Daizui Macphillamy, Rev. Master

There is an old saying in Zen: “In the beginning, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers; later on, mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers; and still later, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.”

My own master, Reverend Master Jiyu-Kennett, put it this way, “In the beginning, all is different; later on, all is one, and then again, all is one and all is different.” These sayings refer to the course of our Buddhist training over long periods of time.

In other words, things change; they change profoundly over the course of a life of training. These changes take time, and they only occur to the extent that we actually do the practice.

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