--- In [email protected], Theresa Lovegrove < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I took it as Mu meant it's not yes it's not no, it has no answer..yes? -Theresa
Bill, thanks for that really thoughtful and articulate posts on Mu and koans... Let me be transparent about where I'm coming from: I'm am not speaking from a place of confidence at all. I have faith that I am "on the Journey" but whether or not I am is another issue. At times I feel like I have tremendous clarity... at other times, I know I am buried deep in the muck... "Mu" ... "koans".. I guess it really comes down to how each of us answers the question "What is Zen?"... In addition to what you and everyone has so eloquently said in previous posts, for me, Zen is also the rejection of certainty. Certainty - for me - arises from a place where one has taken refuge. I think Zen is about the radical rejection of these places of refuge (which includes teachers and teachings). What resonates with me about Theresa's above post is the sense of this embrace of the journey of "ambiguity"... of the relentless rejection of certainty and refuge. From where I'm standing (and again it is without doubt a flawed "place"), koans - for someone like me - have "outcomes" but I'm not sure I "agree" with you, Bill, that koans "definitely have answers/responses"... I do totally agree with you, Bill, that Joshu's response of "mu" to the question of whether a dog has Buddha-nature really has nothing to do with a dog, Buddha-nature or "mu". If pressed to articulate what I think is the outcome of koans, clearly, for me, it comes around to "What is Zen?" And so, as I said in a previous post: Zen is the "erasing" of the boundaries between the "transcendent" and the "phenomenal" in whatever way we "chop our wood" and "carry our water" ... AND where every "act"/action (i.e., every aspect of our "chopping of wood" and "carrying of water") works to alleviate the suffering of all sentient and non-sentient beings. Flawed as it is, this is the nature of my Zen journey... As a sidenote, in the "Chao-chou-ta-shih-yu-lu" where the Joshu's "Mu" koan appears, Joshu (or Chao-chou in Chinese) has three responses to the question as to whether a dog possesses Buddha-nature: 1) "Mu"/'nai" ; 2) "U"/ "aru" and 3)no response at all - only silence The first response is the one most people have heard and in English "mu" is commonly translated as "no". On a totally petty and technical note, Bill, I lovingly disagree with you that "Linguistically the Japanese word 'mu' just means 'no'..." The character "mu" is held up in many circles as a classic example of what Japanese call "aimai kotoba" or "ambiguous language". Unlike Chinese in which each character has only one pronunciation, Japanese characters usually have several ... In the case of "mu", the character can be pronounced several ways in which "mu" is just one. ... And, in terms of meaning, there are differences in nuances between the pronunciations. If the "answer" to the koan was intended "simply" to be "NO", the Japanese Zen commentators would undoubtedly have indicated this nuance by pronouncing the character not as "mu" but as "nai". But it is clear that the prounciation is not "nai" but "mu". I think there is "intentionality" in the use of the pronunciation "mu" and that intentionality is a nod (or finger pointing) towards "emptiness". For me, what works is saying that Joshu responded "Empty!" (rather than "nai" or "NO!") - or "Form!" (rather than "aru" or "YES!" )to the question as to whether a dog possesses Buddha-nature. In any event, this linguistic pairing of "Mu" (--> emptiness) and "U" (--> form) is what I think Frank was getting at in his really well written post on the non- duality of form and emptiness. (Frank, forgive me if I am misrepresenting your position) If it is, then isn't this the metaphorical "context" in which the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (the personification of unconditional compassion for the suffering of all sentient beings) delivers the "Heart Sutra"? Struggling in the Dharma :-), ryhorikawa ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Click here to rescue a little child from a life of poverty. http://us.click.yahoo.com/rAWabB/gYnLAA/i1hLAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Current Book Discussion: Appreciate Your Life by Taizan Maezumi Roshi Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
