UJI Part Nineteen | Uji’s Mountains and Oceans
“Baso’s way of putting things is unlike that of any other. ‘Brows and eyeballs’ would refer to the mountains and the oceans, because the mountains and the oceans are His brows and eyeballs. Baso’s ‘making Him raise His eyebrows’ would be comparable to Yakusan’s focusing on the Mountain, and Baso’s ‘making His eyes twinkle’ would be comparable to Yakusan’s fixing his eyes on the Ocean. ‘Being right’ means attempting to learn from ‘That One’: ‘That One’ is That which is being invited to teach. ‘Not being right’ does not mean ‘not causing Him to act as He did’, nor does ‘not causing Him to act as He did’ mean ‘not being right’.”
We now delve deeper into the koan, exploring the profound teaching as it unfolds. Baso's way of articulating the essence of Zen is unique, using our own lived experience to point to the interconnectedness of all things. The ‘brows and eyeballs’ we attach to as our organs are also the mountains and oceans; there is no separability of the natural world from our own existence. These elements are not just parts of the landscape; they are manifestations of the ultimate reality, the dharmakaya, our own true nature.
When ‘making Him raise His eyebrows,’ Yakusan focuses on the Mountain. When ‘making His eyes twinkle,’ he fixes his eyes on the Ocean. But we should resist the temptation to reduce mountain and ocean to symbols for something else. Dōgen's claim is much more intimate: the eyebrows and eyes are mountains and oceans because mountains and oceans are eyebrows and eyes. The boundaries we ordinarily place between this body and the world begin to dissolve. Mountain is completely mountain. Ocean is completely ocean. Brows and eyes are completely brows and eyes. And each is uji.
Baso's teaching challenges us to relinquish the assumption that the one who sees and the thing seen occupy two separate worlds. Mountains and oceans are not scenery standing outside of us, nor are they merely metaphors existing inside our minds. Each completely manifests being-time. In raising the eyebrows, mountain manifests. In the twinkling eye, ocean manifests. The intimacy is complete.
The terms 'being right' and 'not being right' are further explored to challenge our conventional understanding of correctness in practice. 'Being right' here means learning from 'That One,' the reality we embody and are actualized by. But Dōgen does not allow us to simply equate acting with being right and not acting with being wrong. 'Not being right' does not necessarily mean that the eyebrows do not rise or the eyes do not twinkle, and their failure to rise or twinkle does not necessarily mean 'not being right.' Once again, the rational toehold we reach for disappears. Right is uji. Not right is uji. Acting is uji. Not acting is uji. Each must be encountered completely as it arises.
Baso's teaching emphasizes that the truth is not a static point to be reached but a living, breathing experience. 'Making Him act' or 'not making Him act' reflects our actualization by reality, where both action and non-action are vibrant roles. This approach invites us to embrace the entirety of our experiences, recognizing that every moment—whether of clarity or confusion—is an integral part of our practice.
As Students of the Way, we must reflect deeply on these teachings. They remind us that our journey is not about achieving a final, unchanging state of being but about engaging wholeheartedly and without reserve with the present moment. By focusing on both the stability of the mountains and the fluidity of the oceans, we can cultivate a resilient and adaptable practice grounded in the reality of Uji. By doing so, we align ourselves with the dynamic, ever-changing flow of uji, where each moment is a gateway to awakening!
