To Learn To Give Ourselves Away
Saturday promises to be a glorious fall day. Earlier I noticed the frost covering the fallen leaves, and the windshield of my vehicle too. Seeing the frost come even this late in the season made me feel happiness. The tilt of the earth cannot be denied, – shorter and cooler days brings the relative rest of winter’s cold.
I read once again the Mountains and Rivers Sutra by Dogen Zenji. Dogen was 13th-century Japanese Zen Buddhist monk, philosopher, writer, and the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan. The piece is only a page and a half meditation upon mountains and rivers. Mountains and rivers have always attracted our species. Mountains afforded our ancestors defensive habitations. You find castles on mountains in Italy. Rivers were key for food and transportation and trade. Life and rivers go together.
There is a punch line to the Dogen essay. Do you get it?
From ancient times people and sages have often lived near water. When they live near
water they catch fish, catch human beings, and catch the Way. Therefore, thoroughly
investigate mountains, thoroughly investigate water. When you investigate thoroughly,
it is the work of mountains and water. Then mountains and waters of themselves
become wise persons and sages.
How about a song, something to hold onto? This by U2 seems apt. With or Without You.
