There Is a Mountain

"There Is a Mountain" is a song and single by British singer/songwriter Donovan,[1] released in 1967. It charted in the USA (Billboard: No.11) and UK (No.8).

Featured musicians are Donovan (vocals and acoustic guitar), Tony Carr on percussion, Harold McNair on flute and arrangement and Danny Thompson on bass.

The B-side of the single is "Sand and Foam", an acoustic album cut about a nighttime visit to a Mexican beach Donovan took while on vacation. It was drawn from Mellow Yellow, which was released a few months prior to "There is a Mountain".

Chart positions: # 11 (USA Billboard), # 9 (USA Cashbox), # 11 (USA Record World), # 8 (UK)

The Allman Brothers Band's "Mountain Jam" (from Eat a Peach, 1972) is a long, improvised jam song based on this song. The Grateful Dead also sometimes incorporated it.

The lyrics refer to a Buddhist saying originally formulated by Qingyuan Weixin, later translated by D.T. Suzuki in his Essays in Zen Buddhism, one of the first books to popularize Buddhism in Europe and the US. Qingyuan writes

Before I had studied Chan (Zen) for thirty years, I saw mountains as mountains, and rivers as rivers. When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point where I saw that mountains are not mountains, and rivers are not rivers. But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest. For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains, and rivers once again as rivers.[2]