Shōbōgenzō Sansui-kyō — by Eihei Dōgen
The Sansui-kyō, or Mountains and Waters Sutra, is the twenty-ninth fascicle of the Shōbōgenzō, the masterwork of Eihei Dōgen (1200–1253), founder of the Sōtō school of Zen Buddhism in Japan. Delivered to the assembly at Kannon-dōri Kōshō-hōrin-ji temple on the eighteenth day of the tenth month of the first year of Ninji (1240), when Dōgen was forty-one years old, the text takes as its subject the identity of mountains and waters with the Buddha Way — and, ultimately, with the true self.
Among the ninety-five fascicles of the Shōbōgenzō, the Sansui-kyō is the only one bearing the character 経 (kyō) — "sutra" — in its title, marking it as scripture in its own right. Drawing on the sayings of Fuyō Dōkai ("The blue mountains are constantly walking; the stone woman gives birth by night") and Yunmen Wenyan ("The eastern mountain moves upon the waters"), Dōgen unfolds a vision of reality in which mountains walk, waters preach, and the boundary between sentient and insentient dissolves. The text is at once a philosophical treatise on the nonduality of mind and environment, a polemic against shallow Zen, and a hymn to the living landscape as the body and mind of awakening.
This is a Good Works Translation by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, rendered from the original Classical Japanese and Classical Chinese as preserved in the Iwanami Bunko edition (Mizuno Yaho, 2004) and the Zen commentary tradition. The original text was accessed via the sets.ne.jp digital archive.
The mountains and waters of the present are the manifestation of the Way of the ancient buddhas. Together they abide in their dharma-position and have fully realized ultimate virtue. Because they are the tidings of the aeon before emptiness, they are the living activity of the present. Because they are the self before the first sign has stirred, they are the freedom of full manifestation.
The many virtues of the mountains are high and broad. The power that rides the clouds must always reach us through the mountains. The wondrous skill that follows the wind has always freed itself through the mountains.
Master Kai of Mount Taiyō once told the assembly: "The blue mountains are constantly walking. The stone woman gives birth by night."
The mountains lack nothing of the virtues they should possess. Therefore they are constantly at rest, and constantly walking. You should study the virtue of this walking in close detail.
The walking of mountains must be like the walking of people; therefore, do not doubt the walking of the mountains merely because it does not look like the walking of human beings. The teaching of the buddha-ancestors has already pointed to this walking. This is its root meaning.
You should thoroughly investigate the teaching that mountains constantly walk. The walking makes them constant. The walking of the blue mountains is swifter than the wind, yet the one within the mountains is unaware and unconscious. Within the mountains means the blossoming of the whole world. The one outside the mountains is also unaware and unconscious. Those without eyes to see mountains are unaware, unconscious, unseeing, and unhearing — this is the logic of the matter.
If you doubt the walking of the mountains, you do not yet know your own walking either.
It is not that your own walking does not exist; you simply do not yet know or understand it. If you would know your own walking, you must also know the walking of the blue mountains.
The blue mountains are neither sentient nor insentient. The self is neither sentient nor insentient. You must not doubt the walking of the blue mountains. You do not know from what dharma-realm you should illuminate the blue mountains.
The walking of the blue mountains and the walking of the self — examine them clearly. Examine both the step forward and the step back.
From the very moment before the first sign has stirred, from the time of the Void King and beyond, the step forward and the step back have never ceased — examine this. If the walking had ever paused, the buddha-ancestors would not have appeared. If the walking had ever reached an end, the buddha-dharma would not have come to this day.
The step forward does not cease; the step back does not cease. The step forward does not turn against the step back; the step back does not turn against the step forward. This virtue is called "mountains flowing" and "flowing mountains."
The blue mountains study walking; the eastern mountain studies moving upon the waters. Therefore this study is the mountains' own study. The mountains do not alter their body and mind; keeping their own face, they have always come investigating and studying.
Do not slander the mountains by saying that the blue mountains cannot walk, or that the eastern mountain cannot move upon the waters.
It is because of the baseness of a low point of view that one doubts the phrase "the blue mountains are walking." It is because of the poverty of narrow learning that one is startled by the words "flowing mountain." Unable even to fully penetrate the phrase "flowing water," one merely drowns in narrow views.
And so, the accumulated virtues of the mountains are taken as their form, their name, their lifeblood. There is walking and there is flowing. There comes a time when the mountain gives birth to the mountain child. Because there is this principle of mountains becoming buddha-ancestors, the buddha-ancestors have appeared thus.
Even when eyes open to see grass, trees, earth, stones, walls, and tiles as manifesting the real — this is neither doubt nor agitation, nor the full manifestation. Even when the moment arrives when everything appears adorned with the seven treasures, this is not the final resting place. Even when the sphere of the practice of all buddhas is seen to manifest, it should not become an object of attachment.
Even if one attains the pinnacle of seeing the inconceivable virtues of all buddhas manifested, the truth is not only this. Each particular manifestation is simply the result of its own conditions. These should not be taken as the practice of the buddha-ancestors; they are merely the view through a narrow tube.
To hold that the external world opposes and controls the mind — this is what the Great Sage rebukes. To theorize about mind and its essential nature — this is what the buddha-ancestors reject. To attempt to see the mind and see the nature — this is the activity of heretics. To cling to words and phrases — this is not the path of liberation.
There is something that has passed far beyond all such boundaries. This is what is called "the blue mountains are constantly walking" and "the eastern mountain moves upon the waters." Examine this closely.
"The stone woman gives birth by night" means that the time when the stone woman gives birth is called "night." In general, there are male stones and female stones, and there are stones that are neither male nor female. They support heaven and patch earth. There are stones of heaven and stones of earth. Though this is commonly said, few truly know it.
You should know the meaning of "giving birth." When the child is born, does the parent and child both transform? You should study and penetrate not only that the child becomes a parent as the manifestation of birth, but also that the parent becoming a child is the practice and realization of birth.
Yunmen, the Great Master Kuangzhen, said: "The eastern mountain moves upon the waters."
The essential meaning of these words is this: all mountains are the eastern mountain, and all these eastern mountains move upon the waters. Therefore the nine mountains including Sumeru are manifested and realized. This is called "the eastern mountain."
But how could even Yunmen penetrate to the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of the eastern mountain, to its practice and living activity?
Now in the Great Song empire there is a certain group of incompetents. By now they form a crowd. Small truth cannot prevail against them. They say that such talk as "the eastern mountain moves upon the waters" and Nanquan's sickle story are "beyond rational understanding." Their meaning is this: any talk involving conceptual thinking is not the Zen talk of the buddha-ancestors. "Beyond rational understanding" — that alone is the talk of the buddha-ancestors. Therefore they say the blows of Huangbo and the shouts of Linji, being beyond rational understanding, are the great awakening prior to the first sign's stirring. The expedient means of the ancient masters, they say, often employed such phrases that cut through entanglement — and this is "beyond rational understanding."
Those who speak thus have never met a true teacher and have no eye for study. They are worthless fools.
In the Song dynasty for the past two or three hundred years, such demon-children and bald pretenders have been many. What a pity — the great Way of the buddha-ancestors is decaying. The understanding of these people does not even reach the level of the Hīnayāna hearers; they are more foolish than the heretics. They are neither lay nor monastic, neither human nor celestial. They are more foolish than the beasts who study the Buddha Way.
What these bald pretenders call "beyond rational understanding" — it is only you who cannot understand; the buddha-ancestors are not like this. Just because you cannot understand does not mean you should fail to study the way of understanding that the buddha-ancestors possess.
Even if in the end it truly were beyond understanding, then even the understanding you now claim would be invalid. Such people are many throughout the Song empire. I have seen and heard them myself. How pitiful — they do not know that thoughts and deliberations are words and phrases, and that words and phrases liberate thought and deliberation.
When I was in the Song empire and laughed at them, they had nothing to say and fell silent. Their claim that understanding is impossible is simply a wrong view. Who taught you this? Though you have no true teacher, yours is the natural view of heretics.
Know this: "the eastern mountain moves upon the waters" is the very marrow of the buddha-ancestors. Waters are manifested at the foot of the eastern mountain. Therefore the mountains ride the clouds and walk the heavens. The summit of the waters is the mountains. Walking both upward and downward is always upon the waters. The toes of the mountains walk upon all the waters and make the waters leap. Therefore walking is unhindered in all directions, and practice and realization are not absent.
Water is not strong or weak, not wet or dry, not moving or still, not cold or warm, not existent or nonexistent, not deluded or enlightened. When frozen, it is harder than diamond — who could break it? When melted, it is softer than milk — who could break it?
This being so, no one can doubt the virtues that water manifests and possesses. You should study the moment of seeing water in all ten directions as water in all ten directions. This is not only studying how humans and heavenly beings see water. There is studying water seeing water. Because water practices and realizes water. There is water speaking of water. You must actualize the path of the self meeting the self. You must go forward and back on the living road where the other meets the other. Leap free.
The way different beings see mountains and waters is not the same. Some see water as jeweled ornaments. But they do not see the jeweled ornaments as water. What form do we see that they call water? What we see as water they see as jeweled ornaments. Some see water as wondrous flowers, though they do not use flowers as water.
Hungry ghosts see water as raging fire or as pus and blood. Dragons and fish see it as palaces and towers. Some see it as the seven treasures and the mani gem, some as forests and walls, some as the pure nature of liberation, some as the true human body, some as body-form and mind-nature. Humans see it as water — the cause of life and death.
Indeed, what is seen differs according to the kind of being. Let us hold this in question.
Is it that different views are directed at a single object, or that different objects are mistaken for a single thing? At the peak of practice, practice further.
Therefore, the practice of the Way is not one track or two, and the ultimate boundary must be a thousand, ten thousand kinds. To think further on this principle: though the waters of various kinds are many, it seems as if there is no original water, and as if the waters of various kinds do not exist. Yet the various waters seen by the various kinds do not depend on mind or body, do not arise from karma, are not dependent on self or other. There is simply the freedom of water being water.
Therefore, water is not the elements of earth, water, fire, wind, space, and consciousness; water is not blue, yellow, red, white, or black; water is not form, sound, smell, taste, touch, or dharmas — yet the water of earth, water, fire, wind, and space manifests of itself.
This being so, it is difficult to say what creates and constitutes the lands and palaces of the present. To say they hang upon a sphere of air or a sphere of space is not true for us or for others. It is merely the conjecture of a narrow view. Such a thing is said only because people think that without something to hang upon, things cannot stand.
The Buddha said: "All dharmas are ultimately liberated; they have no fixed abode."
Know this: though they are liberated and without bondage, all dharmas abide in their own position. Even so, when humans look at water, one view is that it flows without ceasing. Its flow has many forms, but this is merely one aspect of the human view.
Water flows across the earth and through the sky, upward and downward. It flows through one winding and into nine depths. Rising, it becomes cloud; descending, it becomes a pool.
The Wenzi says: "The way of water is this — rising to heaven it becomes rain and dew; descending to earth it becomes rivers and streams."
Even in secular writings, such things are said. For those who call themselves descendants of the buddhas and ancestors to be more ignorant than the laity would be a deep shame.
The way of water is not something water is aware of, yet water is able to act. The way of water is not something water is unaware of, yet water is able to act.
"Rising to heaven it becomes rain and dew" — know this: water ascends to the farthest heights and becomes rain and dew. Rain and dew take many forms according to the world. To say there is any place water does not reach is the teaching of the Hīnayāna sutras, or the wrong view of heretics.
Water reaches even into fire, into thought and discrimination, into awareness and buddha-nature.
"Descending to earth it becomes rivers and streams." Know this: when water descends to earth, it becomes rivers and streams. The essence of rivers and streams concentrates and becomes sages.
Now the foolish and ordinary think that water only exists in rivers, streams, and seas. This is not so. Rivers and seas are made within water. Therefore, water exists also where there are no rivers and seas. When water descends to earth, it simply manifests the work of rivers and seas.
Moreover, do not think that where water has made rivers and seas there can be no world, no buddha-land. Even within a single drop, numberless buddha-lands are manifest.
Therefore it is not that water exists within the buddha-land, nor that the buddha-land exists within water. The existence of water is not bound to past, present, or future, nor bound to the dharma-realm. Yet even so, water is the living manifestation of the Way.
Where the buddha-ancestors are, water is always there. Where water is, the buddha-ancestors always manifest. Therefore the buddha-ancestors have always taken water as their body and mind, as their thought and deliberation. Thus the assertion that water does not rise upward is found in neither Buddhist nor non-Buddhist texts.
The way of water penetrates freely, up and down, vertically and horizontally.
However, in the Buddhist sutras it says that fire and wind rise upward, while earth and water descend. This "up and down" is worth studying. Study the up and down of the Buddha Way. Where earth and water go — that is called "down." It is not that "down" is where earth and water go.
Where fire and wind go is "up." The dharma-realm need not be bound to the dimensions of above, below, and the four directions. It is simply that according to where the four, five, or six great elements go, a directional world is tentatively established.
The Realm of No-Thought is not "above" and the Avīci Hell is not "below." Avīci is the whole dharma-realm; the Realm of No-Thought is also the whole dharma-realm.
When dragons and fish see water as a palace, it must be just as humans see a palace — they would not perceive it as flowing. If a bystander were to tell them, "What you see as a palace is flowing water," the dragons and fish would be startled and doubtful, just as we are startled when we hear that mountains flow.
Yet it may be that they would accept that the railings, stairs, and pillars of their palace are like this. Consider this matter quietly and thoroughly.
If you do not learn to pass beyond the relative here, you have not liberated the body and mind of an ordinary being, you have not exhausted the buddha-ancestors' land, you have not exhausted the ordinary person's land, you have not exhausted the ordinary person's palace.
At present, humans firmly believe they know the nature of the sea and the nature of rivers as water. But they do not yet know what dragons, fish, and other beings perceive and use as water. Do not foolishly assume that all types of beings use as water what you yourself perceive as water.
When those who study the Buddha seek to study water, they should not cling only to the human view. Go forward and study the water of the Buddha Way. Study what the buddha-ancestors use as water and how we see it. Study whether there is water within the house of the buddha-ancestors, or not.
From a time beyond ancient and beyond present, mountains have been the dwelling of the great sages. Sages and saints have all made the mountains their inner chamber, their body and mind. Through sages and saints the mountains are manifested.
Though it seems that many great sages and saints must have entered and gathered in the mountains, once you enter, not a single person is to be met. There is only the living activity of the mountains; not a single trace of having entered remains.
When you gaze at the mountains from the world, and when you face the mountains within the mountains — the view is vastly different. The idea that mountains do not flow, and the perception that they do not flow, cannot be placed on equal ground with the perception of dragons and fish.
Humans and heavenly beings may be secure in their own realm, yet other kinds may doubt this, or may not even reach the point of doubt. Therefore study the phrase "mountains flow" with the buddha-ancestors. Do not abandon yourself to surprise and doubt.
Taking up one side, it flows. Taking up one side, it does not flow. One time, flowing. One time, not flowing. Without this kind of investigation, it is not the true dharma-wheel of the Tathāgata.
An ancient buddha said: "If you wish to avoid the karma that leads to the unceasing hells, do not slander the true dharma-wheel of the Tathāgata."
Engrave these words upon skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. Engrave them upon body, mind, and environment. Engrave them upon emptiness and upon form. Upon trees and upon stones they are engraved; upon fields and upon villages they are engraved.
Generally speaking, mountains belong to the nation — but they truly belong to those who love them. When the mountains love their master, the sages, saints, and those of high virtue enter the mountains. When sages and saints dwell in the mountains, the mountains belong to them, and therefore the trees and rocks flourish abundantly, and the birds and beasts are wondrously spirited. This is because the virtue of the sages and saints covers them.
Know this: mountains have the reality of loving sages, the reality of loving saints.
Many emperors have gone to the mountains to pay respect to sages and to seek the counsel of the great saints — this is a noble precedent from ancient and present times. When they do so, they show the respect due a teacher, not following the customs of the common world. The reach of imperial power does not extend to the mountain sage.
That the mountains stand apart from the human world — know this. In ancient times, when the immortal Guangcheng dwelled in a stone chamber on Mount Kongtong, the Yellow Emperor went there, walked on his knees, and beseeched his teaching.
Śākyamuni Buddha himself once left the palace of his royal father and entered the mountains. Yet the father-king did not resent the mountains, nor did he regard with suspicion those in the mountains who taught the prince. Twelve years of practice on the Way were largely spent in the mountains. The dharma-king's awakening was in the mountains. Truly, even a wheel-turning sage-king does not compel those who dwell in the mountains.
Know this: the mountains are not the domain of the human world, nor the domain of the heavens above. Do not presume to know the mountains through the measure of human thought.
There have also been sages and saints who, as circumstance had it, dwelt by the waters. Dwelling by the waters, some caught fish, some caught people, some caught the Way. These are all the old ways of life by the waters. Going further, there must be those who catch the self, those who catch the act of catching, those who are caught by the catching, and those who are caught by the Way.
Long ago, Master Decheng suddenly left Yaoshan and went to dwell at the heart of the river. There he encountered the sage of the Huating River. Did he not catch fish? Did he not catch people? Did he not catch water? Did he not catch himself?
That a person can meet Decheng is Decheng himself. Decheng's receiving a person is his meeting a person.
It is not merely that there is water in the world — within the world of water there is a world. And not only within water: within clouds there is a world of sentient beings, within wind there is a world of sentient beings, within fire there is a world of sentient beings, within earth there is a world of sentient beings. Within the dharma-realm there is a world of sentient beings, within a single stalk of grass there is a world of sentient beings, within a single staff there is a world of sentient beings.
Wherever there is a world of sentient beings, there is necessarily the world of the buddha-ancestors.
You should study this principle thoroughly.
Therefore water is the palace of the true dragon. It is not merely flowing and falling. To perceive it only as flowing is to slander water with the word "flow," as though one would force it to be "not-flowing."
Water is simply the true form of water as it is. Water is the virtue of water. It is not "flowing." To investigate the flowing of a single water, and to investigate its not-flowing, is to immediately and completely manifest the investigation of all things.
Mountains too — there are mountains hidden in treasure, mountains hidden in marshes, mountains hidden in the sky, mountains hidden in mountains. There is the study of mountains hidden within hiddenness.
An ancient buddha said: "Mountains are mountains; waters are waters."
These words do not say that mountains are "mountains." They say that mountains are mountains.
Therefore, investigate the mountains. When you investigate the mountains, it is the mountains' own practice.
Such mountains and waters of themselves produce sages and saints.
Colophon
Shōbōgenzō, Fascicle Twenty-Nine: Sansui-kyō (Mountains and Waters Sutra). Composed by Eihei Dōgen Zenji and delivered to the assembly at Kannon-dōri Kōshō-hōrin-ji temple, the eighteenth day of the tenth month of Ninji 1 (1240 CE).
Translated from the original Classical Japanese and Classical Chinese by the New Tianmu Anglican Church with AI assistance, 2026. Source text accessed via the sets.ne.jp Zen archive, cross-referenced with the Iwanami Bunko edition (Mizuno Yaho, 2004). This is the first text of the Sōtō Zen tradition in the Good Work Library, and the first Good Works Translation from a Japanese Buddhist source.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
Related Buddhist texts in the Good Work Library: Diamond Sutra · Heart Sutra — the Prajñāpāramitā emptiness teaching that underpins Dōgen's Zen; the Diamond Sutra's awakening of Huineng is the origin story of the Chan tradition from which Sōtō descends
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Source Text: 正法眼蔵 山水経
Classical Japanese source text of the Sansui-kyō (山水経, Mountains and Waters Sutra), Fascicle Twenty-Nine of the Shōbōgenzō (正法眼蔵) by Eihei Dōgen (永平道元, 1200–1253). Text from the sets.ne.jp Zen archive, based on the standard scholarly editions. The thirty-section division follows the convention of the Japanese commentary tradition. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.
一
而今の山水は、古仏の道現成なり。ともに法位に住して、究尽の功徳を成ぜり。空劫已前の消息なるがゆゑに、而今の活計なり。朕兆未萌の自己なるがゆゑに、現成の透脱なり。山の諸功徳高広なるをもて、乗雲の道徳、かならず山より通達す。順風の妙功、さだめて山より透脱するなり。
二
大陽山楷和尚示衆に云く、「青山常運歩、石女夜生児」。山は、そなはるべき功徳のきけつすることなし。このゆゑに常安住なり、常運歩なり。その運歩の功徳、まさに審細に参学すべし。
三
山の運歩は、人の運歩のごとくなるべきがゆゑに、人間の行歩におなじくみえざればとて、山の運歩をうたがふことなかれ。いま仏祖の説道、すでに運歩を指示す。これその得本なり。常運歩の示衆を究弁すべし、運歩のゆゑに常なり。青山の連歩は其疾如風よりもすみやかなれども、山中人は不覚不知なり。山中とは世界裏の華開なり。山外人は不覚不知なり。山をみる眼目あらざる人は、不覚、不知、不見、不間、這箇道理なり。もし山の巡歩を疑著するは、自己の蓮歩をもいまだしらざるなり。
四
自己の運歩なきにはあらず、自己の運歩いまだしらざるなり、あきらめざるなり。自己の運歩をしらんがごとき、まさに青山の運歩をもしるべきなり。青山すでに有情にあらず、非情にあらず。自己すでに有情にあらず、非情にあらず。いま青山の運歩を疑著せんことうべからず。いく法界を量局として、青山を照鑑すべしとしらず。青山の運歩、および自己の運歩、あきらかに検点すべきなり、退歩歩退ともに検点あるべし。
五
未朕兆の正当時、および空王那畔より、進歩退歩に、運歩しばらくもやまざること検点すべし。運歩もし休することあらば、仏祖不出現なり。運歩もし究極あらば、「仏法は今日に到らず」ならん。進歩いまだやまず、退歩いまだやまず。進歩のとき退歩に乖向せず、退歩のとき進歩を乖向せず。この功徳を山流とし、流山とす。青山も運歩を参究し、東山も水上行を参学するがゆゑに、この参学は山の参学なり。山の身心をあらためず、山の面目ながら廻途参学しきたれり。青山は運歩不得なり、東山水上行不得なると山を誹膀することなかれ。
六
低下の見処のいやしきゆゑに、青山運歩の句をあやしむなり。小聞のつたなきによりて、流山の語をおどろくなり。いま流水の言も、七通八達せずといへども、小見小聞に沈溺せるのみなり。しかあれば所積の功徳を挙せるを、形名とし、命脈とせり。運歩あり流行あり、山の山児を生ずる時節あり。山の仏祖となる道理によりて、仏祖かくのごとく出現せるなり。
七
たとひ草木・土石・牆壁の現成する眼晴あらんときも、疑著にあらず、動著にあらず、全現成にあらず。たとひ七宝荘厳なりと見取せらるる時節現成すとも、実帰にあらず。たとひ諸仏行道の境界と見現成あるも、あながちの愛処にあらず。
八
たとひ諸仏不思議の功徳と見現成の頂寧をうとも、如実これのみにあらず、各各の見成は各各の依正なり。これらを仏祖の道業とするにあらず、一隅の管見なり。転境転心は大聖の所呵なり、説心説性は仏祖の所不肯なり、見心見性は外道の活計なり、滞言滞句は解脱の道著にあらず。かくのごとくの境界を透脱せるあり、いはゆる青山常運歩なり、東山水上行なり。審細に参究すべし。
九
石女夜生兒は石女の生兒するときを夜といふ。おほよそ男石女石あり、非男女石あり。これよく天を補し、地を補す。天石あり、地石あり。俗のいふところなりといへども、人のしるところまれなるなり。生兒の道理しるべし。生兒のときは親子並化するか。兒の親となるを生兒現成と參學するのみならんや、親の兒となるときを生兒現成の修證なりと參學すべし、究徹すべし。
十
雲門匡眞大師いはく、東山水上行。この道現成の宗旨は、山は東山なり、一切の東山は水上行なり。このゆゑに、九山迷盧等現成せり、修證せり。これを東山といふ。しかあれども、雲門いかでか東山の皮肉骨髓、修證活計に透ならん。
十一
いま現在大宋國に、杜撰のやから一類あり、いまは群をなせり。小實の撃不能なるところなり。かれらいはく、いまの東山水上行話、および南泉の鎌子話のごときは、無理會話なり。その意旨は、もろもろの念慮にかかはれる語話は佛祖の禪話にあらず。無理會話、これ佛祖の語話なり。かるがゆゑに、黄檗の行棒および臨濟の擧喝、これら理會およびがたく、念慮にかかはれず、これを朕兆未萌已前の大悟とするなり。先徳の方便、おほく葛藤斷句をもちゐるといふは無理會なり。かくのごとくいふやから、かつていまだ正師をみず、參學眼なし。いふにたらざる小癡子なり。
十二
宋土ちかく二三百年よりこのかた、かくのごとくの魔子六群禿子おほし。あはれむべし、佛祖の大道の癈するなり。これらが所解、なほ小乘聲聞におよばず、外道よりもおろかなり。俗にあらず僧にあらず、人にあらず天にあらず、學佛道の畜生よりもおろかなり。禿子がいふ無理會話、なんぢのみ無理會なり、佛祖はしかあらず。なんぢに理會せられざればとて、佛祖の理會路を參學せざるべからず。たとひ畢竟じて無理會なるべくは、なんぢがいまいふ理會もあたるべからず。しかのごときのたぐひ、宋朝の諸方におほし。まのあたり見聞せしところなり。あはれむべし、かれら念慮の語句なることをしらず、語句の念慮を透脱することをしらず。
十三
在宋のとき、かれらをわらふに、かれら所陳なし、無語なりしのみなり。かれらがいまの無理會の邪計なるのみなり。たれかなんぢにをしふる、天眞の師範なしといへども、自然の外道見なり。しるべし、この東山水上行は佛祖の骨髓なり。水は東山の脚下に現成せり。このゆゑに、諸山くもにのり、天をあゆむ。水の頂寧は諸山なり、向上直下の行歩、ともに水上なり。諸山の脚尖よく諸水を行歩し、諸水を躍出せしむるゆゑに、運歩七縱八横なり、修證即不無なり。
十四
水は強弱にあらず、濕乾にあらず、動靜にあらず、冷煖にあらず、有無にあらず、迷悟にあらざるなり。こりては金剛よりもかたし、たれかこれをやぶらん。融しては乳水よりもやはらかなり、たれかこれをやぶらん。しかあればすなはち、現成所有の功徳をあやしむことあたはず。しばらく十方の水を十方にして著眼看すべき時節を參學すべし。人天の水をみるときのみの參學にあらず、水の水をみる參學あり、水の水を修證するがゆゑに。水の水を道著する參究あり、自己の自己に相逢する通路を現成せしむべし。他己の他己を參徹する活路を進退すべし、跳出すべし。
十五
おほよそ山水をみること、種類にしたがひて不同あり。いはゆる水をみるに瓔珞とみるものあり。しかあれども瓔珞を水とみるにはあらず。われらがなにとみるかたちを、かれが水とすらん。かれが瓔珞はわれ水とみる。水を妙華とみるあり。しかあれど、花を水ともちゐるにあらず。鬼は水をもて猛火とみる、膿血とみる。龍魚は宮殿とみる、樓臺とみる。あるいは七寶摩尼珠とみる、あるいは樹林牆壁とみる、あるいは清淨解脱の法性とみる、あるいは眞實人體とみる。あるいは身相心性とみる。人間これを水とみる、殺活の因縁なり。すでに隨類の所見不同なり、しばらくこれを疑著すべし。
十六
一境をみるに諸見しなじななりとやせん、一象を一境なりと誤錯せりとやせん、功夫の頂寧にさらに功夫すべし。しかあればすなはち、修證辨道も一般兩般なるべからず、究竟の境界も千種萬般なるべきなり。さらにこの宗旨を憶想するに、諸類の水たとひおほしといへども、本水なきがごとし、諸類の水なきがごとし。しかあれども、隨類の諸水、それ心によらず身によらず、業より生ぜず、依自にあらず依他にあらず、依水の透脱あり。
十七
しかあれば、水は地水火風空識等にあらず、水は青黄赤白黒等にあらず、色聲香味觸法等にあらざれども、地水火風空等の水、おのづから現成せり。かくのごとくなれば、而今の國土宮殿、なにものの能成所成とあきらめいはんことかたかるべし。空輪風輪にかかれると道著する、わがまことにあらず、他のまことにあらず。小見の測度を擬議するなり。かかれるところなくは住すべからずとおもふによりて、この道著するなり。
十八
仏言、一切諸法畢竟解脱、無有所住。しるべし、解脱にして繋縛なしといへども諸法住位せり。しかあるに、人間の水をみるに、流注してとどまらざるとみる一途あり。その流に多般あり、これ人見の一端なり。いはゆる地を流通し、空を流通し、上方に流通し、下方に流通す。一曲にもながれ、九淵にもながる。のぼりて雲をなし、くだりてふちをなす。
十九
文子曰、「水之道、上天爲雨露、下地爲江河」。いま俗のいふところ、なほかくのごとし。佛祖の兒孫と稱ぜんともがら、俗よりもくらからんは、もともはづべし。いはく、水の道は水の所知覺にあらざれども、水よく現行す。水の不知覺にあらざれども、水よく現行するなり。「上天爲雨露」といふ、しるべし、水はいくそばくの上天上方へものぼりて雨露をなすなり。雨露は世界にしたがふてしなじななり。水のいたらざるところあるといふは小乘聲聞經なり。あるいは外道の邪説なり。水は火焔裏にもいたるなり、心念思量分別裏にもいたるなり、覺知佛性裏にもいたるなり。「下地爲江河」。しるべし、水の下地するとき、江河をなすなり。江河の精よく賢人となる。いま凡愚庸流のおもはくは、水はかならず江河海川にあるとおもへり。しかにはあらず、水のなかに江海をなせり。しかあれば、江海ならぬところにも水はあり、水の下地するとき、江海の功をなすのみなり。また、水の江海をなしつるところなれば世界あるべからず、佛土あるべからずと學すべからず。一滴のなかにも無量の佛國土現成なり。しかあれば、佛土のなかに水あるにあらず、水裏に佛土あるにあらず。水の所在、すでに三際にかかはれず、法界にかかはれず。しかも、かくのごとくなりといへども、水現成の公案なり。
二十
佛祖のいたるところには水かならずいたる。水のいたるところ、佛祖かならず現成するなり。これによりて、佛祖かならず水を拈じて身心とし、思量とせり。しかあればすなはち、水はかみにのぼらずといふは、内外の典籍にあらず。水之道は、上下縱横に通達するなり。しかあるに、佛経のなかに、火風は上にのぼり、地水は下にくだる。この上下は、參學するところあり。いはゆる佛道の上下を參學するなり。いはゆる地水のゆくところを下とするなり。下を地水のゆくところとするにあらず。火風のゆくところは上なり。法界かならずしも上下四維の量にかかはるべからざれども、四大五大六大等の行處によりて、しばらく方隅法界を建立するのみなり。無想天はかみ、阿鼻獄はしもとせるにあらず。阿鼻も盡法界なり、無想も盡法界なり。
二十一
しかあるに、龍魚の水を宮殿とみるとき、人の宮殿をみるがごとくなるべし、さらにながれゆくと知見すべからず。もし傍觀ありて、なんぢが宮殿は流水なりと爲説せんときは、われらがいま山流の道著を聞著するがごとく、龍魚たちまちに驚疑すべきなり。さらに宮殿樓閣の欄階露柱は、かくのごとくの説著ありと保任することもあらん。この料理、しづかにおもひきたり、おもひもてゆくべし。この邊表に透脱を學せざれば、凡夫の身心を解脱せるにあらず、佛祖の國土を究盡せるにあらず。凡夫の國土を究盡せるにあらず、凡夫の宮殿を究盡せるにあらず。
二十二
いま人間には、海のこころ、江のこころを、ふかく水と知見せりといへども、龍魚等、いかなるものをもて水と知見し、水と使用すといまだしらず。おろかにわが水と知見するを、いづれのたぐひも水にもちゐるらんと認ずることなかれ。いま學佛のともがら、水をならはんとき、ひとすぢに人間のみにはとどこほるべからず。すすみて佛道のみづを參學すべし。佛祖のもちゐるところの水は、われらこれをなにとか所見すると參學すべきなり、佛祖の屋裏また水ありや水なしやと參學すべきなり。
二十三
山は超古超今より大聖の所居なり。賢人聖人、ともに山を堂奥とせり、山を身心とせり。賢人聖人によりて山は現成せるなり。おほよそ山は、いくそばくの大聖大賢いりあつまれるらんとおぼゆれども、山はいりぬるよりこのかたは、一人にあふ一人もなきなり。ただ山の活計の現成するのみなり、さらにいりきたりつる蹤跡なほのこらず。世間にて山をのぞむ時節と、山中にて山にあふ時節と、頂寧眼睛はるかにことなり。不流の憶想および不流の知見も、龍魚の知見と一齊なるべからず。人天の自界にところをうる、他類これを疑著し、あるいは疑著におよばず。しかあれば、山流の句を佛祖に學すべし、驚疑にまかすべからず。拈一はこれ流なり、拈一はこれ不流なり。一回は流なり、一回は不流なり。この參究なきがごときは、如來正法輪にあらず。
二十四
古佛いはく、「欲得不招無間業、莫謗如來正法輪」。この道を、皮肉骨髓に銘ずべし、身心依正に銘ずべし。空に銘ずべし、色に銘ずべし。若樹若石に銘ぜり、若田若里に銘ぜり。おほよそ山は國界に屬せりといへども、山を愛する人に屬するなり。山かならず主を愛するとき、聖賢高徳やまにいるなり。聖賢やまにすむとき、やまこれに屬するがゆゑに、樹石鬱茂なり、禽獸靈秀なり。これ聖賢の徳をかうぶらしむるゆゑなり。しるべし、山は賢をこのむ實あり、聖をこのむ實あり。
二十五
帝者おほく山に幸して賢人を拜し、大聖を拜問するは、古今の勝躅なり。このとき、師禮をもてうやまふ、民間の法に準ずることなし。聖化のおよぶところ、またく山賢を強爲することなし。山の人間をはなれたること、しりぬべし。崆峒華封のそのかみ、黄帝これを拜請するに、膝行して廣成にとふしなり。
二十六
釈迦牟尼佛かつて父王の宮をいでて山へいれり。しかあれども、父王やまをうらみず、父王やまにありて太子ををしふるともがらをあやしまず。十二年の修道、おほく山にあり。法王の運啓も在山なり。まことに輪王なほ山を強爲せず。しるべし、山は人間のさかひにあらず、上天のさかひにあらず、人慮の測度をもて山を知見すべからず。もし人間の流に比準せずは、たれか山流山不流等を疑著せん。
二十七
あるいはむかしよりの賢人聖人、ままに水にすむもあり。水にすむとき、魚をつるあり、人をつるあり、道をつるあり。これともに古來水中の風流なり。さらにすすみて自己をつるあるべし、釣をつるあるべし、釣につらるるあるべし、道につらるるあるべし。むかし徳誠和尚、たちまちに藥山をはなれて江心にすみしすなはち、華亭江の賢聖をえたるなり。魚をつらざらんや、人をつらざらんや、水をつらざらんや、みづからをつらざらんや。人の徳誠をみることをうるは、徳誠なり。徳誠の人を接するは、人にあふなり。
二十八
世界に水ありいふのみにあらず、水界に世界あり。水中のかくのごとくあるのみにあらず、雲中にも有情世界あり、風中にも有情世界あり、火中にも有情世界あり、地中にも有情世界あり。法界中にも有情世界あり、一莖草中にも有情世界あり、一拄杖中にも有情世界あり。有情世界あるがごときは、そのところかならず佛祖世界あり。かくのごとくの道理、よくよく參學すべし。
二十九
しかあれば、水はこれ眞龍の宮なり、流落にあらず。流のみなりと認ずるは、流のことば、水を謗ずるなり。たとへば非流と強爲するがゆゑに。水は水の如是實相のみなり、水是水功徳なり、流にあらず。一水の流を參究し、不流を參究するに、萬法の究盡たちまちに現成するなり。山も寶にかくるる山あり、澤にかくるる山あり、空にかくるる山あり、山にかくるる山あり、藏に藏山する參學あり。
三十
古佛云、「山是山水是水」。この道取は、やまこれやまといふにあらず、山これやまといふなり。しかあれば、やまを參究すべし、山を參窮すれば山に功夫なり。かくのごとくの山水、おのづから賢をなし、聖をなすなり。
正法眼藏山水經第二十九
爾時仁治元年庚子十月十八日于時在觀音導利興聖寶林寺示衆
Source Colophon
Classical Japanese source text from the Shōbōgenzō (正法眼蔵, Treasury of the True Dharma Eye), Fascicle 29: Sansui-kyō (山水経), by Eihei Dōgen (永平道元, 1200–1253). Text accessed from the sets.ne.jp Zen archive, which presents the text in thirty sections (文段) following the standard commentary tradition. The definitive critical edition is the Iwanami Bunko text edited by Mizuno Yaoko (水野弥穂子校注, 4 vols., 1990–1993). The Shōbōgenzō was composed in the Japanese vernacular rather than Sino-Japanese kanbun, making it the first major Buddhist philosophical work written in the Japanese language. The colophon records the date of delivery as the eighteenth day of the tenth month of Ninji 1 (1240 CE), at Kannon-dōri Kōshō-hōrin-ji temple.
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