We are all connected... pebbles and water and people too

I have been reading about Dogen's views of nature.... has lead me to read several fascicles from Shobogenzo.... Mountains and Waters (Sansui-kyo), Voices of the River Valley and the Form of the Mountains (Kesei-sanshiki)....

My views of mountains and oceans and other natural vistas has been very anthropocentric - I have viewed nature as an object of beauty and wonder (nothing wrong with that), but very much in a subject/object relationship.

By letting go a bit, and realizing that mountains express themselves now, totally and radically in the present, as the totality of the universe in this moment (and walk at the same time!) I realize that in the realm of nonduality distinctions between sentient and nonsentient disappear.... mountains walking are like humans walking. And my feeling of connectedness to everything around me only deepens.... I feel so much more awareness of my actions and their (potential) consequences/impact - not all of which I can understand and even begin to foresee. I have always mouthed the belief that "we are all connected" but this understanding moves it to such a profound and intimate understanding for me that I am humbled... mountains and pebbles express themselves as well as humans... though not always in the "voices" or fashion that we assign or project onto them. My challenge is to apply this understanding to how I conduct my life.. with respect and consideration for everything around me... not just in the human realm, but all beings....

There are so many threads and ideas that Dogen cultivates and repeats in many of the Shobogenzo fascicles.... his views on nature, the totality of existence in the present, and time (every moment has in it past, present, and future, but stands as a discrete unit) are woven throughout his work. It's amazing stuff.

I begin to understand the power of mountains in various religions, and the reason why seekers travel to the mountains to abide, study and practice.... not only to remove themselves from the distractions of urban and secular life... but to be closer to understanding this radical oneness and immediacy of being... the universe displaying the totality of existence, in every moment, before our eyes....

Wow.

Gassho
Yugen

Yugen;
Thank you for sharing this
gassho

Thank you

Gassho

This is wonderful Yugen ... thank you for sharing. :)

Gassho
Michael

Thank you very much.

Mountains are serene and wise giants that always point to the skies. They talk so very slowly that one can only listen if we sit still and contemplate them.

For some reason my mind started playing this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ySBfPF7dpA

Thank you, Yugen.

Deep gassho,

Kyonin.

"looking northwest" Attachment 500





Gassho, kojip

Thank you Yugen, the old foolish Taigu wrote in the Autumn of 2006 :



shedding this skin, bones crushed
what is left?
mountains, mountains

My friend Sakaide translated:

Hone kudakareshi nakigara no
nani zo nokoran
Yama yo yama
骨砕かれし亡き骸の　　　
何ぞ残らん　　　　
山よ山

Taigu,
Your verse is beautiful, thank you! I like the kanji for mountain (yama)....

We are all sentient beings

Gassho
Yugen

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Taigu

Thank you Yugen, the old foolish Taigu wrote in the Autumn of 2006 :



shedding this skin, bones crushed
what is left?
mountains, mountains

My friend Sakaide translated:

Hone kudakareshi nakigara no
nani zo nokoran
Yama yo yama
骨砕かれし亡き骸の　　　
何ぞ残らん　　　　
山よ山

---

[gassholook] Taigu - the words go direct to the heart.

Willow

Yugen - thank you for this thread. Have also been reading Keisei-Sanshiki. I appreciate/like the fact it is partly a story about a
layman (Toba). There are no mountains/tumbling rivers where I live so I looked up the area of Lushan and it is indeed very beautiful.

Nature is a wonderful communicator/embodiment of the truth - I feel - sometimes as adults - we lose our communication with nature and need to reclaim. Dogen poses the question - do we realise the truth or are the mountains and waters realising the truth?
The question is answered in another story - when a monk asks 'How can we make mountains, rivers and the Earth belong to ourselves?' - and the rhetorical answer/question comes back 'How can we make ourselves belong to mountains, river and the Earth?'

Abstract essence and concrete reality are one and the same.

But I much prefer Taigu's way of expressing this - just being.

Gassho

Willow