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Dance of the Five Mountains

from Opening the Mountain by West Riding

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"Five Mountains" in Zen refers generally to the five primary Zen monasteries that existed during the Song Dynasty - monasteries on Lingyin, Nanping, Jing, Tiantong, and Ayuwang mountains.

But more esoterically, it also refers to something more mundane: what in Buddhist thought is called "the five aggregates," the five elements of a sentient being: form (material, physical presence), feeling (good, bad, neutral feelings), perceptions (how we view the world), formations (opinions we make based on those perceptions), and consciousness (our sentience and ability to cognize phenomena).

A "mountain" doesn't simply refer to a geological or geographical feature, nor the monastery situated on it, as explained in the earlier tracks - the mountain is us. When we are at our best, when we feel stable, calm, strong, capable of withstanding any storm that may rage around us - we are exactly a mountain. In Zen, as we sit zazen (seated "meditation"), we often say "sit like a mountain." Be unperturbed by the myriad things you observe, stay steadfast and not swayed by desire, anger, or delusion, "think not thinking" as the Zen teaching says.

And so, with this work I changed the pace a bit into a somewhat impressionist "dance" featuring solo trumpet with more of the virtual orchestra behind it, as representative of the "dance" of our five aggregates, constantly shifting and flowing and changing, and the mountain of our enlightened mind observing it all, unmoved.

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from Opening the Mountain, released August 30, 2023

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West Riding Portland, Oregon

West Riding (aka James M Gregg) produces ambient, neo-classical and cinematic music inspired by quiet mountains, intrepid journeys and Zen koans, as well as artists such as Olafur Arnalds, Phillip Glass, Max Richter, Arve Henriksen, Hans Zimmer, Claude Debussy, Erik Satie, Gustav Mahler and many more westriding.net ... more

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