Good morning. So welcome to the meeting of the minds, the gathering of our hearts, which we call Sashin. So for this Sashin, I want to start from, or at least writing from Dogen called Sansui Kyo, the Mountains and Water Sutra. So this is a very unusual writing in a lot of ways. It's the only writing by Dogen that he called a sutra. And, you know, the sutras are the words of the Buddha. So usually they're supposedly spoken by Shakyamuni Buddha 2,500 years ago, in northern India.

[01:02]

even though some of them, the Mahayana sutras, like the Lotus Sutra, may have been channeled and actually written down several hundred years later. But there's only two texts that I know of that are actually called sutras written later in Asia by particular people. There are sutras that were chanted regularly in East Asia that scholars now know were written in China. Even actually, Dogen suspected some of those same sutras did not go back to India. But the only sutras that are called sutras by particular historical people that we know of are the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Ancestor and this text, the Mountains and Waters Sutra by Dogen. Of course, since then we have Gary Snyder's Smoky the Bear Sutra. And maybe there'll be more sutras written in America.

[02:03]

Gary Snyder was kind of ahead of his time. Anyway, this mountains and waters has a number of meanings. So it's literally mountains and waters, sansui. But this, as a compound, sansui also means landscape. It's a common word in China and Japan for landscape. So we could call this the landscape sutra. And some gardens in, in Asia are called sansui. So some of you may have seen pictures. I don't know if any of you have seen the rock gardens that they have in Kyoto and other places in Japan. They're called kaya sansui, dry landscape gardens, dry mountains and waters gardens. And of course, mountains and waters has something to do with the name of this group, the mountains, or sanga. Even though Dogen is talking about the mountains and waters, he's also talking about the landscape of our practice and the landscape of our practice heart.

[03:16]

This is the texture and topography of our practice and of our deepest Buddha heart. So he starts off by saying, and excuse all the books up here, I have a few translations and the original, but I'm really interested in talking about this, not in terms of books, but in terms of the mountains and waters around us, Hiroshi Koji. So he says, the mountains and waters of the immediate present are the manifestation of the path of the ancient Buddhas. So these mountains and waters are also about us, about our body and mind, and about how we meet this immediate presence. What is the immediate presence of the mountain of Zazen sitting on your cushion or chair right now?

[04:20]

Of course, with water coursing through it. What is the immediate presence that is the manifestation of and the expression of the path of the ancient Buddhas. So it's these mountains and waters. And we meet these mountains and waters just in the sounds of the mountains and waters around us. So I haven't had a chance to walk down to the bottom of the path here to see if the creek is running. Is anyone? Yeah, so there's water down here. And we're actually We can't see the mountains because we're in the mountains. But riding up Page Mill Road, one has a sense of the windiness and the hilliness of the terrain we're on. So how do we see the mountains and waters of our immediate presence?

[05:22]

So Dogen says, together, abiding in their Dharma positions, they have consummated the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness or they have fulfilled exhaustive virtues. So this idea of abiding or dwelling in our dharma positions is very important. Here we are together as the mountains and waters of the immediate presence. The practice of that, that exhausts, that fulfills the exhaustive virtues is simply settling into our dharma position. So these mountains and waters of this presence, this immediate presence, are the expression of the old Buddha's Each of us together abiding in our own dharma state, or each of them together abiding in their own dharma position, fulfills exhaustive virtues.

[06:36]

So Sashin is a good place to explore dharma position. So each of us in the Sashin has a place, a seat, where we sit. Each of us has various other dharma positions, working in the kitchen, serving oyoki, cleaning the pots after meals, hitting various instruments during service or other times. Whatever your dharma position, just to fully, exhaustively settle into your dharma position is this immediate presence. this total presence of the mountains and waters, expressing the path of the ancient Buddhas. So as we sit, whether we feel that we're sitting like mountains or melting like waters,

[07:48]

just to settle into what is the dharma position of this body and mind right now, today, this week, this lifetime, and really settle into that. This is a kind of exhaustive study. How do we feel the mountains and waters in us? How do we meet the mountains and waters all around us? How do we take our dharma position as the immediate presence right now, of our life right now? So Dogen goes on, because there are events prior to the kalpa of emptiness, before the Big Bang, there are the livelihood of the immediate presence. What is the livelihood of the immediate present?

[08:53]

How do you find your vitality? How do you find your livelihood? How do you enjoy your food as you eat Oryoki? How do you enjoy your vitality as you get up to do walking meditation? As you go to do your various dharma positions in the session, as the bell rings and you come back to zendo, just to walk and be aware and settle into the dharma position of this immediate presence is how we find this livelihood of the immediate present. So, Dogen is talking about the mountains and waters, but this is not separate from us. So in China and Japan, they call monks unsui, clouds and waters, because they flow like clouds and waters.

[09:55]

They fly over the mountains like clouds. So this has to do with how we see and how we experience our vitality in our immediate presence right now in this drama position. So again, Dogen, just to finish this little conclusion, this little introduction of Dogen. is always mastered from the mountains. And the subtle work of following the wind as a rule penetrates through to liberation from the mountains.

[10:57]

So this is the introduction to this sutra that Dogen has written. And it's very rich. The self before the emergence of science. So as we sit, as we walk, as we go about our dharma positions in the Seshin and in this lifetime, there are various signs that emerge. Things happen. And we can see them and see ourself in them. But the mountains and waters are the self before the emergence of signs. What is yourself before you had a social security number? What is yourself? You know, the old Zen saying, to see yourself before your parents were born, to see your original face before your parents were born. Thurman is talking about this in terms of the mountains and waters.

[12:01]

How do we see the mountains and waters? How do we get to know the mountains and waters of our own self before the emergence of science? our own immediate presence, our own dharma position. By the height and breadth of the qualities of the mountains, the virtue of riding clouds is always mastered from the mountains. Another translation says the spiritual power to ride the clouds is always mastered from the mountains. And the marvelous ability to follow the wind is inevitably liberated from the mountains. So in 1243, after teaching for 10 years in Kyoto, Dogen moved up to the mountains where he built his monastery at Heiji. But this sutra was actually written a few years before that, in 1240, while he was living near the capital of Kyoto, while he was living in the world, in the world of the capital.

[13:09]

So it's good to go off to the mountains and waters and become the mountains and waters. And these five days here in Jikoji, in the mountains and waters of Jikoji, close to the capital of San Francisco, the cultural capital of San Francisco, still we can feel the mountains and waters around us. But what he's writing about is not just something that you can only get by going off to practice at a place like Tassajara, for example, which is the deep mountains and waters. Still, there are the mountains and waters of this immediate presence. And this is the path of the ancient Buddhas. So how do we see the mountains and waters? In a way, being right in the middle of the path of the ancient Buddhas, we can't see them.

[14:12]

We are the mountains, we become the mountains. Dogen says that a little later on. We are the masters of the mountains. We are the clouds and waters of the mountains. And yet, part of this teaching is about how we can shift our perception, how we can open up to new possibilities of the mountains and waters of our immediate presence. And in this writing, and we're not going to get through all of it in five days, but I want to talk about some of the stories he talks about, he plays with how we usually see mountains and waters. So most of us came up Page Mill Road to get here. I think Nan came from the south, so you missed that, but on the way back, maybe you'll see it. It's a windy road, not quite as windy as the road to Tassajara, not quite as long, but it's a windy road.

[15:16]

But back when Dogen was writing about this, if he came up that road, he would have walked. And when he went to China and visited different teachers on different mountains, he walked through the mountains. So there are various ways of seeing the mountains from different angles. Some of you flew over mountains to get here. And maybe you looked down and saw mountains. And if you did, you would have seen mountains in a way that maybe Doken never could have imagined. And yet, somehow he knew it because he tells a story about mountains walking. And maybe we can see the mountains walking in our walking in the mountains. But if you've ever seen mountains from an airplane, you may actually get a clue to the immediate presence of mountains and waters. So I will come back to this introduction during the Soshin, but just to push a little further, an ancient Zen master in our lineage named Furong Daokai

[16:38]

or fuyodokai we say in Japanese, once said to his assembly, the green mountains are forever walking or are constantly walking. A stone woman gives birth to a child at night. The green mountains are constantly walking. A stone woman gives birth to a child at night. So we don't usually think of the mountains as walking. And yet, if you are flying over the mountains, maybe you can't tell where the waves of the mountains end and the waves of the ocean begin. Waves of the ocean are smaller, of course. So he says the green mountains are constantly walking. In Carl Bielfeld's translation, he says, the Blue Mountains are constantly walking.

[17:42]

So there's a Chinese character that can be read as either green or blue. And when Shouhaku and I were translating Duggan's extensive record, every time we came to that, we'd have this long discussion about, are these Green Mountains or Blue Mountains? And it was more complicated because I'm colorblind. So are the mountains green or are the mountains blue? Well, there's some green if we look out around us. So maybe the mountains are green. But if you see the mountains in the distance, if you see a line of mountains, they sort of look blue. And near where I grew up in Pennsylvania, there are the Blue Mountains. They're called that. So anyway, I'll leave it to you whether the mountains are green or blue. But anyway, they are constantly walking. And then there's this other thing about a stone woman giving birth to a child at night.

[18:44]

This is true. This is the meaning of our seshin. How do we find the livelihood of the immediate present? So Dogen says about this saying from Furang Daokai, mountains lack none of the qualities proper to them For this reason, they forever remain settled, and yet they constantly walk. That quality of walking should be investigated in detail. Because the walking of mountains must be like the walking of people, don't doubt the walking of mountains just because it does not look the same as the walking of human beings. So this is about the walking of human beings and the walking of mountains. And also, you're walking right now. You're walking during Sashin. In this saying, it uses the ordinary compound for walking, but there's another character that means walking that also means conduct or treading, like treading water.

[19:56]

How do we carry through our drama positions right now? this week, this day, this period of zazen or talk, this lifetime. That quality of walking should be investigated in detail because the walking of mountains must be like the walking of people. Don't doubt the walking of mountains just because it does not look the same as the walking of human beings. Now the teaching of Buddhas and Zen adepts has already pointed out walking. This is attaining the fundamental. How do we walk the walk, not just talk the talk? How do we find our own true walking? How do we find our way on the path of the ancient Buddhas that we're already on? You should thoroughly examine and be sure about this indication of forever walking.

[21:03]

Because of walking, it is forever. Though the walking of green mountains is fast as wind and even faster, people in the mountains are unaware, do not recognize it. Inside the mountains is the blooming of flowers that is inside the world. People outside the mountains are unaware and don't recognize it. People who do not have the eyes to see the mountains do not notice, do not know, They do not see, do not hear. It is this principle. I'll read another translation. The last part. The saying of the Buddha ancestor, Dao Kai, has pointed out walking. It has got what is fundamental and we should thoroughly investigate this address on constant walking.

[22:08]

It is constant because it is walking. Although the walking of the blue mountains is faster than swift as the wind, those in the mountains do not sense this, do not know it. To be in the mountains is a flower opening within the world. Those outside the mountains do not sense it or know it. Those without eyes to see the mountains do not sense, do not know, do not see or hear the reason for this. And then Dogen says, to doubt the walking of the mountains means that one does not yet know one's own walking. It is not that one does not walk, but that one does not yet know, has not made clear this walking. Those who would know their own walking must know the walking of these blue mountains. So this is about mountains. It's also about, again, about our own, the landscape of our own practice heart, the landscape of our own zazen.

[23:20]

How do we see our own walking? So, you know, one advantage in our practice, one of the forms that supports this is called kinhin or walking meditation. When we get up between periods of sitting to walk, we walk very slowly. Maybe none of us have ever walked that slowly outside of his endo. Very slow. Please see another mode of walking, of the bounds walking, in the walking of walking meditation. So even though Kenyon may be as slow as you ever walk, it may be faster than the walkings of the mountains. And yet, what is this fast and slow? How do we see the possibility of our actual immediate presence that allows the clouds to flow, that allows the water to be still?

[24:23]

So again, studying this walking of the mountains is the way to see our own walking. And when we are here in Seshin, we're not separate from the mountains. We're inside the mountains. We are the ones who are right here in the middle of the Seshin, of the Mountain Source Sangha. What is it like? to feel this walking. So even as we sit very still and upright, we can tell by the way the sunlight moves that we are moving, that the mountains are moving, that the earth is rotating. And eventually we rotate enough so that the sun will go down tonight. There are various kinds of moving, various kinds of walking.

[25:29]

happening all around us. Usually we are caught in human world and our clock time and don't see the richness and depths of our own actual immediate presence. And so, Sheen, we slow down a little. Or we shift a little bit our perspective, our usual way of walking and talking. So this Mountains and Water Sutra is also about how we talk. So in some of what the stories we'll get to later in this text, he goes back to how we talk to reflect this walk. So he's doing a particular strange kind of talking here. And maybe our talking shifts in session too.

[26:31]

So we're all trying to observe silence. And as Tyler said last night, if what you want to say to someone is something that can wait till after Sesshin, then please keep it. If it's something that needs to be said to support the Sesshin, then quietly we can do that kind of talking. If there's some question or some work that needs to be done to support our drama position in the Sesshin, then that is not usual talking. That's the talking of the mountains walking. All of this is about how we, again, settle into our dharma position as mountains, as clouds. So in the old ways in Zen that many of the famous teachers are named after the mountain where they dwell. And the monks were, again, called clouds who were floating by, settling for a while on the mountain.

[27:40]

And yet, the Blue Mountains are constantly walking, and a stone woman gives birth to a child at night. So there's a line that I referred to before that I like in the Blue Cliff Record. just commenting on a statement by a Zen person, and it says, she has her own mountain spirit realm. So this Mountains and Water Sutra is about finding, and this practice of Sashin is about finding how we can settle into our own mountain spirit realm. So just following the schedule, just doing the next thing, just finding your seat, your dharma position, your particular job in the sasheen today. Enjoy your own mountain spirit realm.

[28:46]

Investigate your own mountain spirit realm. What is the mountain walking of your own mountain spirit realm? What is the mountain talk of your own mountain spirit realm? How do we see this self before the emergence of signs, this self that's deeper than our idea of identity, that was there before you had a social security number? So these mountains and waters were here even long before white people came here. Maybe even long before Native Americans, so-called, came over the Bering Straits, there were these mountains and waters. These are fairly young mountains, actually. These are baby mountains, pushed up from the Pacific in earthquakes and other tremors.

[29:57]

So how do we understand the walking of the mountains? How do we understand the walking that we do during kinhin? How do we understand what it means to be alive? How do we know how to find this dharma position that we're all already in? So Dogen says again, if one doubts the walking of mountains, One does not even yet know one's own walking either. But it's not that one's own walking does not exist. It's just that one does not yet know or understand one's own walking. So obviously you are all mountains walking because you're here. Somehow you all made it here. Some of you from a great distance. Some of you from less distance, from just over the hill. Still, through various obstacles, through various

[31:03]

good karmic fortune, here we are together, to have a few days together to settle into this mountain spirit realm. So Dogen says, if one knows one's own walking, one would know the walking of the green mountains. The green mountains are not animate and not inanimate. The self is not animate, not inanimate. One should not doubt this walking of the green mountains. I'll read on just a little bit further. Who knows, by the measure of how many phenomenal realms these Blue Mountains may be perceived, the walking of the Blue Mountains, as well as the walking of oneself, should be clearly examined. There should be examination both in stepping back and in stepping forward. At the precise time before any signs, as well as from the other side of the king of emptiness,

[32:14]

stepping forward and stepping backwards, walking never stops for a moment. This fact you should examine. If walking ever stopped, Buddhists and Zen adepts would not appear. If walking had a final end, Buddhism would not have reached the present. There is no end to this walking. It's not that we reach the end of our walking path and then the path is finished. In fact, after, when the bell rings to end walking meditation, we have to walk back to our dharma position. This walking is endless. Stepping forward has never stopped, stepping backward has never stopped. Stepping forward does not oppose stepping backward. And when stepping backward, that does not oppose stepping forward. This quality is called the mountains flowing. It is called the flowing mountains.

[33:16]

Because the green mountains, too, learn walking, and the eastern mountains learn traveling on water, this learning is the learning of mountains. So later on, he talks more about another saying, that the eastern mountains travel on water. This is also a saying by Furang Daokai, that the mountains in the east travel on water. Stepping forward and stepping backward don't obstruct each other. In the walking of mountains, sometimes we take the backward step and turn within. Sometimes the bell rings, we stand up, we leave the zendo and go do the next thing on the schedule. Do walking meditation. Stepping forward and stepping backward do not obstruct each other. And yet, there is this actuality of the immediate presence of the Blue Mountains walking.

[34:20]

So during this week, please allow yourself to deeply investigate and look into this quality of the immediate presence of your own mountain spirit realm, in your dharma position, on your doing your job during this session, doing your job in your body and mind during this lifetime. The Blue Mountains are constantly walking. Please enjoy this investigation. Please enjoy looking at the way that the mountains are constantly walking. Please enjoy the walking as you're doing walking meditation. Please enjoy the walking of the mountains as you're sitting still in zazen. Please see if you can find this livelihood of the immediate present.

[35:30]

So I'll close today with just one of Dogen's verses from later on, towards the end of his life, when he was actually living way back in the deep mountains. He said, grasping source of clouds and passing through water barriers, my face opens in reverence as the mountain face displays flowers. So this displaying flowers that he says here is the same character, the same expression for what Shakyamuni Buddha did when he held up a flower. So he's talking about the mountains holding up flowers too. Again, grasping source of clouds. So this is the Mountain Source Sangha, but maybe somewhere there's a Cloud Source Sangha. Grasping source of clouds and passing through water barriers, my face opens in reverence as the mountain's face displays flowers. Clearly realizing the promise from beginningless Kalpas, mountains love the master and I enter the mountains.

[36:42]

So these mountains of Jikoji, you have entered. You're all here. And these mountains and waters of this immediate presence love your own mountain spirit realm. Please see how you can meet. your own mountain spirit realm with the mountains of Chikoji. And meet the mountains of Chikoji with your own mountain spirit realm. Thank you very much. Beings are numberless.

[37:26]

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