{"id":363,"date":"2009-03-29T09:47:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-29T09:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities\/"},"modified":"2009-03-29T09:47:00","modified_gmt":"2009-03-29T09:47:00","slug":"investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html","title":{"rendered":"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains … and Cities)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u2019re on the \u201cfly-way\u201d here (also the \u201cfly-over\u201d from the West to the East Coasts but that\u2019s another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a lot of migratory bird traffic. It started about a couple weeks ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

This morning I spotted (click the photo in order to see \u2019em) a couple Tundra Swans<\/span><\/a> with a <\/span>very cool honk<\/span><\/a> and shot the above from the hip. Years ago in the middle of a tough sesshin, I went outside with a cup of coffee after breakfast and was startled by a huge flock of these flying low overhead, honking, and landing in Lake Calhoun. They flipped me out of my self-centered swirl (for the moment) and since I\u2019ve had a deep feeling for them, spotting them only every few years as they pass by.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyway, Bodhi and I were on our way to investigate open water on Otter Lake that we\u2019d spotted from a distance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Above is Dog-en investigating water. And below is Do-gen encouraging just such a thing (with some Dainin\/Dosho commentary following):<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2026You should investigate (water and) mountains. If you investigate (water and) mountains, that is meditation in the (water and) mountains. Such mountains and waters of themselves make sages and saints.<\/span><\/span> (Cleary translation, <\/span>Shobogenzo Sansuikyo, Mountains and Waters Sutra<\/span><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

Katagiri Roshi (and me because this is heavily edited): You should investigate mountains means to investigate how mountains exist. <\/span><\/span> <\/span>The translator uses <\/span><\/span>meditation <\/span>in <\/span><\/span>If you investigate mountains<\/span>,<\/span><\/span> that is meditation in the mountains.<\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/div>\n
In Japanese, this word <\/span><\/span>meditation<\/span><\/span> is <\/span><\/span>kufu<\/span>. <\/span><\/span>Ku<\/span> is a carpenter\u2019s tool, a level. <\/span><\/span>Fu<\/span> is person. So literally Dogen says, <\/span><\/span>If you investigate mountains, that person is leveled in the mountains.<\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span> Mountains themselves are completely leveled as they are. This is the consummation of the mountain\u2019s life.<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
When you zazen, exactly, when you use effort in the pure sense with full concentration, effort is momentum, energy that levels your life. <\/span><\/span> Level<\/span> is not with our effort, with our head, with our usual sense of effort. That is not perfectly level. If in order to keep level we deal with something as an object, thinking \u2018I should take care of this one with effort,\u2019 already there is separation, subject and object, and we aren\u2019t leveled with what we are doing. <\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n
To level doesn\u2019t mean that we obliterate subject and object, zazen and I. Or psychologically, it doesn\u2019t mean to obliterate delusion and buddhas. When you see zazen, exactly you have to take best care of zazen with wholeheartedness. At that time you are concealed in zazen. At that time your life becomes level. <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re on the \u201cfly-way\u201d here (also the \u201cfly-over\u201d from the West to the East Coasts but that\u2019s another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a lot of migratory bird traffic. It started about a couple weeks ago. This morning I spotted (click the photo in order to see \u2019em) a couple Tundra […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nInvestigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains ... and Cities)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We're on the "fly-way" here (also the "fly-over" from the West to the East Coasts but that's another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains ... and Cities)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We're on the "fly-way" here (also the "fly-over" from the West to the East Coasts but that's another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Wild Fox Zen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-03-29T09:47:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0uPSljNE9f4\/Sc-KCm_zKhI\/AAAAAAAAAVU\/wW6IuFI8op4\/s320\/101_0597.JPG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dosho Port\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html\",\"name\":\"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains ... and Cities)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-03-29T09:47:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-03-29T09:47:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\"},\"description\":\"We're on the \\\"fly-way\\\" here (also the \\\"fly-over\\\" from the West to the East Coasts but that's another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains … and Cities)\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/\",\"name\":\"Wild Fox Zen\",\"description\":\"Living the Dream\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd\",\"name\":\"Dosho Port\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dosho Port\"},\"description\":\"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \\\"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\\\" \\\"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\\\" and \\\"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\\\"\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains ... and Cities)","description":"We're on the \"fly-way\" here (also the \"fly-over\" from the West to the East Coasts but that's another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains ... and Cities)","og_description":"We're on the \"fly-way\" here (also the \"fly-over\" from the West to the East Coasts but that's another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html","og_site_name":"Wild Fox Zen","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port","article_published_time":"2009-03-29T09:47:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_0uPSljNE9f4\/Sc-KCm_zKhI\/AAAAAAAAAVU\/wW6IuFI8op4\/s320\/101_0597.JPG"}],"author":"Dosho Port","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dosho Port","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html","name":"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains ... and Cities)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-03-29T09:47:00+00:00","dateModified":"2009-03-29T09:47:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd"},"description":"We're on the \"fly-way\" here (also the \"fly-over\" from the West to the East Coasts but that's another story), near enough to the Mississippi that we get a","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/2009\/03\/investigating-and-being-leveled-by-water-and-mountains-and-cities.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Investigating and Being Leveled by Water (and Mountains … and Cities)"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/","name":"Wild Fox Zen","description":"Living the Dream","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/45224391b7690e99673782337bd0eabd","name":"Dosho Port","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b9712e98924dea6c08d55890403352f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dosho Port"},"description":"Dosho Port began practicing Zen in 1977 and now co-teachers with his wife, Tetsugan Zummach, with the Vine of Obstacles Zen. Dosho received dharma transmission from Dainin Katagiri Roshi and inka shomei from James Myoun Ford Roshi in the Harada-Yasutani lineage. He is the author of \"Keep Me In Your Heart Awhile: The Haunting Zen of Dainin Katagiri,\" \"The Record of Empty Hall: One Hundred Classic Koans,\" and \"Going Through the Mystery's One Hundred Questions.\"","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.vineobstacleszen.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dosho.port"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/author\/doshoport"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wildfoxzen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}