July 13, 2023, Valerie Forstman: Which Way to Mount Taizan?

Each step, each sound, every word is Mount Taizan, the highest peak – this landscape that we can’t, actually, fall out of. Entirety. Shoyoroku Case 10, “An Old Woman near Taizan,” gestures toward such a complete and dynamic landscape. So do a passage from Dogen, an exchange between Bodhidharma and Huike: “Which way shall we go?” “Go straight on.” “If you go straight on you cannot move a step” – at which, Huike’s body-mind just falls away. He says, “all relations have come to an end.” No in or out, not the slightest possibility of near or far.

So is this totality some frozen landscape, nothing but white and transparency? On the contrary, in nothing-at-all there is endlessly everything. No foothold, nowhere to go or arrive – yet here we are, responding, finding what’s ours to do. Which way to Mount Taizan? Go straight on.

---

Please consider supporting Mountain Cloud with a donation or becoming a member so we can continue to provide online programs such as this.

Donations: https://www.mountaincloud.org/donate/

Become a member: https://www.mountaincloud.org/about/m...

Check out our website: https://www.mountaincloud.org/

All are welcome to join us for sitting and dharma talks. Use this link to join us: https://sit.mountaincloud.org