Dharma Talk (Teisho)

THURSDAYS: 5:30-6pm Zazen, 6-7pm Dharma Talk

You can join us online or in the Zendo! This hybrid event is free and registration is not required. Please arrive five to ten minutes ahead of the scheduled time.

Sessions begin with 25 minutes of meditation, followed by a talk, and includes some chanting.  Join us to deepen understanding, inspire contemplation, and nurture mindfulness and wisdom within yourself.

To participate online, please click on the zoom link below.

sit.mountaincloud.org  and use Passcode: mountain22

*Trouble logging on to our online sits? Click here for guidance. Need help with time zone conversion?Use theWorld Time Buddy .  

*If you miss a dharma talk, you can find it on our YouTube channel within one to two weeks.

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.

These are often led by our Guiding Teacher Valerie Forstman, and we often have Guest Teachers from around the globe. Recent guests have included: David Loy, Maria Habito, Natalie Goldberg, Ruben Habito, Nancy Mujo Baker, Sean Tetsudo Murphy, and others.

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