Dogen, Wotan and Freya's Mountain Climb

Dogen Wotan Freya's Mountain Walk from Juniper to Pine

Wotan Freya is a walking mountain and a flowing stream 

(Part 1: Walking the mountains, walking the flowing streams - 

(Paul Manski) Kinnikinnick 

"Cascadia in late May Kinnikinnick, violets in bloom Waxing crescent moon Sun and Aldebaran conjunct as evening star in Taurus Rain turned to sleet and snow at sunset Walking along Smackout Creek Flowing streams Yarrow and the Arctic now awakening

 (Opening by Paul Manski) 

        Walking along the mountains now Mountains and flowing streams are essential to the ancient mountains. Climb a tree for yourself, claim a rune, and offer a stain to our people. They are priceless treasures of the eternal hills. Mountains and streams are complete in their own right. We must not be afraid to question, as the old woman laughs to herself, "How can I bear children too old to have them, and have them with joy, when my husband is too old?" Streams and mountains open up so many possibilities. For mountains and streams were created long before our people's myth of the blushing red man. 

      Who can blush? Who can walk with a smile? They are alive in this moment, just as we are. These mountains were perfectly created before the Earth lost its shape. Therefore, they are the redeemed, bountiful people of mountains and streams. Just because we lose sight of the mountains and streams we walk through, they do not lose or change their mountain and stream nature. They exist beyond our eyes, just as we must understand, drink, and bathe in the flowing waters of life. 

     Offering a blot is like bathing in ice-cold water, like climbing a tree and walking among the mountains and streams of living water. This is the same insight as Dogen's "Mountains and Rivers Sutra": mountains are high, and streams are low. Mountains and streams are sublime because they are the gathering places and passageways for the sparks of life. Sparks of life in the clouds above the walking mountains are the mother and father of all things frolicking in the heavenly meadows, their love pouring down like spring rain. 

     Just as the fourteen meridians in our bodies flow, the mountain meridians, canyons, valleys, and streams are filled with alder, poleo, sarsaparilla, yarrow, and black cottonwood, with their sticky buds and sweet, spicy, and bitter balsam leaves. The streams you see lined with black cottonwood, spicy and sticky to the touch, are the same streams that flow through your arms and wrists, flowing through the microcosmic orbits to flex your muscles, invigorate your blood, invigorate your bones, and invigorate this stone. https://youtube.com/shorts/cHMe0VKxKVA?feature=share 

       In this way, clouds rule the mountains from above, and the open door of heaven can be reached by following the rainbow path from one end to the other through the mountains. Just as the Mint Canadensis of the Northern Hemisphere remains true to its original form, not mingling or mixing its pollen, so too do mountains and streams maintain their original form, producing mountains and streams one after another through a pact of seed. Acorns do not mingle with cherries, nor do they bear fruit; cherry bark is sweet-smelling, not bitter like the astringent bark of oak. 

      By the power of His unfathomable wisdom, the abysses are broken, and the clouds drop dew. This dew nourishes everything within the mountains. We see the mountains walking like this. It would not be surprising if suddenly, a sound like a raging wind were to resonate freely from the heavens, filling the mountains and streams with everything that dwells within them. Or, like the clouds, we might enjoy walking among the flowing mountains and streams. The joy of knowing our People First! people, the respect and loyalty to them, are in your family and inherent in Creation. 

      We know that at four o'clock in the morning, Wotan, hanging from a tree, walked over the sea to reach them. The limits of watery creation are as fluid as our minds. Didn't the children walk on dry land in the middle of the ocean? Didn't they have walls of water on their right and left when they arrived at Turtle Island in Leif Ericson's long boat? So the mountains and flowing streams are like walls to our left and right, flowing, clear paths. This same flow exists within our minds and bodies. The same breath that Wotan, the Perfect Father, and Freyja, the Perfect Mother, breathed into us, the creators, the blushing human beings, still gives life to the mountains and flowing streams.  

       These pure mountains and flowing streams offer many insights. Similarly, the mountain ranges are his pasture, and he seeks out every green thing that grows there. It is through his search that he learns and reveals to us the essential nature inherent in all greenery. It is this essential search that we know. These stone mountains before us are constantly moving. Take a stone and set it up as a pillar, a boundary for your people—blood of blood, bone of bone, stone of stone. So you will notice many stones and pillars in these mountains around you.

        This stone I have set up as a pillar will be our home. And with all that you give me, we will give you all our loyalty and courage as a people. So, as we enter the mountains and flowing streams, we enter into the home of our people on Turtle Island. It has ears, eyes, fingers, tongue, and toes, just like our own home. This is the home of the walking mountains and flowing streams. 

      The abundant walking mountains have given us a white rune stone, and on the rune stone a new name has been written. The name is the understanding of the rune behind the words. While you are in the region of the mountains and flowing streams, pay attention to the pillars, the stones, and the name he has written for you.


































The mountains do not lack the nature bestowed upon them by Wotan, the Father of all, and Freyja, the Mother of all. They exist within themselves and from themselves. The mountains and the flowing streams are destined to meet those who enter them. The nature bestowed by God upon the mountains and the flowing streams cannot be lost or gained. It is not yours, for we too have an inheritance in God. 

      We are destined according to the purpose of natural law, inherited from God, the Creator and Creator. God moves all things according to the purpose of natural law that governs our people and all things. Thus we are moved by God's plan and know everything that happens in the streams and mountains. This is how we can easily enter. If any of you lack wisdom, ask Wotan/Odin, who gives generously to those who strive, who does not reproach the fatherless and motherless, who generously builds up his people, and who loves those who are loyal to their tribe. Wisdom will be given to those who strive and sacrifice for their people. 

      Therefore, I have built you a home, a permanent settlement. This home, built for you, is here, like the mountains and streams. It is a home of self-study—an ecosystem, an earth where we walk among the mountains and streams flowing with living waters. There is happiness below as well as above; we look inward as we look outward, with one focus: happiness achieved through cultivation. 

       You should examine this quality closely—walking on water, or when a blind man looks up and says, "I see men walking like trees." Mountain walking is similar to human walking, for everything moves. The Spirit of Life moves across the water. Therefore, there is no point in doubting mountain walking, even if it appears different from human walking. Wotan, the Father of All, sent forth his Spirit, and we were created. And you, working together, renew the earth of Turtle Island, which belongs to us, our people. The words of our ancestor Wotan Odin—blood of blood, bone of bone, stone of stone—point to breathing, walking, that is, movement. We affirm the movement of fire in this stone, for through us we live, move, and exist. Some of your poets have said, "We too are descendants of Wotan, the Father of All Things." His descendants, the mountains and flowing streams, are also united with Freyja, the Mother of All Things. 

       This is an understanding of natural law. We should open these words in the midst of the flowing waters of the mountains and streams, realize that this movement is our own, and understand it accordingly. On May 22, 2020, the waxing crescent moon will set as the evening star at sunset, in conjunction with the sun and the star Aldebaran in Taurus. (Part 1: Wotan Freya's Mountain Walk, Flowing Stream - Paul Manski) 

References: 

Dogen Eihei, Dewdrop Moon: The Writings of Zen Master Dogen, edited by Tanahashi Kazuaki, North Point Press, 1995. 

Osgood, Keith. 2023. Völuspá. Independently published. 

Norrena Society. 182 pages; ISBN-13, 979-8856442433Pettit, Edward, ed. and trans. The Poetic Edda: A Dual-Language Edition . Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers , 2023. 

Shimano, Eido Tai. Personal notes on teishoanddokusan. 1984. (Dai Bosatsu Zendo Fall Kessei and winter retreat,rakusa in ketsanaku kechimyaku transmission ) https://www.shimanoarchive.com/PDFs/19860000_DBZ_Brochure.pdf 

Senzaki, N., Nakagawa, S., & Shimano, E. (1976). Namu Dai Bosa: A transmission of Zen Buddhism to America (L. Nordstrom, Ed.). Theater Arts Books.





By Wild Herb Ways Paul Manski