This week’s talk was offered by Mountain Cloud’s lead teacher, Valerie Forstman. It was recorded on October 31st at the Zendo in Sante Fe.

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Kali invites us to examine the wide array of features that comprise “The Practice Field,” the many aspects of our path of practice. She states that as a species we are quite proficient at ignoring our “shadow side of life,” those parts of us that help inform the richness of the practice field. Through this avoidance of difficult experiences, we contribute to our own suffering. Kali suggests that, with kindness and insight, we can lovingly examine how we are responsible for much of our suffering – not blaming (which consciously assumes we are creating harm) but rather taking responsibility for what we bring into our moments of practice. The invitation is to relax into being with whatever we are experiencing, whatever we have the opportunity to meet, with wonder and curiosity, grounded in our connection with our basic goodness.

Recorded on October 24, 2024

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Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this.

Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/

Become a member: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership

Check out our website: https://www.mountaincloud.org/

All are welcome to join us for sitting and dharma talks. Use this link to join us: https://sit.mountaincloud.org

Dwelling no-where, mind comes forth
~ from the Diamond Sutra

Heart mind directs us to the fundamental point of who and what we are. In Chinese there is one term for Heart Mind. No hyphen necessary, simply one. Contemporary Sanbo Zen teacher Migaku Sato wrote a poem with this line: In nothing at all-ness, there is endlessly everything. Out of nothing, here we are practicing, says Valerie or That thou art, says Ruben Habito. To further open, Valerie looks at goneness and oneness in Case18 from the Blue Cliff Record, The National Teacher’s Gravestone.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Mountain Cloud Summer Sesshin, hybrid event
June 26 – July 2: Details and registration, click here

Thursday Evening Event May 25th with Guest Speaker Diana Clark
Meditation: 5:30pm MT
Dharma talk: 6:00pm MT
Click here for details

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details
Clouds, River’s Lakes and Seas Weekend Workshop is coming up this weekend, May 27-28
Register here.

Valerie explores the clarity and simplicity of Master Hogen who came to be known as the dharma eye of deep clarity. Focusing on Case 51 from Book of Equanimity, Valerie illuminates mind and consciousness through Hogan’s clarity. If you want to study buddha-dharma, everything you see is buddha dharma, a door, a window and the exquisite beauty of the boat is on the river. For Hogan there is no difference between phenomena (worldly dharma) and essential reality (Buddhist dharma). Everything is put to rest.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Mountain Cloud Summer Sesshin, hybrid event
June 26 – July 2: Details and registration, click here

Thursday Evening Event May 11th with Maria Reis Habito
Meditation: 5:30pm MT
Dharma talk: 6:00pm MT
Click Here for Details

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details

Something puts our feet on this path, starting from the ordinary dualistic world. Gradually, as we practice and practice, in some unguarded moment, everything falls away, and it’s just this. Heaven and Earth: without any space for a conjunction. Then we practice, practice, practice…. and return to the ordinary world, but it’s upside down. This great return is a bridge, a crossing over.

Continuing with Joshu from the previous day’s talk on Mu, Valerie looks at Case 52 from the Blue Cliff Record, about a log bridge that is actually a stone bridge once you are able to really see it. Keep in mind that every koan is nothing but Mu and about you.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Mountain Cloud Summer Sesshin, hybrid event
June 26 – July 2: Details and registration, click here

Thursday Evening Event May 11 with Maria Habito
Meditation: 5:30pm MT
Dharma talk: 6:00pm MT

Original Love: Clouds, Rivers, Lakes and Sea, with Henry Shukman
April 30 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Click Here for Details

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details

Crossing over to the other shore is the heart of our practice and the heart of Buddha’s teaching. Eventually we realize that we were always on the shore, here and now, in the moment at hand. In this first talk of our Spring sesshin, Valerie looks at the famous koan: Does a dog have Buddha Nature? the traditional first teisho in a Zen sesshin.

Valerie mentions a choral chant version of the Heart Sutra from Plum Village. Here is a link if you are interested.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Mountain Cloud Summer Sesshin, hybrid event
June 26 – July 2: Details and registration, click here

Original Love: Clouds, Rivers, Lakes and Sea, with Henry Shukman
April 30 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Click Here for Details

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details

“Abiding no-where mind comes forth.”

Maria Habito returns to Mountain Cloud’s zoom zendo and talks about the Diamond Sutra. When we enter deep silence, the diamond cuts through every notion we carry. It can show us intimate awareness of no self, no other, no sentient beings and no time.

In this talk, Maria focuses on Living Beings, which refers to those who are not yet enlightened. However many species of living beings there are, Bodhisattvas lead all these species/beings to liberation. However once all these many beings are liberated, we must not think that a single being is liberated. Maria untangles this contradiction.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Spring Online Retreat
Thursday-Sunday, March 23-26
 Four-day online retreat led by Valerie Forstman

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details

For this final Rohatsu talk, Henry looks at three questions. What are we doing here, just sitting with each other? What is awakening? and What then? We are living “it” every moment.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Spring Online Retreat
Thursday-Sunday, March 23-26
 Four-day online retreat led by Valerie Forstman

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details

In this talk from day 5 of the Rohatsu sesshin, Valerie picks up on the previous day’s talk by Henry where he presents the title and first line of the Heart Sutra. Turning to the figure of Kannon, Kanzeon, or Avalokiteshvara, bodhisattva of great compassion, Valerie asks, “What is compassion?” In response, she lifts up the phrase, “Just compassion,” then turns to a koan that addresses the heart of the matter: who we truly are. The deep Sea of Ise – the sea of the world – calls to us, as does a single stone lying on its floor, a stone that cannot get wet and can never get dry; a single stone with one name inscribed on it. The koan asks, “How will you pick up that stone without wetting your hands?” And once you have it in the palm of your hand, what is the name?

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Spring Online Retreat
Thursday-Sunday, March 23-26
 Four-day online retreat led by Valerie Forstman

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

What is this practice? Why do it? Essentially, it’s all about slowing down and things falling away. Our very existence, our being gets simpler. Henry looks at the title and first lines of the central document of Mahayana Buddhism, The Heart Sutra. This document is a story about Avalokiteshvara going from contracted view, to full view.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Daylong Sit / Zazenkai
Saturday February 18, 2023
Join Valerie Forstman and our Sangha for a Zazenkai. The Zazenkai will be both on-site and on-line.

Spring Online Retreat
Thursday-Sunday, March 23-26
 Four-day online retreat led by Valerie Forstman

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details

In celebration of Shakyamuni Buddha’s awakening, Valerie takes up the Head Chapter of the Denkoroku or Transmission of Light. “I and the great earth and all beings simultaneously attain the Way.” The invitation of this practice is to taste and see: Our sitting, standing, bowing, walking is nothing but that awakening – fully expressing it in every breath, every gesture.

And, here’s a link to our YouTube video of this talk.

Also, check out our Upcoming Events:

Daylong Sit / Zazenkai
Saturday February 18, 2023
Join Valerie Forstman and our Sangha for a Zazenkai. The Zazenkai will be both on-site and on-line.

Spring Online Retreat
Thursday-Sunday, March 23-26
 Four-day online retreat led by Valerie Forstman

Original Love 2023: Click here for full details