Donovan's Mountain Song: What Does It Mean? First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is…. The Allman Brothers Eat a Peach Record.

At the heart of Buddhist teachings we are told that all things are impermanent and subject to change and flux. Simply stated, nothing in the world around us or our self is fixed or solid. There are no things, just process and flux.

OR... Maybe it's describing the Motion of an Inchworm...

Donovan in Concert... 1972 BBC TV...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkLp9d7HKuA

Allman Brothers Mountain Jam - Eat a Peach

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNuNz2idDtY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eat_a_Peach

Butch Trucks suggested they name the album Eat a Peach for Peace, after a quote from Duane Allman. When the writer Ellen Mandel asked him what he was doing to help the revolution, he replied:

I'm hitting a lick for peace—and every time I'm in Georgia, I eat a peach for peace. But you can't help the revolution, because there's just evolution. I understand the need for a lot of changes in the country, but I believe that as soon as everybody can just see a little bit better, and get a little hipper to what's going on, they're going to change it. Everybody will—not just the young people. Everybody is going to say, 'Man, this stinks. I cannot tolerate the smell of this thing anymore. Let's eliminate it and get straight with ourselves.' I believe if everybody does it for themselves, it'll take care of itself.^[23]^[22]

Drummer Butch Trucks considered Allman's comment a sly reference to the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot, one of Allman's favorite poets.^[22]

Eight Sided GO Sign -

Similar to a STOP Sign but

with a Positive Message.

The chorus of this song: "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is," may sound incomprehensible or silly, but the lines are a Zen saying Donovan borrowed and which have a meaning. The lines are intended to succinctly describe three stages of Zen. Pre-enlightenment, one's aware of the Universe as physical (there is a mountain). Then through meditation one may experience a visionary state where the physical Universe seems to disappear (no mountain) where the "Buddha Mind"/Tao [Zen first developed in China as a blend of Indian Buddhism & Chinese Taoism] root of reality behind physical appearances is experienced as non-physical. After that vision, the mountain reappears, except in ones new enlightened state one is simultaneously aware of the physical mountain & the Void/Tao non-physical reality behind it & at its root... And now you know the rest of the story!