Daily Inspiration Quote by Dogen

Dogen’s line lands like a doctrinal mic drop: stop hunting for enlightenment as a special effect and notice what’s already shouting at you. In one stroke he collapses the usual hierarchy between sacred and ordinary, temple and trail. The “color of the mountains” isn’t a metaphor for Buddha’s body; it is Buddha’s body. The “sound of running water” isn’t a handy reminder of Dharma; it is “his great speech.” That blunt grammar matters. Dogen isn’t offering a soothing nature quote. He’s making a claim about reality, perception, and authority.

The intent is practical and disciplinary. As a Zen leader writing in 13th-century Japan, Dogen is training students away from fetishizing scriptures, visions, and charismatic teachers. If Buddha is only available through elite access - rare texts, sanctioned interpretations - then power collects around institutions. Dogen reroutes the channel: the sermon is continuous, public, and impossible to monopolize. But it’s not “anything goes” mysticism. The subtext is that you need a mind capable of hearing it. The world is already preaching; the problem is our habit of filtering it into “background noise.”

Contextually, this fits Dogen’s larger project in the Shobogenzo: insisting that practice and awakening aren’t sequential. Zazen isn’t a technique to reach Buddha; it’s the posture in which mountains can be mountains-as-Buddha, water can be water-as-teaching. The line also performs what it teaches - it’s spare, sensory, and immediate, turning doctrine into an experience you can test the next time you stand outside and listen.