 and began attending regular classes in several different styles of yoga After several years of ardent practice and study, she began to teach at her local studio and Yoga Temple.  Shana became interested in the sensations and insights she experienced in Savasana, which led her to begin a regular meditation practice and in 2007 took refuge in the Sanbo Zen Lineage, and recently become a Sanbo Zen Assistant teacher.  Over the years, she has found a tremendous synergy between Yoga and Zen, and integrates the two in her daily, committed practice.

Participation Fee
  • Benefactor Fee of $149
  • Program Fee of $99
  • Needs-based scholarships include a 25% scholarship and a 50% scholarship
  • Year of  Zen Package– Buy all four 30 Days of Zen for the Year for $329
Registration

Registration is open throughout the course, and upon signing up, you will receive a digital copy of the previously sent daily emails, along with recordings of all live events. If you have any questions about the program, feel free to contact Xander .

Start
July 1
End
July 30
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