This book has had a circuitous birthing. Originally Norman Fischer gave a number of commentary talks on topics arising from the text The Mountains & Rivers Sutra by Dogen, at the Upaya Zen Center. Taken from The Shobogenzo, the sutra it is one of ninety three essays Dogen wrote. It is a mixture of instructions, and mytho-poetic evocations of the state of Buddhahood through nature. Traditionally a Sutra is a teaching given by the Buddha. But here Dogen is taking a more radical interpretation, that its in the nature of mountains and rivers to embody Sutra like teachings, that mountains and rivers communicate Buddhahood to us through their very existence. Fischer's commentary gives the text a more 21st century interpretation and lays out some of the central ideas it contains. Kuya Minogue edited these talks into fifty two teachings and appended her practice suggestions, which became quite locally popular, this eventually led to them being published in book form.
Any commentary on the Mountains & Rivers Sutra will attract my attention, because they are rare. It is also a favourite Dogen essay of mine, and in this case I also have a lot of time for Norman Fischer as a teacher. Though having said that, I have to shamefully admit that since purchasing the book, it has lain on my book pile, and only fitfully been read. Not because the commentary isn't good, because it is. But I wrongfully assumed I had to invest in doing fifty two weekly practices to make the most of the books format. But to be honest I couldn't get on working with it on that level. In some respects I'd have preferred a straight transcript of the complete talks. There is certainly a considerably meatier exploration lurking behind the paragraphs of these edited, yet tasty, highlights. When something is written as a talk it has its own sense of flow and knows the point it is heading towards. When that is re-edited in the way it is here, you instinctively intuit that something is absent and gone missing here. The gaps show. Its not even that her editing is not good, nor her suggested practices useful. They are just not where I am at presently. Besides, Fischer makes an extremely effective presentation of the texts themes, so how it can be applied to practice seemed to me largely self evident. But then I've been a Buddhist practitioner for over thirty years, and this book is aimed, I guess, at someone less familiar with the uniqueness of Dogen's vision of practice.
Dogen's main theme in the Mountains & Rivers Sutra is to question how spiritually useful it is to hold onto a limited human perspective. Particularly in relation to what the true nature of reality is like.
'Dogen tells us that when we get stuck in the view that we are the centre of the universe, and that nature is here to serve us, we get caught up in our self-centred view and lose our unique capacity to realise, appreciate, live out and find joy in the reality of our oneness with all existence. He is telling us that we need to study water from the point of view that is larger than how it serves us humans.'*
The mountains and rivers in the Sutra are not used as spiritual metaphors for something else, but active presences we are able to engage with. In one famous section Dogen says:-
'If you doubt the 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. When you do know your own walking you should then fully know the green mountain' walking'*
Fischer's later comment places a strong emphasis on the universal applicability of this.
'Here he is saying that mountains and waters, as well as everything that is deep in our hearts, every physical thing, every object that appears...is a unique expression of the most profound of Buddhist understanding and teachings. Everything is Buddha. Everything expresses the fundamental truth of existence' *
When we go into the mountains or sit by a babbling river, these are not passive experiences merely requiring the receptivity of our attention. We are entering into a conversation with the mountains and rivers, where we allow these elements of nature to reconnect us with what is fundamental, to awaken and to instruct us:-
'When a three month monastic training period was over, monks often burst out of monastic cloister to roam mountain trails, looking for the famous Chan sages to debate the teachings. The sages were easy to find since they often adopted the names of mountains where they lived. Thus, the sage became the voice of the mountain and the mountain became the voice of the sage. In other words, the sage awakened the mountain, and the mountain awakened the sage.'*
There is a suggestion here that it loosens the fixed boundaries of our self when we live in close communion with mountains and rivers. But there is also the implication that this 'self-less-ness' can ultimately be found anywhere, if we are open to it.
'It really is a great burden to drag all the stuff of the past around. its tiring to be defending ourselves or justifying our opinions and actions all the time. family, community and country are always asking us to decide who we are, what we stand for and what we want. It can seem so important to have others recognise us and pay attention to us.
Dogen is telling us to' just say no' to all that. He's inviting us to drop our thoughts and disappear into our circumstances, into family, into community. He is giving us permission to be the spirit of the mountains and river valleys where we live. If we can do that, we will know the most profound rest that we have ever known.'*
As you can read in these short extracts, there are many rich fecund ideas to be found within this text and Fischer's commentary. It distills a lifetime of contemplation on the meaning and implications of this densely allusive Sutra. My reservations about the format of this book aside, this remains a perceptive and usefully instructive book to read and contemplate the potency of the ideas the Sutra contains.
*All extracts taken from Mountains & Rivers Sutra
Teachings by Norman Fischer, Translated & Edited by Kuya Minogue
Published by The Sumeru Press Inc.
CARROT REVIEW - 5/8
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