Dharma Talk: “Waking up to this threshold moment” with Valerie Forstman
Release Date: 03/11/2025
How to Disappear
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
Katie Arnold tells a story from her upcoming book How to Disappear about an arduous and illuminating long distance run in the high country. Katie Arnold is the author of Brief Flashings in the Phenomenal World as well as critically acclaimed , published by Random House in March 2019. She is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine, where she worked on staff for twelve years. Her “Raising Rippers” column about bringing up adventurous, outdoor children appears monthly on Outside Online. She has written for The New York Times, Travel + Leisure, Sunset, Runner’s World, ESPN: The...
info_outline
The Eightfold Path and Tribal Spirituality
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
This talk was offered by Karen Waconda-Lewis at Mountain Cloud Zen Center on May 22nd, 2025. Karen discusses how the Noble Eightfold Path connects with Tribal spirituality. Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: Become a member:
info_outline
Zen is Basking in Love and Loving Back
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
This talk was offered by Ruben Habito at Mountain Cloud Zen Center on May 15th, 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: Become a member:
info_outline
Dharma Talk: “Why I Love the Three Poisons” with David Loy
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
In this talk, David explores the depth and application of this teaching to our modern lives. He notes, “We often do not appreciate that the three poisons is a profound teaching, perhaps especially important today.” Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: Become a member:
info_outline
Dharma Talk: “The Refuge of No Refuge” with David Loy
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
In this talk, David explores the idea of refuge. To take refuge is to run away to a hiding place…Is that what we should do? Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: Become a member: Check out our website:
info_outline
Dharma Talk: “The single stone ten thousand feet down in the sea of Ise” with Maria Reis Habito
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
Zen is a practice to deeply explore and fully live our true Self. Might the Koan about the stone deep down in the sea of Ise be a helpful pointer in this exploration? Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: Become a member: Check out our website: All are welcome to join us for sitting and dharma talks. Use this link to join us:
info_outline
Dharma Talk: Don’t Know, Can’t Know, Who Knows? with Shana Smith
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
In this talk, Shana takes us right into “don’t know mind” as a portal to discovering our true nature and the freedom inherent in simply being alive. By tasting this freedom, we become better able to live, function, and respond compassionately even through difficult times. Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: Become a member: Check out our website:
info_outline
Dharma Talk: The Benevolence of Awakening with Valerie Forstman
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
In this early spring talk, Valerie turns to the way of awakening, discovered and explored as this world – in the midst – just as it is. Not-two. The talk weaves together a cross-section of experiences of homecoming with case 100 of the Book of Equanimity (Shoyoroku). In the case, Master Kaku of Roya receives the student’s question and responds in kind: “The essential state is pure and clear; how are mountains, rivers, and the great earth produced at once?” How, indeed. Can we enter the wonder and embody it to the full? Recorded on April 10th, 2025 Please consider supporting Mountain...
info_outline
Dharma Talk: “By Boat or By Land: Crossing over, fully arrived” with Valerie Forstman
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
In this talk, Valerie begins by revisiting themes from our recent sesshin – the wellspring of zazen, the intimacy of not-knowing, the peace that passes all understanding. The talk explores these themes by taking a fresh look at case 51 in the Book of Equanimity, ‘Hogen’s “Boat or Land,”’ Master Hogen’s question to a visiting monk elicits a response that resounds with the homecoming that is available to us all. Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: Become a member: ...
info_outline
Dharma Talk: “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and the ABC’s of Zen” with Shana Smith
Mountain Cloud Zen Podcasts
In this teisho, Shana uses Ruben Habito Roshi’s “ABC’s of Zen” as parallels for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. She then explores Case 43 of the Shoyoroku as a pointer into finding our own unique ways to support the healing of a seemingly divided world. Shana will be leading a weekend retreat at Mountain Cloud in April - for more visit Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this. Donations: Become a member: Check out our website:
info_outlineIn 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 and full of wonder.
Recorded on March 6th, 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: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/
Become a member: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/
Check out our website: https://www.mountaincloud.org/