First There is a Mountain

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is.
The caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.
Caterpillar sheds his skin to find a butterfly within.

Donovan, "There is a Mountain"

Kenny Loggins, with his daughter Hana, has a new recording (and video) of "There is a Mountain." I've seen it before every episode of the Imagination Movers for the last several days and the tune, and the image of Hana as a "butterfly princess," as my kids have dubbed her, has stuck in my head.

But I didn't understand the lyrics. There's a mountain. There's not a mountain. What is this? Things aren't what they seem? We create obstacles or barriers and then overcome them so they aren't barriers anymore? Is this a kid's song?

I played the video snippet for Mama, who immediately googled it. It's not Kenny Loggins, but Donovan, of whom I am woefully ignorant (she wasn't, completely). And apparently he was an adherent of Buddhism.

The song apparently references a Zen parable, as one commentor at a lyric site described:

before one begins Zen practice, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers, as one is progressing through Zen, mountains are no longer mountains and rivers are no longer rivers , then, when one has mastered the practice, mountains are mountains and rivers are rivers.

Another notes:

First, in our ordinary natural way of thinking, we look at a mountain and we see it as a mountain. Then, as we learn about Buddhist concepts, we realize that the "mountain" is a signifier created by people, but in reality, philosophically, the Universe is one, it is not made up of separate things, but OUR PERCEPTION makes it appear that way. Then, once we have absorbed these startling ideas, we can, paradoxically, go back to the normal way of viewing things, and see that "there is a mountain" there. While realizing that you can look at it the other way.

See, Buddhism really does seem everywhere to me these days. Even on the Disney Channel!

Okay, so that's not your traditional Buddhist teacher, but I take information and inspiration where I find it. I've had attachment, and particularly unattachment, on the brain this week and think I grasp some of what the song is saying, this being unattachment not just to physical things but to ideas and perceptions.

But, really, maybe I should find a book or something.

Like a mountain.