Liberating Ourselves from Conditioned Views

‍ ‍Excerpted from a talk on the Mountains and Waters Sutra, 11-16-25

by Susi Childress, BDT, Co-Abbot, GLZC

As the Avatamsaka Sutra tells us, mind makes everything! We practice to see our minds and try to become aware of our conditioned views. We practice letting them go, over and over again, moment to moment. It seems simple enough, but as most of us long-time practitioners know, it’s a constant battle to not let that conditioning kick in and taint our view of what’s right in front of us. This is especially difficult if we have a strong attachment to our view. In the 13th century, Zen Master Dogen taught his students to deeply observe mountains and waters in order to expand their views and not depend on habitual thinking. Let’s consider what the mountains and waters have to teach us.

So, I have a question for you… “What is a mountain?” Everyone thinks they know what a mountain is, but can you really tell me what it is? Are all mountains the same? Even if you give me some scientific explanation, that does not fully describe “mountain”. When you observe the mountain from outside, you think you know the mountain. But when you enter the mountain, you discover something totally different. There are animals, and trees, and insects. There are boulders, and gravel, and rivers. The wind blowing through the trees may make some sound. The rivers and brooks may gurgle or make loud sounds. You can hear the sounds of birds and insects. Maybe there are waterfalls. Spots of sunlight change how it looks. You can smell the pine needles and damp leaves. If the mountain is high, there may be snow on top, so the temperature changes as you climb higher. Everything in the mountain is interdependent. Any change will create a chain reaction. Moment to moment, the mountain is constantly evolving. If you stay in the mountain for any length of time and observe it, if you interact with it in a peaceful way, the mountain becomes part of you, just as you became part of the mountain as soon as you entered. You are not separate. When you physically leave the mountain, the mountain goes with you because you have experienced it, and it has changed you. Your understanding of the mountain is different than it was before you entered the mountain. If I ask you now, “What is a mountain?” how can you answer? Is your answer different from before? So, by sitting still and observing what is right in front of you, you are able to break away from your conditioned view of “mountain”. The longer you sit and observe, the wider your view.

Many scholars who have studied Dogen’s teachings on mountains say that the mountain is a metaphor for the Buddha and the teachings of the Ancestors. In this scenario, entering the mountains refers to entering into Buddhist practice. Once you enter the practice, it becomes part of you, and when you leave the mountain (or go away from the temple and out into the world), you will carry it with you. It changes you. You are not the same as you were before you entered into practice. When there is no this and that, you are one. The teachings of the Buddha and the Ancestors permeate your consciousness, and you and they are not separate. They live through you. You are Buddha! While the mountain is constantly changing, it also always expresses it’s perfect “mountain-ness”, moment to moment. We should, like the mountain, learn to abide peacefully despite changing conditions.

All mountains have water, so the mountains and waters are not separate. They may, however, have different lessons for us. So, I started out by asking you, “What is a mountain?” Now I have another question for you, “What is water?”

Water has no fixed nature, so it is beyond dichotomies. It is neither flowing nor still, wet not dry, neither cold nor hot, neither deluded nor enlightened. When we use these terms to describe water, we are talking about our experience with the water, but not the water’s own experience. Water is just water. It can be hard and impenetrable when frozen and soft when it’s not. It can disappear into the clouds and fall down from the sky as rain, snow, or sleet. When water encounters a mountain, there is no separation; they become one. The water is now part of the mountain, and the mountain is part of the water. If they are one, then the mountain can flow down to the sea and float up to the heavens and ride on a cloud.

When I asked you, “What is water?”, you might have given me an answer from your own particular view of water. Maybe something like, “When thirsty, have a drink; when dirty, take a bath.” But what if I ask a fish, “What is water?” Or what if I ask a deer or a bear, “What is water?” What if I ask a tree, “What is water?” This is the problem with defining something based on the observer’s experience. It’s not the absolute truth. Water was water before you came into contact with it. We need to learn to study all sides of an issue and recognize that the experience of others affects their realities, too.

Water has the virtue of both flowing and peacefully abiding while maintaining its true essence. People need both peace and progress in their lives. Can we rest within a sense of peace while we function in our daily lives?

Mountains and waters are not tainted by the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance. Mountains are simply being mountains, and accepting all beings within them. Oceans do not reject water from any river.

Mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers. Before practicing Zen, the mountains are just mountains, and the rivers are just rivers. But once you start practicing and really investigate nature and all natural phenomena, then you experience the mountains and rivers differently. They aren’t limited by your thoughts. Everything is just as it is. Then the mountain is the mountain, and the river is the river. But your understanding of them is changed.

I have one more question for you to ask yourself. “What am I?” If you don’t know, I hope you practice sincerely, soon find an answer, and save all beings from suffering.