Henry Shukman, the guiding teacher of Mountain Cloud Zen Center, joins Rick and Forrest to explore self-transcendent experiences, relaxing self-identification, and the warm heart at the core of Zen practice.

About our Guest: Henry Shukman is a writer, poet, and Zen Master of the Sanbo Zen lineage. He’s published nine books to date which have won numerous awards, and writes regularly for Tricycle, The New York Times and other publications. His most recent book is One Blade of Grass: Finding the Old Road of the Heart, a Zen Memoir. 

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Key Topics:

1:50: How Henry came to meditative practice.

3:30: Henry’s self-transcendent experience.

7:20: How Zen practice has changed Henry’s experience of himself.

10:35: Gradual cultivation, sudden awakening. 

14:30: The role of transcendent experiences. 

18:50: The importance of virtue. 

21:40: Unethical behavior among contemplative teachers. 

22:40: The risks of “seeking” self-transcendent experiences.

27:00: A framework that supports awakening.

31:00: Where it’s valuable to rest our awareness. 

35:30: Practicing when there’s suffering associated with the container of the body.

41:10: Non-separateness, and relaxing identification with self. 

47:15: Fear around not-self. 

48:10: “The apple falls away from the tree.”

51:15: Recap

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