The Mountains and Waters Sutra ─ A Practitioner Guide to Dogen Sansuikyo

An indispensible map of a classic Zen text.

“Mountains and waters are the expression of old buddhas.”

So begins “Sansuikyo,” or “Mountains and Waters Sutra,” a masterpiece of poetry and insight from Eihei Dogen, the thirteenth-century founder of the Soto school of Zen.

Shohaku Okumura, one of the most renowned scholar-practitioners of Dogen in the world, guides the reader through the rich layers of metaphor and meaning in “Sansuikyo,” which is often thought to be the most beautiful essay in Dogen’s monumental Shobogenzo. His wise and friendly voice shows us the questions Dogen poses and helps us realize what the answers might be. How can mountains and waters can be an expression of Buddha’s truth? How can we live in harmony with the environment in respect and gratitude? And what on earth does Dogen mean when he says mountains walk?

Shohaku Okumura was born in Osaka, Japan, in 1948. He received his education at Komazawa University in Tokyo, Japan, where he studied Zen Buddhism. On December 8, 1970, Okumura was ordained at Antaiji by his teacher Kosho Uchiyama, and he practiced there until Uchiyama retired in 1975. He then traveled to the United States, where he cofounded Valley Zendo in Massachusetts and continued Uchiyama’s style of zazen practice there. In 1981 he returned to Japan and began translating the writings of Uchiyama and Eihei Dogen from Japanese into English. He taught at the Kyoto Soto Zen Center in Japan, and the Minnesota Zen Meditation Center in Minneapolis, and was the director of the Soto Zen Buddhism International Center (previously called Soto Zen Education Center) in San Francisco from 1997 to 2010.

He is the founding teacher of Sanshin Zen Community, based in Bloomington, Indiana, where he lives with his family.