In the next section of his essay, “Mountains and Rivers Sutra”, 13th century Zen master Eihei Dogen refers to koans, or traditional Zen stories that appear nonsensical. In all of his writing, Dogen’s main purpose is to be helpful. Koans such as “green mountains are always walking” are also helpful because they are companions on the path that continually remind us that we are awesome, just as we are. We don’t have to do anything to be awesome. Because we can’t use ordinary logic to figure out koans, they break us out of habitual mind. You can be stuck in an old way of thinking and they will suddenly pop, unbidden, into awareness as a reminder of how awesome this life actually is.
Koans present only a fragment of reality, and if we let go of our tendency to make sense of everything, the koan imagery can break us out of our ordinary idea of time. This is crucial because otherwise, we have no answer to anyone in deep despair, or who is dying, because despair and death just don’t make sense. To understand these facts of life, you have to step into the realm that is beyond common sense, into the realm of the impossible. And Dogen, as well as the koans, invites us to see that the impossible is possible.
Buddha was faced with the same problem as Dogen. He considered the suffering that comes from old age, disease and death, realized a way to transcend it, and then wondered how he could express the full significance of his realization. He decided that explanations wouldn’t cut it, so he developed teachings that made sense of old age, disease and death, and taught practices that could lead us to reducing suffering and increasing happiness. Any one of us can study his teachings and try to put them into practice. But when we do that we enter a process that will lead us to full realization of enlightenment, which is also the realization that, at depth, our human life is unexplainable.
The ancient Zen koans and Dogen’s “Mountains and Rivers Sutra” are not attempts to explain the unexplainable. This is why we can’t penetrate their meaning with ordinary thinking. These writings are an attempt to help us enter enlightened mind, that is, a state of mind that transcends ordinary thinking so we can experience a brief moment of freedom from seeing the world though our own desires and opinions.
We naturally think that everything has to make sense. The reality expressed in koans and in Dogen’s writing help us reach a stage where things don’t have to make sense in an ordinary way. Only then does the depth of life and death make real sense, a sense that includes and yet is beyond common sense.
Suggested practice: Memorize the phrase “green (or blue) mountains are always walking” and, during your day, repeat it silently to yourself as you would a mantra. Notice what kinds of understanding and inner experience this practice evokes.
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.