mu

Example Sentences

• "Mu means "no thing." Like "Quality" it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, "No class; not one, not zero, not yes, not no."[…]It's a great mistake, a kind of dishonesty, to sweep nature's mu answers under the carpet."
• "[p. 233] Achilles: Oh, but ‘MU’ is Jōshū’s answer. By saying ‘MU’, Jōshū let the other monk know that only by not asking such questions can one know the answer to them. Tortoise: Jōshū “unasked” the question. [p. 312] Achilles:[…]And the answer of “MU” here rejects the premises of the question, which are that one or the other must be chosen."
• ""Mu," said Kelly Dahl. On one level mu means only yes, but on a deeper level of Zen it was often used by the master when the acolyte asked a stupid, unanswerable or wrongheaded question such as "Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?" The Master would answer only, "Mu," meaning—I say "yes" but mean "no," but the actual answer is: Unask the question."
• "The Fifth Patriarch's utterance You say mu [Buddha-nature] because Buddha-nature is emptiness articulates clearly and distinctly the truth that emptiness is not "no". In uttering Buddha-nature-emptiness one does not say "half a pound." One does not say "eight ounces." One says "mu.""
• "A monk once asked Master Joshu, 'Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?' Joshu said, 'Mu!'"
• "That being the case, we should naturally choose to contemplate mu from morning to night, forgetting everything."