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PODCAST

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts

Mountain Cloud Zen Center

Zen Podcast series based on Mountain Cloud Zen Center"s Thursday evening dharma talks that explore classical koans of Zen. The podcasts help us in our mission of offering core Zen training in the lineage of Sanbo Zen to create healthier and kinder lives for all, while also supporting our Three Treasures Prison Project in which we work with inmates in a maximum security prison, as well as serving the immediate community of Santa Fe, New Mexico, our international sangha, and the broader world

religion & spirituality buddhism

All Episodes

33:30

Dharma Talk: “Waking up to this threshold moment”...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/03/11

In this talk, Valerie begins with poetry as a portal to the language of koans, a language that uses words to go beyond words. Koans don’t just describe or express the reality of who we truly are. They offer a turning word – a seed of awakening – that can open our eyes to that fundamental reality right in our midst. The talk will turn to case 12 in the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate), a single word that “juts forth” with the capacity to render the world just as it is – intimate and immediate, at once empty

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46:06

Dharma Talk: “What Moves?” with Valerie Forstman

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/03/06

In the Gateless Gate (Mumonkan) case 29, two monks watch a temple flag flapping in the wind. They argue back and forth: is it the flag that moves or the wind that moves? Seeing this, the 6th Chinese ancestor, Huineng, intervenes: “It is not the wind that moves. It is not the flag that moves. It is your mind that moves.” Centuries of Zen students have taken up this case. What is mind? What is moving? What is the dharma that shows itself fully in movement and in stillness? In this talk, Valerie traces

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39:08

Dharma Talk: Love and Loss in a Seamless World with...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/02/25

This talk is offered in gratitude for the life of Johanna Sindelar, a long-time sangha member who dedicated over a decade of service to Mountain Cloud. As a tribute to Johanna, Valerie begins with a look at the Heart Sutra in a rendering by Thich Nhat Hahn that was set to music in harmonies Johanna loved. The talk then turns to case 18 in the Blue Cliff Record, a koan that asks a renowned national teacher, “What shall I do to honor you after you die?” In response, the master implores each of us to

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30:55

Dharma Talk: “Meeting Challenge with Equanimity” with...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/02/19

In this talk, Scott draws from the Gateless Gate case 13, “Tokusan Carries His Bowls” as a case study for how we can meet mistakes, challenges, and misunderstandings with equanimity.

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30:59

Dharma Talk: “Listen to the Heart of Things” with...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/02/11

In this talk, Maria sheds light on how listening to the voice of a bird or the sound of rain can bring us fully back home to our true nature. In this context, Maria takes the experience of Fr. Shigeto Oshida as a spring board for Koan No. 46 in the Blue Cliff Record: Kyôsei’s “Voice of the raindrops.” Recorded on February 7th, 2025 _______ Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations:

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36:01

Dharma Talk: “The Year of the Snake” with Valerie...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/02/05

On this first day of the Lunar New Year with the world in turmoil, Valerie turns to case 22 of the Blue Cliff Record, “Seppo’s ‘Poisonous Snake.’” What life-giving poison is the koan presenting? What happens if you encounter the snake? The turning word in Seppo’s own awakening story offers a pointer: If you want to expound a great teaching, it must flow forth from your own breast to cover heaven and earth. The dharma treasure is right in our midst – intimate, excluding nothing, and born right now

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31:52

Dharma Talk: “What Meets the Eye” with Valerie Forstman

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/01/28

The talk begins with a look at Zen’s parable of the second arrow. What does the story say to us now when we may find ourselves despairing about despair? In response, Valerie turns to the teaching of two root masters who lived during a particularly precarious time in China. Asked “What is the essential meaning of Chan?” Baso (Mazu) replied, “What is the meaning of this moment?” Baso’s counterpart, Sekito (Shitou), taught, “What meets the eye is the Way.” How might these teachings illumine the way as

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22:12

Dharma Talk: “The Path to Discernment” with Carolyn...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/01/22

Carolyn discusses Mumonkan case 11: Jôshû Examines the Hermits as an invitation to examine and trust our own discernment. 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

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31:08

January 9th Dharma Talk from Valerie Forstman

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/01/15

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

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39:05

2025's First Dharma Talk

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/01/08

Welcome in the new year with this Teisho offered by Mountain Cloud's Guiding Teacher, Valerie Forstman. To see what Mountain Cloud has planned for the upcoming year, visit www.mountaincloud.org/newyear/

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31:58

“Darkness and Light Reveal Our True Nature” with...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2025/01/08

During the season of Rohatsu, Solstice, Christmas and Hanukkha, Maria takes up the psalm of Isaiah: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” This psalm becomes a starting point to reflect on how darkness and light feed our practice of seeing our true nature.

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40:06

Breakthroughs Part 2 with Henry Shukman

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2024/11/26

At this time when many of us may be feeling daunted and uncertain, we gather in the zendo to tap into our shared deeper nature that meditation can open up, drawing sustenance and new perspectives from it. In this talk, Henry explores breakthrough experiences — sudden shifts in how we understand and experience this life. They can show up in many forms, and in many areas, both personal and collective. Zen’s history is full of stories of sudden awakenings — moments when practitioners found they had

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01:19:04

Poetry, Practice, and the Wild Ethics of Love: A...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2024/11/20

David Hinton has published numerous books of poetry and essays, and many translations of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy—all informed by an abiding interest in deep ecological thinking. This widely-acclaimed work has earned Hinton a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous fellowships from NEA and NEH, and both of the major awards given for poetry translation in the United States: the Landon Translation Award (Academy of American Poets) and the PEN American Translation Award. Most recently, Hinton

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39:15

Valerie Forstman: Zen's Subverting Impulse:...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2024/11/05

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

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33:58

Kali Basman: Cultivating Wonder

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2024/10/29

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 –

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56:10

MCZP421_Valerie_Forstman_Spring_4_Gathering_Heart_Mind

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2023/04/19

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41:01

MCZP420 |...

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2023/04/19

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44:01

MCZP419 | Valerie_Forstman_Spring_2_Stone_Bridge

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2023/04/19

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39:19

MCZP418 | Valerie_Forstman_Spring_1_Joshu_Dog

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2023/04/19

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51:52

MCZP417 | Maria_Habito_Diamond_Sutra_Living_Beings

Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts ·

2023/03/17

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135 results

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