Description
Eventually you come to a place where you can’t go on and you can’t go back. You have arrived at the base of cliffs; you can’t scale them, you can’t get around them, and there’s no handy tunnel through them. It’s a daunting place—that’s the point of it. And when you arrive here your life and your journey can become your own.
In the Wild – Mountain Koans & Poems
Links to Audio, Video, & Text on the topic
It’s a daunting place—that’s the point of it
Eventually you come to a place where you can’t go on and you can’t go back. You have arrived at the base of cliffs; you can’t scale them, you can’t get around them, and there’s no handy tunnel through them.
The Japanese teacher Hakuin called this the Silver Mountains and Iron Cliffs. It’s a daunting place—that’s the point of it. And when you arrive here your life and your journey can become your own.
Before you’ve seen through, it all seems like a silver mountain, like an iron cliff.
—Silver Mountains and Iron Cliffs (Blue Cliff Record, Case 57)
TRANSCRIPT: Silver Mountains and Iron Cliffs – John Tarrant, Fall Sesshin 2017
You go for a walk in the mountains
One day Changsha went for a walk in the mountains.
When he returned to the temple gate someone asked, “Where have you been?”Changsha said, “Wandering about the hills. I went out following the scented grass and came back chasing the falling blossoms.”
—Changsha in the Mountains (Blue Cliff Record, Case 36)
AUDIO: Following the Scented Grass – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Spring 2021
AUDIO: Every Day Is a Good Day – John Tarrant, Fall Sesshin 2017
VIDEO: I Went Out Following the Scented Grass – Allison Atwill, Summer Sesshin 2012
VIDEO: Death Poem – David Weinstein, Summer Sesshin 2012
VIDEO: Stepping Through a Door – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2012
VIDEO: Where Have You Been? – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2012
You go to wild places
People go to wild places to search for their true nature.
When you do this, where is your true nature?—Going to Wild Places (PZI Misc Koans, Case 73a:1st of Doushuai’s 3 Barriers)
VIDEO: Wild Mind, Wild Earth – David Hinton & Jon Joseph, Zen Luminaries, Winter 2022
AUDIO: Wild Mind, Wild Earth – David Hinton & Jon Joseph, Zen Luminaries, Winter 2022
AUDIO: Kindnesses in Your Wild Temple – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Fall 2020
VIDEO: Seeing It’s Wild in Every Direction – Allison Atwill, Sesshin 2016 (clip)
AUDIO: Invitation to Walk to Wild Places Together – Jon Joseph, Summer Sesshin 2015
Mountains and rivers poetry of China
The birds have vanished into the deep sky.
The last cloud drifts away now.We sit together, the mountain and I,
until only the mountain remains.—Zazen on Jing Ting Mountain (poet Li Bai, John Tarrant version)
AUDIO: Return to Hunger Mountain – David Hinton & Jon Joseph, Zen Luminaries, Winter 2023
More mountain koans
KOAN: East Mountain Walks on Water
VIDEO: East Mountain Walks on Water – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2022
AUDIO: East Mountain Walks on Water – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2022
KOAN: Make the Mountains Dance
AUDIO: Make the Mountains Dance! – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Summer 2021
AUDIO: Dancing Teachers, Dancing Mountains – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Summer 2021
KOAN: Tortoise Mountain Wakes Up
AUDIO: Tortoise Mountain Wakes Up – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2021
AUDIO: Two Friends Snowbound on Tortoise Mountain – John Tarrant, Sunday Zen, Winter 2021(clip)
KOAN: A Tiger at Home in the Mountains
AUDIO: Be a Tiger at Home in the Mountains – John Tarrant, Summer Sesshin 2020
VIDEO: A Tiger Loose in the Mountains – John Tarrant, Fall Sesshin 2015
Mountain artworks
KOAN: Dongshan’s Voice of the Cuckoo
ARTWORK: Deep in Jumbled Mountains – painting by Corey Hitchcock, Summer 2020
Yet more koans
KOAN: The Green Mountain Walks About
KOAN: A Thousand Mountains
If you’re climbing Cold Mountain Way,
Cold Mountain Road grows inexhaustible:long canyons opening across field of talus,
broad creeks tumbling down mists of grass.Moss is impossibly slick even without rain,
but this far up, pines need no wind to sing.Who can leave the world’s tangles behind
and sit with me among these white clouds?—Han Shan (Cold Mountain), Tang poet of China