Valerie Forstman is an Associate Zen Master of the SanboZen lineage and our onsite Guiding Teacher 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 SanboZen.

Valerie 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 SanboZen 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.

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 retired from her work as Associate Dean for Admissions and Common Life at Brite Divinity School in January 2020 and soon thereafter began teaching at Mountain Cloud. Alongside her guiding work at Mountain Cloud, Valerie leads sesshin (intensive Zen retreats) annually at two Zen centers in Germany. 

Associate Master of Sanbozen

Scott Thornton is an Assistant Teacher in the Sanbo Zen lineage and the Residency Director at Mountain Cloud.

You can see him at Mountain Cloud sitting in the zendo in the morning, leading the Book Study Wednesdays from 9-10, Intro Classes Sundays 10-11:15, and Intro Retreats. He also provides 1-1 practice guidance to members.

Since 2000, he was a student of Ruben Habito Roshi at The Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas, TX. He currently directs the Mountain Cloud Residency 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. 

Read this lovely interview by Richard McDaniel with Scott about his journey into meditation.


Carolyn Seburn is a Zen Teacher based in Ontario and a regular teacher in our hybrid/online events.

She provides online dokusan to our members and during our 6-day retreats, dharma talks, and workshops for our 30 Days of Zen Course.

She 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.

Zen Teacher

Shana Smith is an Assistant Teacher of Sanbo Zen based in Florida. Shana provides online 1-1 practice support to our members, and provides workshops for our 30 Days of Zen Course and sesshins.

Shana 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.


Henry Shukman was formerly Mountain Cloud’s Guiding Teacher, then Spiritual Director and helped bring new energy to Mountain Cloud between 2012 and 2023, contributing greatly to the Mountain Cloud you see today.

He has trained with several Zen teachers, particularly the roshi’s Joan Rieck, John Gaynor, Ruben Habito and Yamada Ryoun Roshi, as well as with teachers and mentors in other traditions. Henry has received dharma transmission (inka shomei and sanmotsu) from Yamada Ryoun Roshi, Abbot of Sanbo Zen, and is a Shōshike (Authentic Zen Master) of the Sanbo Zen lineage of Kamakura, Japan.


In addition, Henry is an award-winning author and poet. His struggles as a youth, combined with a spontaneous awakening experience at 19, paved the way for him to develop a well-rounded approach to spirituality and meditation, under the guidance of his teachers – one that includes both compassionate concern for the sufferings of the world and the great liberating power of awakening as its foundation. Henry is the founder and teacher of the Original Love Program, a comprehensive non-sectarian guide to meditation practice, and is the cofounder and teacher of the forthcoming app, The Way.

Learn more about Henry’s current projects at HenryShukman.com

Guest Teachers

Ruben L.F. Habito is a Professor of World Religions and Spirituality and Director of Spiritual Formation at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University. Before coming to SMU, he taught at the Jesuit-founded Sophia University in Japan for many years. While in Japan, he received Zen training for many years under Kōun Yamada Rōshi and is an authorized Zen Teacher in the Sanbo Zen International lineage, serving as Guiding Teacher of Maria Kannon Zen Center based in Dallas, Texas. He is the author of numerous books and articles in English and Japanese, including Be Still and Know: Zen and the Bible (Orbis 2017), Zen and the Spiritual Exercises (Orbis 2013), Experiencing Buddhism: Ways of Wisdom and Compassion (Orbis 2006), and Healing Breath: Zen Spirituality for Christians and Buddhists (Wisdom 2006), Living Zen, Loving God (Wisdom 2004) among others. He is the spouse of Dr. Maria Reis Habito, and together they are blessed with two adult sons, Florian and Benjamin.

Maria Reis Habito began zen practice in 1987.  She serves as guiding teacher of Sophia Zen Center in Indiana and is a teacher at the Maria Kannon Zen Center in Dallas. Maria is the International Program Director of the Museum of World Religions, the Director of the Elijah Interfaith Institute USA, and a Zen Teacher authorized in the Sanbo Zen lineage. She has lived in Taiwan and studied the Chinese language (1979-1981), and in Kyoto, Japan, where she studied the Japanese language. She received her M.A. in Chinese Studies, Japanese Studies and Philosophy in 1985, and completed her Ph.D. at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich in 1990. After teaching at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, she assumed responsibility for the international Interfaith program of the Museum of World Religions in 2002.

Sean Tetsudo Murphy, Sensei, is a fully authorized Zen teacher in the American White Plum lineage, as well an award-winning author and recipient of a 2018 National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship in Creative Writing. The author of One Bird One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories, as well as three novels with Bantam Dell books, he is founder and director of The Sage Institute of Taos, NM, which hosts an innovative Meditation and Mindfulness Leader Training Program. He also teaches creative writing, meditation, and literature for the University of New Mexico-Taos and many other venues. www.sagetaos.com / www.murphyzen.com

Natalie Goldberg is the author of fifteen books, including Writing Down the Bones (Shambhala, 1986), which has sold over one million copies, has been translated into fourteen languages, and started a revolution in the way we practice writing in this country. Her most recent Books is Three Simple Lines: A writer’s Pilgrimage into the Heart and Homeland of Haiku and her forthcoming book is Writing on Empty. Natalie is also a prolific painter. Her book Living Color: Painting, Writing, and the Bones of Seeing(Abrams, 2014), describes painting as her second art form. Top of My Lungs (Overlook Press, 2004) contains forty poems, twenty of her paintings in color, and an essay, “How Poetry Saved My Life.” Natalie’s paintings are available to view on this website.

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