Hi Joe, Thanks for explaining.
Your mention on kai-wu reminds me of the term khanika samadhi in vipassana, where the mind sees things very clearly and distinctly for moments. I don't know if these two are the same. As I googled on Joshu's mu (wu), I found that mu is also called gate of awakening, but was too lazy to read the whole article. But if you said this is a way of practice, then it makes sense, the gate of awakening. Siska -----Original Message----- From: "Joe" <[email protected]> Sender: [email protected] Date: Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:30:43 To: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Subject: [Zen] Re: MU -- Graphically Illustrated Siska, Bill!, I found that I could not "Reply" to Siska's message nor to Bill!'s message, either. I got the following error when I tried to reply to Bill!'s mssg. via the Website: >Cannot retrieve message 33654 for Zen_Forum< and for Siska's mssg. I got the same error, referring to his mssg. no.: >Cannot retrieve message 33653 for Zen_Forum< I *HAVE* had this difficulty before, at times, when trying to reply to messages at the Website. It's puzzling! Siska, I'd say that "Mu" can be a practice. It's usually given as the full koan case, Case 1 of the Mumonkan (Gateless Gate); or, just as a hua-t'ou, just the "Mu" itself. A Chinese teacher would give "Wu". Sometimes Vipassana teachers will recommend the practice of mindfulness. And it is precisely that: a practice. It is an artifice which is meant to help a practitioner to awaken. When a practitioner awakens, there is no Mu, nor mindfulness. These artifices are gone, and cannot be grasped, nor is there any reason even to pick them up. Anyway, it's impossible. ;-) When one awakens, or experiences kai-wu, or emptiness, no-mind, the awakening may last for a while, perhaps a few months. Then, one may want to pick up Mu again, or mindfulness again, as a practice. This is as I see it, from the point of view of the Zen tradition and Zen practice. There may be other terminology used in Vipassana circles that I am not familiar with. Or there may be an entirely different interpretation of "mindfulness" in the Vipassana work. What do you think? Bill!, I think it's a great cartoon, succinct, "graphic", and "drawing" a nice distinction. I don't know where you get these things. Do you make them yourself on the computer? Kudos! --Joe
