--- In [email protected], Frank Gorin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I feel too that "mu" is identical to sunyata (emptiness), but this
> isn't the same as non-existence. Things do exist - but they don't
> have "own being"; they don't exist in and of themselves, they lack
> ongoing, independent selfhood. Things, people included, have no
> solid permanent core. Realizing this is what satori is about.
Hi Frank - Great points. Just a bit of (academic) clarification: The three
throwouts I posted as common English translations for "mu" (--> Nothingness,
emptiness, non-existence) are not mine - They were taken from Soothill and
Hodus' classic "A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist terms" (under "wu"). In
addition to being used as one of the translations for "sunyata" (emptiness),
"wu" ("mu" in Japanese) was also used to translate "abhava" (non-existence).
For example, in that classic Buddhist definition of the "middle path" ( -->
"Existence is one extreme, non-existence is another extreme, in between
these two extremes lies the middle path ....) "mu" is used to translate non-
existence. I do totally agree with you that sunyata and non-existence are not
identical/synonymous/equivalent terms. Again, "mu" is one of those
characters in which the translation is totally context driven.
I really liked how you framed emptiness in the Zen context!
Metta,
ryhorikawa
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