Friday, April 15, 2011

Mountain Calm

Shunryu Suzuki does not speak directly of a purpose in Zen in the chapter entitled Breathing. The talk is more of an encouragement to practice.

Why practice? Although the question is not answered directly, Suzuki does quote the famous Zen Master Tozan:

The blue mountain is the father of the white cloud.
The white cloud is the son of the blue mountain.
All day long they depend on each other,
without being dependent on each other.
The white cloud is always the white cloud.
The blue mountain is always the blue mountain.

The purpose of Zen is to learn—to discover, to realize—how to live independently even though we are dependent on each other. We should not be bothered by anything. The white cloud should not be bothered by the blue mountain and the blue mountain should not be bothered by the white cloud.

This is true freedom.
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