Mountains Are Mountains, Rivers Are Rivers

In this dharma talk, Sensei Kozan dives into Dogen’s “Mountains and Rivers Sutra”. In this esoteric fascicle, Dogen engages in the impossible task of naming the unnamable – the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. Rather than trying to understand the sutra intellectually, Kozan calls us to listen to the present moment through the sutra. We can experience “joy of reading Dogen as if listening to the river. We understand even if we don’t know what it is we understand.” Kozan calls us into a deeper relationship with mountains and waters – one that acknowledges our non-separation. The sutra speaks of mountains and waters as being ancient Buddhas that “abide in their unique conditions” – they embody what they are with no resistance, jealousy, or insecurity, So too do we abide in our unique conditions, whether we like those conditions or not. “There’s no way to be anything but who and where we are”, and yet we resist, we form hardened beliefs, and we close ourselves off. Like mountains and rivers, how can we learn to abide in our conditions?