July 24th, 1971
Saturday, July 24th, 1971Shunryu Suzuki-rōshi
Saturday, July 24, 1971
Tassajara
Listen to this talk: Suzuki-roshi 71-07-24
This evening I want to talk about Buddhist practice. In one of the fascicle of Shōbōgenzō there—there is fascicle about virtue of mountain and river.[1] Virtue of mountain and river. This is very interesting and give us a great benefit to understand what is our practice. Virtue of mountain and river.
He [Dōgen] says usual people think mountain is solid, mountain does not move and permanent; but river flows. That is usual understanding of mountain and river. Mountain and river. It is exactly the same as—people say Rinzai practice or Sōtō practice [laughs]. And the Sōtō practice is such-and-such; and Rinzai practice is such-and-such. And it looks like Sōtō way is more rigid and Rinzai way is more free. But Sōtō way is not so strict, but Rinzai way is very strict. They may say many things about Sōtō or Rinzai because it looks like so. And there must be various arguments about what is Sōtō and what is Rinzai. But there are—there are not so many arguments [laughs] when we say: “Mountain does not move, but water flows, river flows.” And there’s not much [laughs] arguing about that.
But Dōgen-zenji or—no—no—but Daokai-zenji Master[2] said: “Mountains flow [laughs]; mountains—mountains goes but river doesn’t. Mountains flow. Or East Mountain flows over—over the—over the river. Mountain goes and river stays.” And about this statement, because it is difficult for us to understand, so people say—people say: “True Zen is beyond words [laughs]. It is not possible for us to say what is Zen practice actually. Zen practice is beyond words.” That is why Daokai-zenji said, “Mountain—East Mountain goes over the water.”