Dancing Mountains (MK5)

View All Koans

KOAN:

Make the mountains dance.

Note: Zaogongen is the local deity for one of the shamanic traditions in Japan (the Yamabushi) and it is said that the revelation of the tradition is to see Zaogongen as the mountains dancing.

—PZI Miscellanous Koans, Case 5

Dharma Theme March 22, 2023

Dharma Theme: In the Wild – Mountain Koans & Poems

PZI Teachers

Koans

A Thousand Mountains (MK13), Be a Tiger in the Mountains, Changsha Wandering in the Mountains (BCR36), Dancing Mountains (MK5), Dongshan's Voice of the Cuckoo (MK52), Going to Wild Places (MK73), Silver Mountain and Iron Cliff (BCR 57), The Green Mountain Walks About (BS41), Tortoise Mountain Wakes Up (BCR22), Yunmen's East Mountain Walks on the Water (EV49)

Category

Dharma Theme, Text

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.

23 Words

Audio August 16, 2021

Changing Places with the Night Sky – Make the Mountains Dance!

John Tarrant

Koans

Dancing Mountains (MK5), Just This Is It, Mazu's Purpose of Your Life