Good morning. So the more I study this sutra of the mountains and waters that we've been looking at, the more I see that it really is a sutra. Each sutra, each line has many sacred levels that can bubble up. So just to do a little bit of review, in his, the only sutra that Dogen wrote, the mountains and waters sutra which he wrote while he was still living in the capital of Kyoto or nearby, he says that the mountains and waters of the immediate present, this immediate present,

[01:01]

are the manifestation and expression of the path of the ancient Buddhas. Together, abiding in their dharma position, they have consummated the qualities of thorough exhaustiveness. They have realized completeness. Because these mountains and waters are the events prior to the Big Bang, prior to the kalpa of emptiness, they are the livelihood of this immediate present. Because they are the self before the emergence of signs and symbols and badges and IDs and so forth, they are the penetrating liberation of immediate actuality. So I've been talking about these mountains and waters of the immediate present, the expression

[02:13]

of the path of the ancient Buddhas. In terms of the mountains and waters of the Santa Cruz mountains around us, in terms of the mountains and waters of Jikoji, in terms of the mountains and waters now sitting on your cushion or chair, these are fully the exhaustive reality of this immediate present. So again, Master Furudokai, as we chanted his name this morning, said the green mountains are constantly walking. A stone woman gives birth to a child at night. And I have neglected to see fully the impact of the very next sentence that Dogen says

[03:28]

in commenting on this. He says, mountains lack none of the qualities proper to them. Or the mountains lack none of their proper virtues. Thus, they forever constantly remain at rest and also are constantly walking. Mountains lack none of the qualities proper to them. This word qualities, kudoku, also means virtues. Mountains lack none of their virtues. It also means merit. It's the word that we often translate as merit. Mountains have the virtues and qualities and merit of mountains. Have you noticed?

[04:30]

This word kudoku also has in it, it's a compound. The second part, doku, means virtue. The first part means also effort. So mountains exert themselves in constantly expressing the qualities and the virtues and the merits that are proper to them. So, he doesn't say that mountains have the qualities proper to water. And yet, mountains and water cannot be separated. Mountains walk on the water. The water flows down from the mountains and rises up to the mountain peaks in the form

[05:42]

of vapor sometimes. So, again, Dogen says, this quality of walking should be investigated in detail because the walking of mountains must be like the walking of people. Do not doubt the walking of mountains just because it does not look the same as the walking of human beings. So, by studying the walking and the workings of mountains, we come to feel the inner quality and virtue and merit and effort of our own walking, of the struggle it takes to get up from our seat and stand and turn around and bow and proceed in kin-hin. It's not easy sometimes to walk so slowly.

[06:43]

It's not easy sometimes to get up from our cushion, even when we've been, maybe even especially when we've been just waiting for the bell. Can we study our own quality by studying the quality and the walking and the pace and the time of these mountains walking? So, Dogen also says, though the walking of the green mountains is fast as wind and even faster, people in the mountains are unaware and don't recognize it. So, this week, here we are inside the mountains. Inside the Sashin of the mountain Suresh Sankar, allowing mountains to be born in the middle

[07:52]

of the night. So, he says here that the walking of the blue mountains is fast as wind. So, we've all been studying the slowness of the mountains, but also the mountains are very fast. Did you see them? There they go again. So, again, if one doubts the walking of the mountains, one does not even yet know one's own walking either. Please enjoy the walking of the mountains. Please enjoy your own walking. There is a study, and again Dogen says that even the mountains must study their mountains walking. The green mountains are not sentient and not insentient.

[08:53]

The self is not sentient and not insentient. So, we must not doubt this walking of the green mountains. What does it mean for us to be sentient beings? Especially when we hear that we should not question that the mountains are not sentient and not insentient. How do we find the reality and the walking and the talking of our own livelihood right now in this immediate present? So, Dogen says mountains lack none of the qualities that are proper to them. As sentient beings, which of the qualities proper to us are we lacking?

[09:59]

Can you find any? Somehow we all found something lacking or else we could not have arrived on your cushion or chair right now. And yet, could Dogen have said that adepts lack none of the qualities proper to them? So, and as I said, I would like to spend the whole session just talking about one or two of these sentences and also, you know, part of being in the mountains is that sometimes we get up to the peak and we have this kind of panoramic awareness. So, I'm going to continue with this review a little bit further, but I also want to give you a kind of panoramic overview of this Mountains and Water Sutra. So, I'm going to jump to the very end right now.

[11:05]

Almost the end. Dogen says, in the case of mountains too, there are mountains concealed in jewels. There are mountains concealed in marshes. There are mountains concealed in the sky. There are mountains hidden in mountains. Have you seen some of those mountains hidden in the mountains? And there is also study of which conceals mountains in concealment. I'll have to look at the other translation from now on. I didn't expect to jump to the end so quickly. Yeah, Carl says there's a study of mountains hidden in hiddenness. Right in that which is hidden. Mountains are hiding. So, these mountains and waters are not just out there in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

[12:17]

And it's not just the mountain you think is sitting on your cushion. Or the waters that you can imagine coursing through your veins and arteries. There are mountains hidden in mountains. And then Dogen even says, an ancient Buddha said, mountains are mountains, waters are waters. This saying does not say that mountains are mountains. It says mountains are mountains. So, first there is a mountain, then there is no mountain. But anyway, that was a sneak preview of the very ending. Now to come back to our review. Who knows by the measure of how many phenomenal realms the green mountains may be perceived. The walking of the green mountains as well as the walking of oneself should be clearly examined. So again and again, he's saying, please look. Please look into these hidden mountains.

[13:20]

Please look at the walking of the mountains. Please look at the workings of the mountains. Please see, is it alive? How do we find this livelihood of our immediate presence right now? How can we just say yes to this experience right now on your cushion or chair? And keep paying attention. It's hidden. There are mountains hidden in hiddenness even. So don't expect to reach the ends of the mountains and waters in one little session or in one little lifetime. If walking ever stopped, Buddhas and Zen adepts would not appear. If walking had a final end, the Buddha way would not have reached the present.

[14:27]

So, there are endless mountains and waters. In world systems in all directions, there are mountains. And beyond those mountains, there are more mountains. So, we've been talking. I don't know if there are bears in these mountains. We've already talked about the mountain lions and the raccoons and the bats and the mice and so forth. But there's also an old Zen saying, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see. And do you know what he saw? He saw another mountain. Old Zen saying. So, the fact that our practice involves paying attention and looking closely and trying to see the actual livelihood of your immediate presence in the walking of the mountains right now,

[15:33]

doesn't mean that you will see to the end of the mountains. So, it's okay if you see just a tiny bit of the mountains. Just one little footstep of the mountains. It's pretty good. So, that's been a little review of the first two days. Now, I want to go further into the mountains and waters. And I'm even going to try and get to the waters today. But I'll try and stop before lunch. So, Dogen continues a little later in the mountains and waters sutra.

[16:48]

Even if we attain the summit of seeing manifestation of being as the inconceivable qualities of the Buddhas, reality as it is, is not only like this. Again, even if we attain the very summit of seeing manifestation of beings as the inconceivable qualities, the inconceivable virtues of the Buddhas, their reality is not only this. So, it's not enough to reach the top of the mountain. When we reach the top of the mountain, we can see far around. So, if any of you, I know some of you have walked up to the ridge back here in spite of the mountain lions. Have any of you seen the ocean? Okay. But still, there's more to that ocean than what you saw.

[17:53]

Sorry to say. But maybe that's okay. It's okay to just see a little bit of the ocean. So, our individual views of being are individual subjects and objects. Or another translation, each of these appearances is the particular objective and subjective result of our karma, of the causes and conditions of the mountains walking and the waters flowing. Each of us sees with our own watery eyes, capped by our mountain brows. Each of us, each mountain has its own particular eyes.

[18:55]

Its own particular way of seeing. So, turning the environment and turning the mind, Dogen says, is something scorned by great sages, or criticized by great sages. So, you know, many of us think that we have to change, turn around the environment or our own minds. But, Dogen says, this is scorned or criticized by great sages.

[19:57]

Not only that, but explaining the mind and explaining nature is something not approved by Buddha, by Buddhists and Zen Adams, not affirmed by Buddhists and ancestors. Moreover, seeing the mind and seeing nature is the livelihood of those outside the way, the business of non-Buddhists. And even more, sticking to words and phrases is not the expression of liberation. So, this is a little difficult for us, I think. This may upset your practice. I'm so sorry. Again, turning the environment. Tom clearly transforms it as transforming,

[21:01]

but it's actually the character that means to rotate. It's not the same character that's used for the transformative function of the Buddha way, which there is. So, this does and does have a transformative function. But turning the mind, turning our mind, and turning the world out there, is scorned by the sages. So, your idea of how you should turn the world and yourself is not the walking of the mountains. Of course, your mind and the mind of all of us and the environment does turn. But it's not your business. Explaining the mind and explaining the nature

[22:08]

is not affirmed by Buddhas and ancestors. Maybe that one's a little bit easier. Of course, just settling into a couple of days of the mountains walking, we know that we can't explain it. Then he says, seeing the mind and seeing the nature is the livelihood of non-Buddhists. So, this is pretty controversial. Seeing nature is, in Japanese, kensho. And I know that at least a few of you who are fond of that kind of practice or have been. So, this is one of several very strong statements about this that Dogen makes. That realizing our nature, seeing the nature, having some opening experience, satori, well, satori and kensho, are they the same?

[23:09]

Yes and no. Anyway, this is not about getting anything. This is not about understanding anything. This is not about seeing something wonderful that you haven't already seen. All of you have flown over mountains in airplanes. I asked yesterday, Stephen, you weren't here. Have you flown in an airplane? Okay, then you may have looked down at some point and seen the mountains from a great height, higher than Dogen even saw them from. We, probably. So, anyway, this idea of seeing the nature, of getting kensho is something that is part of the approach to walking in the mountains of some zen folk. Dogen calls them heretics. But still, if it helps you to try and see into the nature of this nature, if you think you can see the mountains walking

[24:13]

and you want to do that, that might encourage you. But really, our practice is just about settling into the immediate presence of the mountains walking, just as they are. And, you know, we are sometimes on the mountain peaks, you know, through the course of sitting a day or two or three or five, there are peaks and valleys. Sometimes we feel like we can see a great distance. That's great. Sometimes we feel surrounded by rocks and crags and brush and we can't see a damn thing. But still, if you see the nature of nature,

[25:19]

if you have some vision of the mountains walking, that's great. That's just the ordinary Tian cookies of the Buddha way. It's not the point. So don't hold on to some seeing. So he says seeing the mind and seeing the nature is the livelihood of non-Buddhists. So it's okay if you see the mind and see the nature and forget it, but don't make that your livelihood. It's not enough, actually, because there are many things going on all around us in the mountains, waters. So then he says sticking to words and phrases is not the expression of liberation. So in one of his Dharma letters to one of his best students,

[26:22]

a nun named Ryonen, he said at the end of it, please don't remember any of these words. So we may enjoy the sutras of the mountains and waters. We may enjoy the walking of the mountains in Jikoji and all around the Zendo and on our own cushion. But whatever descriptions arise in the sutras of the mountains and waters, they're not yet the full expression of liberation. So then Dogen says there are words, however, which have passed through and shed such realms as explaining the mind or seeing the nature or sticking to words and phrases. There are words that have passed through such realms.

[27:23]

You know what they are? They're the words of Furang Dalkai. The green mountains are constantly walking. The eastern mountains travel on water. Actually, he's going to talk about the eastern mountains travel on water. That's from the great Master Yunmin. So the mountains forever walk. The eastern mountains walk on the waters. But he takes a little detour here. And I do want to get to the waters today. So I'm feeling particularly greedy today. I want to completely penetrate through the whole mountains and waters sutra. But I know I can't do that. But I do want to touch on some of the peaks here and there. And we'll come back in the next couple of days and kind of explore them further. But I just want to kind of feel out

[28:26]

some of the topography here. So there's a little kind of valley here where Dogen talks about this business of the stone woman giving birth to a child in the night. So I know some of you are curious about this. So here's what he says. The stone woman gives birth to a child in the night. This means that the time when a stone woman gives birth to a child is the night. In case you haven't figured that out. And when he says the night, he means in the middle of the night, in the dark of the night. In the darkness of gloom. In the darkness of unity. In the darkness of Kensho. In the darkness of, we sometimes call it sameness,

[29:26]

when we can't see any difference anywhere. And then Dogen gets a little weird. He says, and I'm trying to do this with two different translations because no one translation ever does it. Generally speaking, there are male stones and female stones. And there are stones neither male nor female. How modern. They patch the sky and patch the earth. So this patching the earth or repairing the earth is, there's an old Hebrew phrase called Tikkun Olam, which means to repair the earth. To mend the earth.

[30:27]

Dogen is saying that that's what happens. That that's what these male and female stones and stones that are neither male or female do. Out in the mountains as they walk. They repair the earth. These are celestial stones and earth stones. So though this is a folk saying, it is rare for anyone to know it. You should know the principle of giving birth to a child. When giving birth to a child, do parent and child emanate together? Would you only approach the study of this in terms of the child becoming a parent, being the actualization of giving birth to a child? You should study and penetrate how the time when a parent gives birth to a child is exactly the practice realization

[31:30]

of giving birth to a child. So again, I should just spend the rest of the session on this paragraph. The time when a stone woman gives birth to a child is night. So we are sitting here kind of stuck in session, kind of stuck in the schedule, kind of stuck in the schedule. Kind of stuck in the body and mind sitting on your cushion, which is sometimes very painful. Sometimes your knees hurt. Sometimes your heart's hurt. Sitting, waiting for the bell. This is what we call night. So right now, in a way, of course, it's also day,

[32:38]

and I can see the difference between Nan and Nancy and David. And yet, when we sit facing the wall, is it night or day? Please consider this. Anyway, the stone woman gives birth to a child in the middle of the night. So I hesitate to mention this because I don't want any of you to kind of think that you have to get something from this session, but there is a tradition in session of sitting at night. And again, I don't want to encourage anybody to sit any more than it's really comfortable. But the Zendo is open if you want to come and sit here after regular periods are over. No one will come and kick you out of the Zendo. Again, please don't feel pressured at all or obligated, but if you feel like it, if you can't sleep

[33:40]

and you have nothing better to do, come and see if, in the middle of the night, there is a child being born in the middle of Michikoji Zendo. Thank you. Sudokin says there are male stones, female stones, and stones neither male nor female. So this is kind of a big problem to us. There is a whole field of women in Buddhism and the problems of women in Buddhism. And there should be, because Dogen and all of the Zen ancestors in Asia lived in a kind of what we might call a patriarchal culture. Of course, that was also happening in Europe too. So we should accept both male stones and female stones,

[34:45]

and stones that are neither male nor female. And maybe some of those are there in combination on your own cushion. Anyway, this is part of the terrain of the mountains walking. So it's as particular stones, whether stone women or stone men, that we can actually repair the heaven and earth, that we can actually fix this earth and fix the sky. So yesterday in tea, somebody brought up the question, the modern Zen question of George W. Bush. I wasn't going to talk about him in this session, but there it was in the middle of the room. And E.H. brought up the story of Suzuki Roshi

[35:47]

smacking someone with a stick when they said, what's the use of this sitting? We should be outstopping the Vietnam War. And if you think that there's some way to fix the world outside of male stones and female stones, earth stones and sky stones, then there's a problem. And yet part of this practice of the mountains walking is to see that the mountains are walking, that things change in ways we don't understand, that how the world fixes itself happens in different time frames, not just in the urgency of the next few months and the coming election. So how does a mountain walk in these times? So in spite of that story about Suzuki Roshi,

[36:53]

my Dharma grandfather, my teacher, who was a disciple of Suzuki Roshi, I've heard recently, has talked about what to do in this urgency. And he has said he has considered actually doing what the Vietnamese monks, or at least one Vietnamese monk, a few of them did, South of Malaysia, as a protest. So I've heard that he had actually said he was thinking about this. And when I was going to speak at the White House last month, I thought about that. What would it be like to take a candle? This is what I feel about what's happening right now. And yet I thought, you know, this isn't going to help. And I'm sure that Red has realized that that wouldn't help either. And it wouldn't help because the mountains

[37:53]

and waters are forever walking. So how do we find trust in the mountains walking? How do we find our way of expressing this repairing heaven and repairing the earth? We should understand, Douglas says, the reason behind giving birth to a child. At the time of birth, our parent and child transform together. There's no more intimate relationship than parent and child. They walk together. And this is like the mountains and waters. So we are part of the process and we are part of the problem of the war machine.

[38:55]

Right here, right now. We are part of the repairing of the war machine. Right here, right now. So our job is just to study the mountains walking. To study that everything, everything, everything is constantly flowing, changing. Even the mountains are flowing. Really, the mountains are moving all around us.

[40:12]

It's really true. I think maybe all of you have gotten a taste of that in the last couple of days. It's very important to notice this. Even if we can't explain it, even if we can't turn it, even if we can't see it fully. The eastern mountains move on water. This means even the horrible karma of this country and this world and the greed and corruption of the sentient beings who think that they can stop the mountains from moving and stop the water from flowing and purchase up all the water and make a profit on it. That too is changing in ways that we can't see. And we're part of it right now.

[41:14]

So our job is just to pay attention to, as Dogen says, thoroughly study the mountains walking. So he also says we should realize that this teaching that the eastern mountain moves over the water is the very bones and marrow of the Buddhas and ancestors. All the waters appear at the foot of the eastern mountains. Maybe here, since the ocean is to the rest of us, maybe we have to say that the mountains are, that the water is lapping

[42:18]

at the feet of the mountain ridge west of us too. Therefore, the mountains mount the clouds and stride through the heavens. So if you see mountains from a distance, they climb up into the sky, into the heavens, into the clouds. And therefore, Dogen says, the mountains are the peaks of the waters. In both ascending and descending, their walk is over the water. The tips of the mountain feet walk across the waters, setting them dancing. So, you know, mountains have feet. There is a foot of this mountain, and it's digging its toes into the ocean right now. And mountains also have faces

[43:21]

and heads, and then there is also the heart of the mountain, which is very close to your heart right now. Therefore, the tips of the mountain feet walk across the waters, setting them dancing. Therefore, I have to look at the other translation. Excuse me. The points of the feet of the mountains walk on the waters, cause the waters to spurt forth. Carl says they dance. Tom says they spurt forth. Anyway, so their walking is uninhibited. It is not that there is no cultivation and realization. Mountains walk in all directions, even though, you know, these mountains seem like they're walking north and south, and yet they unfold.

[44:28]

And, you know, this mountain unfolds down here into the creek and out that way to the ocean. Well, it's really time to stop, but I haven't gotten to the waters yet. Let me just read you a tiny bit of the waters. I have to do this just because George is leaving after today, and he needs to hear a little bit of the rest of the lecture. So this is a preview of coming attractions. Water is neither strong nor weak, neither wet nor dry, neither moving nor still, neither cold nor hot, neither being nor nonbeing, neither delusion nor enlightenment. Frozen, it is harder than diamond. Who could break it? Melted, it's softer than milk. Who could break it? This being the case,

[45:31]

how can we verify water? We should study the occasion when the water of the 10 directions is seen in the 10 directions. This is not a study only of the time when humans or gods see water. There is a study of water seeing water. Water practices and verifies water. Hence, there is a study of water telling of water. So a lot of what this sutra is about, as I said before, is about changing our perspective, seeing a little differently. So he says this in terms of the 10 directions. In terms of water, very clearly, he says the way of seeing mountains and waters

[46:36]

differs according to the type of being that sees them. In seeing waters, there are beings who see water as a jewel necklace. This does not mean, however, that they see a jewel necklace as water. How then do we see what they consider water? Their jewel necklace is what we see as water. There are many kinds of beings. Some see water as miraculous flowers, though it does not follow that they use flowers as water. Then there are the hungry ghosts who see water as raging flames or as pus and blood. Dragons and fish see water as a palace or a tower or as the seven treasures of the Manicha. Others see water as woods and walls or as the dharma nature of immaculate liberation or as the true human body or as the physical form and mental nature.

[47:36]

Humans see water as a body. These different ways of seeing water are the conditions under which water is killed or given life. Given that what different types of beings see is different, we should have some doubts about this. Is it that there are various ways of seeing one object, or is it that we have mistaken various images for one object? So we'll go on with that tomorrow, but as we study the walking of mountains and the flowing of water, maybe it's just very obvious, but it's worth really considering how the birds singing around us see mountains is different

[48:39]

from how we see mountains. How the trees see mountains is different from how the birds see mountains. How the fish see water is different from how you saw it up on the ridge. We take for granted the air we inhale and exhale. It looks different to trees. It may look different to birds. So this teaching is about not some final seeing the nature of things, but seeing maybe the limitations of how we see, seeing the possibilities of other ways of seeing, opening up our sense of the actual livelihood of our immediate presence. So all of this is about

[49:42]

our actual livelihood. What is it that supports us and sustains us? What is it that brings us vitality? What is it that supports our life of practice? What is it that will help bring some shift towards sanity in our world? This is worthy of study. Thank you all very much.

[50:12]

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