Claim Ownershipin the Cloud
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Welcome to the Mountain Cloud Zen Center "in the Cloud" podcast. Here, we'll be sharing our weekly Teisho's exploring classical Zen Koans, offered by Mountain Cloud teachers, and some guest teachers. Additionally, we'll be releasing a conversation series, titled Path(less), which will explore the "pathless path" of practice and life.
Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud Zen Center through donation and membership, both of which allow us to offer these and other programs. Visit mountaincloud.org for our daily meditation schedule, weekly talks, upcoming retreats, and more.
Reach out to grant@mountaincloud.org with any comments/suggestions.
Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud Zen Center through donation and membership, both of which allow us to offer these and other programs. Visit mountaincloud.org for our daily meditation schedule, weekly talks, upcoming retreats, and more.
Reach out to grant@mountaincloud.org with any comments/suggestions.
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Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/ Reach out to grant@mountaincloud.org with any comments or suggestions.
Ukraine … Gaza … Iran … Can Buddhist teachings help us understand what is happening, and how we might respond? Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/ Reach out to grant@mountaincloud.org with any comments or suggestions.
Such a pleasure to sit down with Valerie Forstman, Guiding Teacher for Mountain Cloud Zen Center, for this first conversation in the Path(less) series. Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud through donation or membership. Donation: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/ Reach out to grant@mountaincloud.org with any comments or suggestions.
In this first dharma talk following the Spring Sesshin, Valerie begins with a poem that whimsically maps the trajectory of practice. The talk then turns to Case 7 in the Mumonkan or Gateless Gate, "Joshu's 'Wash Your Bowls.'" A monk arrives at the monastery and asks for instruction. On the surface, Joshu's response is a word of practice guidance to the monk and to us. Deeper still, Joshu's every word presents the world where there is not the slightest bit of dust to wipe away. This world. This fact. The Gateless Gate that is always exactly where you are. Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/ Reach out to grant@mountaincloud.org with any comments or suggestions.
Welcome to a new converation series, titled "Path(less)," on the "in the Cloud" podcast. In this introductory episde, host, Grant Goulet, provides a brief orientation to the theme of the series: the pathless path of practice and life. Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/ Reach out to grant@mountaincloud.org with any comments or suggestions.
In this Teisho, Carolyn takes up Mumonkan Case 20: A Person of Great Strength – Seeing Shôgen's World From the Midst of Fire. Recorded on March 12, 2026 Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/
Valerie begins this talk with an exploration of Zen's invitation to 'come home' to who we truly are. What kind of path is it that can arrive fully without taking a single step? And what are we to make of this homecoming when the suffering of the world is fully included? As a way of exploring these questions, the talk turns to a koan: Blue Cliff Record or Hekiganroku Case 69, "Nansen Draws a Circle." Three monks, dharma siblings, set out together to visit a renowned master. Along the way, they stop to share the teaching – and to offer us a glimpse of home that is always right where we are. Recorded on March 5, 2026 Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/
In Case 2 of The Blue Cliff Record, Master Joshu instructs us that "The Supreme Way is not difficult; it simply dislikes picking and choosing." How can this actually apply to a human life, especially in such trying times, since we seem to be faced with nothing but choices every day, from the most mundane to the most heart wrenching? Recorded on February 26, 2026 Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/
This talk is in reference to the Biblical "Tree of Life," from which we disconnected when we ate from the "Tree of Knowledge." How does our Zen practice help us to reconnect? Does Joshu's "Oak tree in the garden" give a hint? Recorded on February 19, 2026 Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member, so we can continue to offer these programs freely. Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Membership: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/
Zen practice invites us to sit in the midst of things just as they are without being tossed about by difficulties. As the waves settle, it can happen – in one unguarded moment – that the world suddenly falls open. The long imagined scaffolding of separation falls away. And we discover: right there in the vicissitudes of our lives there is ONE who is completely free and untroubled. Dogen called it "untrammeled." In this talk, Valerie acknowledges the ills of this world then turns to case 94 in the Book of Equanimity or Shoyoroku to explore the reality that doesn't divide and doesn't depend on circumstances. An exchange between Master Tozan (Dongshan) and a monk offers a window into Tozan's sickroom and a gateway into realizing – and taking care of – the one who does not get ill. Recorded on February 12th, 2026 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/
Shana delves into Case 9 of the Hekiganroku and Case 15c of the Miscellaneous Koans as pointers to navigating the polycrisis. Recorded on February 5th, 2026 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/
This talk begins with the question of how to embody the freedom and ease of Zen's empty hands while being fully attuned to the cries of the world – including the cries of our own hearts. As a prelude to a koan, the talk turns to the great lay disciple of the Buddha, Vimalakirti, who lies ill and says, "I am sick because the whole world is sick." What wholeness has Vimalakirti seen that allows him to say this? Case 3 of the Hekiganroku or Blue Cliff Record offers a response. About to die, Master Baso (Mazu) gives a final teaching that continues to resound. Recorded on January 29th, 2026 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/
Opening with a reading of Mountain Cloud's Land Acknowledgment, this talk is framed by a tribute to Joanna Macy through poetry that helped to inspire her deep and abiding support for the earth and all forms of life. Within this frame, Valerie turns to a koan about Prajnatara, teacher of Bodhidharma and an ancestor who may well have been a woman. Case 3 of the Shoyoroku or Book of Equanimity presents Prajnatara embodying the way by "always reciting the 'Such-as-this'-sutra" and opening our eyes to what that is. Recorded on January 22nd, 2026 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/
Scott takes up Case 6 of the Blue Cliff Record, Unmon's "Every Day is a Good Day." Recorded on January 15th, 2026 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/
In this first Dharma talk of the new year, Valerie reads from a recently published collection of poetry, Begin Where You Are, then turns to the question, 'Where Are You?' Issuing from our practice, this question is not a matter of geographical location but a pointer to the fundamental reality of who and what we truly are. Centuries ago, Master Tosetsu Etsu famously addressed his monks with this fundamental question: Right in the midst of your seeking and searching, where is your self-nature at this very moment? Addressed to us, how will we respond – right now in 'this very moment,' exactly as it is? Recorded on January 8th, 2026 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/
In the wake of the Rohatsu sesshin at Mountain Cloud and our deep dive into Hakuin's Song of Zazen, Valerie begins this talk with a painting by Hakuin, an image of three blind men crossing a precarious log bridge. What does Hakuin's vision of 'crossing over' say about our practice, about awakening, and about the leap or fall right into the heart of this broken open world? By way of response, Valerie takes up case 62 in the Hekiganroku or Blue Cliff Record, "Unmon's 'One Treasure.'" In the case, Master Unmon/Yunmen quotes a famous passage about the one treasure that is always right in our midst and offers a teaching about its manifold activity. Recorded on December 18th, 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/
On the occasion of the last full moon of this calendar year, Valerie turns to case 100 in the Blue Cliff Record or Hekiganroku. Speaking directly to our life and practice, Master Haryo (Baling), asks, "What is the sharpest sword? He himself answers, "Each branch of coral reflects the moon." How does that sharpest sword function and what does it have to do with the light of the moon? In the course of her talk, Valerie reflects on a recent sesshin in Germany then makes the turn toward Rohatsu, the deepest ingathering of the year at Zen centers around the world. The talk also includes a poem by Maelna Mörling from her forthcoming collection, 'Lumina Station.' Recorded on December 4th, 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/
Maria turns to Mumonkan Case 7, Joshu's "Wash your Bowl", his advice to a newcomer who earnestly asked him for instruction about the way. How does this simple instruction reflect the boundless way that Joshu himself asked his own teacher Nansen about when he first entered the monastery? Recorded on November 20th, 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/
How do we reconcile the wondrous and borderless reality of the essence with the messiness of our everyday lives? Are changing diapers, checking a phone or driving to work really compatible with "vast and void, no holiness?" Carolyn explores this question as it was posed by Unmon in 10th century China (Case 16 of the Mumonkan) "the world is vast and wide like this. Why do we put on our seven-panel robe at the sound of the bell?" Delve in to see how there is no contraction here. Recorded on November 13th, 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/
In this talk, Scott takes up Case 10 of the Mumonkon, "Seizei the Poor." Recorded on November 6th, 2025 Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/ Become a member: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/membership/
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so beautiful ... it IS worth it! yes.