The World Belongs to Those Who Love It

The world is on fire. What do each of us have to offer to meet that fire?

Reflecting on the teachings of Dogen’s Mountains and River Sutra, Zuisei looks into what it means to take care and the urgent need for that care. From practicing zazen to the learning about and dismantling the worlds we’ve co-created around racism and climate change, how do we show up for ourselves and one another?

This talk was given by Zuisei Goddard. See below for transcript.

Transcript

This transcript is based on Zuisei's talk notes and may differ slightly from the final talk.

These mountains and rivers of the present are the actualization of the word of ancient buddhas. Each, abiding in (its own) dharma state, completely fulfills its virtues. Because they are the state prior to the kalpa of emptiness, they are living in the present. Because they are the self before the germination of any subtle sign, they are liberated in their actualization. Because the virtues of the mountains are high and broad, the power to ride the clouds is always attained in the mountains; and the ability to follow the wind is inevitably liberated from the mountains.

Good evening, everyone, welcome. The past week has been very full for me. Time is quickly passing by, it’s been a year, give or take a month, depending on where you live, that we’ve been navigating this new world we live in. It is not new, of course, but is showing us the many ways that we are interconnected, both in good and in harmful ways. All the various places where it’s clear there’s a lot of work to be done, individually and collectively, we’ve turned in, in order to protect ourselves and each other. We also have unprecedented access to what is happening everywhere, at any time. That is both a gift and a burden, I think. Imagine being in lockdown without the benefit of the internet, life would be very lonely. Still, there are brands of loneliness that are unique to our modern world, and which technology has not been able to assuage. On the contrary, it’s intensified our sense of isolation, our sense of life being better somewhere else.

As I reflect each week, from my little Brooklyn apartment on how best to use this time with you, how best to speak about and take up and work with the many imperatives we’re facing, the continuing and increasingly urgent need to deal with environmental degradation, with racism and all forms of oppression, nationalism, exceptionalism, white supremacy, hunger and poverty and war, sickness and death—I wonder about what would best serve you. What sort of teachings might offer some refuge or comfort or inspiration? Which words may offer a way in, a way through, little by little, which is the only way to tackle all that is in front of us?

I feel the urgency of time, of passing time, my own and the world’s. My own time is barely a blip, a drop of a drop in the ocean of cosmic time, but this is the time I have, so the question constantly on my mind is, How do I best use it? There is so much that requires attention, that requires care and love and knowledge and effort. Every week I ask myself, What can I do? What will I do? What do I have to offer in the midst of what seems to be an increasingly precarious situation? What skills? What knowledge? What enthusiasm? Zeal is one of the paramitas, one of the perfections, in Buddhism. I think more than ever we need boundless enthusiasm to do what needs to be done.

I know I can always offer zazen, a space of stillness and silence, a place to stop and look and listen deeply to what our own wisdom (which is no different from the Earth’s wisdom) has to say. Not our accumulated knowledge, not facts and figures, though those are useful too, in their place, but wisdom based on truth, on reality, on the common ground of goodness that we share. I and we can offer each other a place of understanding. On any given day, at any given time, one and probably more of us will be struggling. I’d like to be part of creating a space where that is not only okay, but also acknowledged.

I know we all come from long days at work, most often we’re on Zoom all day, it’s difficult to stay tuned and focused, connected. It’s easy to think, I’ll just slip in to sit quietly, slip out before the talk, or after the talk, before the discussion starts. You’re not required to do any part of it, of course, but I’d like to encourage all of us, if we decide to show up, to fully be there for one another, to offer each other our presence, our attention, our care. This is one of the things that struck me every time I’m in spaces that are not all white: the willingness that people have to really slow down, take each other in with deep, deep care and regard, and without rushing. The teaching is not happening from the podium only, it’s not a teacher imparting wisdom that the audience is receiving, it’s being lived, moment to moment.

It’s being actualized, just as mountains and rivers actualize the words of ancient buddhas, which takes me to the passage I quoted at the beginning, from The Mountains and Rivers Sutra by Master Dogen (13th century Zen teacher) as I asked myself the question, What will you do? What will you say? I heard my first teacher’s voice, I heard Daido Roshi saying, “The mountains belong to those who love them.” I thought to myself, Start there. He loved this sutra. He named the Mountains and Rivers Order, of which Zen Mountain Monastery is a part, in honor of this sutra. It’s the most poetic of Dogen’s teachings, and it speaks very beautifully of the relationship between this body and this body, of the love and responsibility between two-legged beings and everyone else. The world belongs to those who love it, who care for it as they would for their own body.

I’d like to, over the next few weeks, do a series of talks on the Mountains and Rivers Sutra because when I think about what is most pressing, I see very clearly that without a world, every other problem becomes inconsequential. Well, non-existent really. Just like without food or water or shelter, none of us would be able to be here, sitting quietly and talking about the Buddhadharma.

I’d like to use The Mountains and Rivers Sutra as a springboard for reflection and discussion, and hopefully ultimately, for action on our parts. Though, as I said to some of you in an email this morning, we won’t meet next Wednesday. The reason, for those of you who hadn’t signed up in advance for next week’s meeting, is that the Buddhist Action Coalition, a group dedicated to using the Buddhist teachings to address, well, everything, essentially—white supremacy, nationalism, ecological degradation, etc. Their talk next week is by Kosen Greg Snyder, director of the Brooklyn Zen Center. He’s looking at whiteness and supremacy and the alienation and harm it creates for us and for people of color, for the earth, and society in general. It’s another way to enter, to study, to practice and to act, if you’re interested.

Let me acknowledge that this can be heavy work, but it doesn’t have to be. I think this is something that Buddhism has to offer. I think of the example of Thich Nhat Han, Jarvis Masters. There is fierceness, and there is gentleness, both are necessary. Masters himself has made his life an example of this, not Buddhist, just kind. We can be loving and tender and determined and aware. We have that capacity. In one of her books about love, bell hooks tells the story of a man who once asked a Masai warrior, "What makes a great warrior?” The Masai answered, “A good warrior is fearless, but a great warrior is fierce when they need to be fierce, and kind when they need to be kind, they know the difference.”

So, let us practice with fierceness and love, with courage and patience and determination, soft like a flower when softness is needed, solid like a truck when that’s what will be of benefit the most. A later passage in *The Mountains and Rivers Sutra speaks of these qualities in water:

Solidified, it is harder than diamond: who could break it? Melted, it is softer than milk: who could break it? This being the case, we cannot doubt the many virtues realized [by water].

The many virtues realized by water, by rocks and sunlight, orchids and silver grasses. The many virtues realized by the animal wisdom of our bodies, by the intuitive wisdom of our minds. These are all the many virtues we need to take care of this one great body. So, to go back to the beginning:

These mountains and rivers of the present are the actualization of the word of ancient buddhas. Each, abiding in (its own) Dharma state, completely fulfills its virtues.

These mountains and rivers, these gorges and valleys, these polar caps and forests and oceans and deserts, are the manifested words of the buddhas, past, present and future. Interesting that in the Bible, God created the world with their words:

In the beginning God created heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Every moment of every day, we buddhas also create the world with our words, spoken or thought. Every moment of every day we help to shape the world we’re all inhabiting. That is the power that we each have. That is the power we have collectively. Words in the shape of words and words in the shape of thoughts create the world. Words that lead to choices large and small, from the food I eat, the clothes I wear, the place I live, the way I work and rest and play, the things I invest money and time and thought into, all of these shape the world that then continues to shape me and us. It’s a process of co-creation. This is just the first line of the sutra.

Instead of plowing ahead let me stop there. Let me ask you, as we continue with this fledgling group, What do you think is most necessary? Some of you may be thinking about racism and white supremacy, or about the environment. Some of you may just be getting through the days, helping to school your kids, making sure you still have a job. In the middle of the thousand things that require your attention, what do you turn to for support, for refuge, for inspiration? How do you nourish your body? How do you feed your mind? How do you take the words of the Buddhadharma and actualize them in your life?

How do you let there be light, and do you see that it’s good?

Explore further

01 : The Mountains and Rivers Sutra by Zen Master Dogen

02 : Black and Buddhist Summit

03 : River Seeing River by John Daido Loori, Roshi