Mountains Walking — A Zen Teaching to Eradicate Anxiety

Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. Therefore, they always abide in ease and always walk. You should examine in detail this quality of the mountains' walking.

These are the words of Zen master Dogen Zenji.

And they may seem very odd and incomprehensible at first, but they are designed in such a way that if they make sense they will set your mind at ease.

You see in Zen there is this concept of 'transmission of mind'. The Zen masters they've understood something that is really indescribable, it's beyond words, but to communicate it they have to use words, or actions, their behavior, and they do these things or say these things which are so odd they will make no sense from a normal person's point of view. They will pull you in to the understanding the Zen master has and so if he can penetrate the words you will be looking at the world through the eyes of the Zen master.

This is the 'transmission of mind'.

So I will share the original transmission; I'll read the actual words that Dogen spoke, and then share my own understanding; how the transmission was received here.

Dogen lived about 800 years ago in Japan. He is a very influential figure in Japanese culture.

In this case, he was speaking to an assembly of monks on Mount Furong, and this is what he said:

"The green mountains are always walking; a stone woman gives birth to a child at night.

Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains.

Therefore they always abide in ease and always walk.

You should examine in detail this quality of the mountains' walking.

Mountains' walking is just like human walking, even though it does not look the same as human walking.

The Buddha ancestors' words point to walking.

This is fundamental understanding.

You should penetrate these words."

There is more that he said and I'll put a link in the description if you want to read the whole passage.

Later on he even says,

"If you doubt mountains' walking, you do not know your own walking;

It is not that you do not walk, but that you do not know or understand your own walking.

Since you do not know your own walking, you should fully know the green mountains' walking."

He is very clear that mountains are walking, and you're quite clear that mountains don't walk.

So how do we bridge this contradiction?

Now, I personally have not had any Zen teachers or studied Zen formally, but Zen has had a huge impact on my life. In helping me rid myself of anxiety. Just granting me a general ease of mind; a peace of mind.

And so the way I worked with these kind of Zen passages and koans is that I would ponder over them; just contemplate. I would go on a run and just the whole time focus on one particular statement from a Zen master or some other sage that I was looking at. I would sit and meditate and focus on them, and these meditations could last hours, across many days. And even during the day I would be obsessed to unlocking what is trying to be communicated.

Right, so that's just to show you how I got to an understanding; an intimate understanding. And you might want to do this for yourself.

That is the true intention of Zen. It is not to be handed the explanation; it is to consider it for yourself.

So if you want to pause the video here and just consider these words on your own, you're most welcome to. But if you'd like some pointers in how to comprehend or even get started, I'll present my understanding.

So let's begin with the part that made some sense.

Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains.

This one is easier to understand. Clouds don't lack the qualities of clouds. Electrons don't lack the qualities of electrons.

What is your quality?

There must be some very fundamental quality of you-ness. That is your quality.

So when Dogen says,

"Mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. Therefore they always abide in ease and always walk."

What he's pointing to is that it's very important to know your own quality. What is truly yours? And as you know it, there's an ease to life. To walking through life. To watching life walk by.

And this quality of you-ness is on full display when you're walking. And since you don't know your own walking, compare or consider how mountains walk, to how you walk.

Because it is exactly the same.

See it's quite clear that mountains are very still. They don't seem to be moving. But consider the view from the mountains perspective. If the mountain is walking, what would it see?

If you were the mountain and you were walking, you wouldn't see yourself move, but you would see everything else around you change and move. The leaves falling. Snow coming, and then melting, new seeds taking root, new trees emerging. You are just observing all these changes as the mountain.

You don't move. Everything else moves.

This is how mountains walk.

And while its walking the mountain is not really doing anything. Its just being a mountain.

And because it is a mountain, it allows for the walking. For the plants to grow, for the animals to live and burrow in it and so on.

Now, this is where it really started to hit me, is when I was out running or walking, you can actually experience this for yourself. Focus your eyes looking straight ahead, but put your attention to the periphery.

So, your right eye is paying more attention to the right side, the left eye to the left side. Be more observant of things passing you by on the sides. And you will very easily, with a bit of experimentation, be able to experience that you are not moving, it is the things around you which are passing by. Something like a treadmill but out in the world.

And from the space of stillness you may consider, what are you really doing to walk. Are you putting in any effort? Or is it just happening? You're just observing it happen.

The body moving, the trees passing by, and so on. And in the same way as you're walking, a thought or idea might take root, might grow into a mighty tree, and then wither away. All of it is just passing by.

This is a Zen master's demonstration of what your life is like and your role in it.

Because mountains do not lack the qualities of mountains. And you never lack the quality of you-ness. And as all these things, these phenomena are passing by, you are You; the Presence that makes it all possible, makes it perceivable.

You are not moving or changing even as you walk.

And this is the way to abide in ease and keep walking. To know your true role here. Your true function. Your true quality; it's only this fact of being aware.

It requires no effort. You cannot do it better or worse. It is in your nature. It is just happening.

And if you focus on this as you keep walking, walking through life, just focus on your true function; your true quality, you'll never find yourself lacking or wanting. You'll be at ease. Your mind will be at ease.

The anxieties and worries and so on, they start to drop off.

They come and they go, and you see them as the mountain watching the seasons pass by.

There may only be just one question left. How did I get this quality of being aware?

And the Zen master Dogen, when he began his talk, he answered that as well.

A stone woman gives birth to a child at night.

This too has a very deep meaning. But perhaps we'll leave that for another conversation. You may ponder over it as you go walking.