Dharma Talk: “No Choosing (This is it!)” with Scott Thornton

Thursday, February 26th | 5:30–7:00 PM
Meditation begins at 5:30 pm MT, followed by the Dharma Talk (teisho) at 6:00 pm MT.
You are invited to join us for an evening with Scott Thornton at Mountain Cloud Zen Center’s zendo, where he will be leading the Dharma Talk titled, “No Choosing (This is it!)”
In Case 2 of The Blue Cliff Record, Master Joshu instructs us that, “The Supreme Way is not difficult; it simply dislikes picking and choosing.” How can this actually apply to a human life, especially in such trying times, since we seem to be faced with nothing but choices every day, from the most mundane to the most heart wrenching? Scott will take up this koan and these questions in his talk.
This hybrid event is free and registration is not required. Please arrive five to ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time.
To participate online, please click on the zoom link below.
sit.mountaincloud.org
Passcode: mountain22
Trouble logging on to our online sits? Click here for guidance. Need help with time zone conversion? Use the World Time Buddy .
If you miss a dharma talk, you can find it on our YouTube channel within one to two weeks.
Kindly consider contributing dana (a traditional Buddhist offering) to express financial gratitude to our visiting teacher. Dana to Scott can be made through Venmo: @Scott-Thornton-44 or Paypal: @DrScottThornton
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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.
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Teisho literally means “presentation of the shout.” It is not a lecture or a didactic discourse but a direct sharing of the dharma springing from the teacher’s experience. A teisho or dharma talk is not intended to engage the discursive mind. Rather, the invitation is to let the language wash over the listener and, if something strikes, to let that resound.
At Mountain Cloud, teisho often take up a koan, a record of an exchange between Chan/Zen masters or masters and disciples that conveys the world they are sharing and carries the seeds of awakening. Teisho invite us to keep company with the ancestors whose practice-awakening (a term from Dogen) is freshly conveyed each time we turn to this living tradition.
- Date
- February 26
- Time
-
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
- Event Categories
- Dharma, Talks & Workshops