In this column, I’ve been writing about “Mountains and Rivers Sutra”, an essay by 13th century Zen master Eihei Dogen. If you have just started reading this column and want to see the 16 that have preceded it, go to www.zenwords.net and link to “dharma talks.” I post the column to a blog a week after it is published in the Advance.
Dogen writes, “Because green mountains walk, they are permanent.” The word permanent might be misleading because there is only one thing that is permanent — impermanence. When people say, “I don’t trust him or her,” I answer, “You can absolutely trust them. You can trust them to be themselves.” Similarly, you can trust impermanence to be constant; it is the one thing that you can trust. Things come and go; you can trust that, always.
And ironically, there is salvation in that. If things are really bad they won’t last, so don’t worry. If things are really good they won’t get boring, so don’t worry. Nothing stays the same. And that’s a good thing, because if something that is really good stayed that way, it would soon turn to be really bad. It’s good because it’s impermanent.
For example, your son’s first wedding is not every day. That’s why it’s so great. Imagine if your son’s wedding was every single day. Every day you would have to deal with all those relatives, all the champagne, all the food. It would soon get tiring. But because your son’s first wedding is only once, and it will be over at the end of the day, it is truly wonderful.
So that’s what Dogen is saying here. Because the green mountains are constantly walking they are truly constant. This quality of constancy is one of the greatest virtues of Zen training. That’s why exciting people don’t usually stick with Zen practice. Zen virtue is not brilliant. It’s not a flashy enlightenment experience. In Zen training, we don’t try to achieve great heights, because if we achieve great heights, we miss our life as it is. The great height is to be alive together in this world. There is nothing beyond this. So, to think you are going to have a fantastic enlightenment experience is to miss the awesome presence of your life as it is, here in this moment.
True Zen practice is the constancy of showing up, of being there, of bringing your whole heart to every moment of your life, whether in the zendo or on the fifth day of a retreat, whether you are cleaning garbage on the street or wiping your kitchen countertop. Zen virtue is the constancy of putting yourself right in the middle of the walking mountains, of the ever-changing reality of moment to moment living.
Suggested practice: Take some time to notice where you are operating on the assumption that something — bad health, good health, abundance, poverty, happiness or unhappiness — will always be present. Remind yourself that this too will change.
Kuya Minogue is the resident teacher at Sakura-ji, Creston’s zendo. This column is part of a long essay on an essay by 13th century Zen master Eihei Dogen and is inspired by the teaching of Norman Fishcher. For more information, Minogue can be reached at 250-428-6500, and previous columns are available at www.zenwords.net.