Foot of Mount Koya –
 – distant peal of Bonshō
echoes from the top

Imagine standing at the bottom of a mountain somewhere far east. You’ve already walked almost the whole day now, yet its peak somewhere up in the heights unimaginable doesn’t seem any closer than it did in the morning. Your body is tired, but the spirit inside you seems lively, as if awakened merely an hour ago. You’re surrounded only by nature and occasional strings of little prayer flags that show you the way, the air is different, it fills your lungs with energy. Suddenly, a distant sound of a Dril-bu reaches your ears, and from the white haze in front of you a temple emerges. You’ve reached your destination, your physical journey is over, but the spiritual one had only just begun.

This is a feeling that the followers of many eastern philosophies have experienced since time immemorial. The mountains have always played a major role in these philosophies, their majesty and spirituality are embedded in them, and their importance is unquestionable even today.

Two things have always fascinated me; mountains and Buddhism, and now that the opportunity to link these two together into one research presented itself, I simply had to take it. In my research, I would like to investigate the meaning that mountains have for eastern philosophies and their followers, not only Buddhism, but most of the major ones. This field seems to be somewhat unheeded, you can find articles and works on the individual philosophies, however, I have not been able to find one that tries to compare them and that looks more into the shared meaning of mountains among these philosophies – this is what I would like to focus on in my research.

To accomplish this, I will use a variety of sources from different fields of study, mainly philosophy, theology, and geology. These works include e.g., Natural:Mind, an interesting book by Czech philosopher Vilém Flusser, this work delves into many geological and cultural areas, including mountains. Flusser was also allegedly well-read in Buddhist theories. I will also use a book you should be familiar with; Mountains of the Mind by Robert MacFarlane, this work will help me to underline the meaning of mountains as whole. The other sources mainly focus on pilgrimage, iconography, history, and culture.

Know that I may (and most likely will) change the additional sources used during my research.

Bibliography:

Macfarlane, Robert. Mountains of the Mind: A History of Fascination. London: Granta, 2017.

Flusser, Vilém. Natural:Mind. Minneapolis: Univocal, 2013.

Hanh, Thomas. “The Standard Taoist Mountain and Related Features of Religious Geography.” Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie 4 (1988): 145–156.

Naquin, Susan, and Chün-fang Yü, eds. Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.

Tucci, Giuseppe. The Religions of Tibet. Translated by Geoffrey Samuel. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

Lowell, Percival. Occult Japan: An Esoteric Study of Japanese Personality and Possession. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1895.

Bushelle, Ethan. “Mountain Buddhism and the Emergence of a Buddhist Cosmic Imaginary in Ancient Japan.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 45, no. 1 (2018): 1–36.

Grapard, Allan G. “Flying Mountains and Walkers of Emptiness: Toward a Definition of Sacred Space in Japanese Religions.” History of Religions 21, no. 3 (1982): 195–221.

Guneratne, Arjun. Culture and the environment in the Himalaya. New York: Routledge, 2010.

Shay-rap-gyel-tsen, Döl-bo-ba. Mountain Doctrine: Tibet’s Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha Matrix. Translated by Jeffrey Hopkins. Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 2006.