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SUMMARY:Dharma Talk: "On the Way Without Ever Leaving Home" with Valerie Forstman
DESCRIPTION:Thursday\, March 5th |  5:30–7:00 PM\nMeditation begins at 5:30 pm MT\, followed by the Dharma Talk (teisho) at 6:00 pm MT.\n \nYou are invited to join us for an evening with Valerie Forstman at Mountain Cloud Zen Center’s zendo\, where she will be leading the Dharma Talk titled\, “On the Way Without Ever Leaving Home.” \nValerie begins this talk with an exploration of Zen’s invitation to ‘come home’ to who we truly are. What kind of path is it that can arrive fully without taking a single step? And what are we to make of this homecoming when the suffering of the world is fully included? \nAs a way of exploring these questions\, the talk turns to a koan: Blue Cliff Record or Hekiganroku Case 69\, “Nansen Draws a Circle.” Three monks\, dharma siblings\, set out together to visit a renowned master. Along the way\, they stop to share the teaching – and to offer us a glimpse of home that is always right where we are. \nThis hybrid event is free and registration is not required. Please arrive five to ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time. \nTo participate online\, please click on the zoom link below.\n \nsit.mountaincloud.org\nPasscode: mountain22 \nTrouble logging on to our online sits? Click here for guidance. Need help with time zone conversion? Use the World Time Buddy . \nIf you miss a dharma talk\, you can find it on our YouTube channel within one to two weeks. \nKindly consider contributing dana (a traditional Buddhist offering) to express financial gratitude to our visiting teacher. Dana to Valerie can be made through Venmo: @Valerie-Forstman or Paypal: paypal.me/vforstman \n \n \n∞ \nValerie Forstman is an Associate Zen Master of the Sanbo Zen lineage and our Guiding Teacher here at Mountain Cloud. 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 Sanbo Zen. \nValerie came to Mountain Cloud with a shared vision of the core of the Zen path\, a way of coming home to who we truly are. In keeping with the Sanbo Zen tradition\, this path or ‘way’ may include koan training\, “just sitting” practice\, or simple breath awareness practice\, all of which funnel into what it means to undergo the immense change of heart implied by the term “awakening.” What a joy and what a rich process it can be\, not just to taste this\, but to embody it and live it out in lives of compassionate service. \nA first-career classical musician\, Valerie holds degrees from Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Stony Brook University in NY. She has taught and performed in the U.S.\, Canada\, and around Europe. After discovering Zen\, Valerie went on to earn a Masters of Theological Studies and Ph.D. from Brite Divinity School. \nAs Guiding Teacher\, Valerie is responsible for the quality and integrity of Zen offerings at Mountain Cloud. She offers dokusan to over 50 students a week and runs our sesshin and zazenkai. Alongside her guiding work at Mountain Cloud\, Valerie leads sesshin (intensive Zen retreats) annually at two Zen centers in Germany. \n∞ \nTeisho 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. \nAt 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.
URL:https://www.mountaincloud.org/event/dharma-talk-03-05-2026/
LOCATION:Mountain Cloud Zen Center and Online via Zoom
CATEGORIES:Dharma,Talks & Workshops
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.mountaincloud.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Valerie.jpg
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