30th of April 2022
A monk asked Jōshū, "Has a dog the Buddha Nature?" Jōshū answered, "Mu."
In order to master Zen, you must pass the barrier of the patriarchs. To attain this subtle realization, you must completely cut off the way of thinking. If you do not pass the barrier, and do not cut off the way of thinking, then you will be like a ghost clinging to the bushes and weeds. Now, I want to ask you, what is the barrier of the patriarchs? Why, it is this single word "Mu." That is the front gate to Zen. Therefore it is called the "Mumonkan of Zen." If you pass through it, you will not only see Jōshū face to face, but you will also go hand in hand with the successive patriarchs, entangling your eyebrows with theirs, seeing with the same eyes, hearing with the same ears. Isn’t that a delightful prospect? Wouldn’t you like to pass this barrier?
Arouse your entire body with its three hundred and sixty bones and joints and its eighty-four thousand pores of the skin; summon up a spirit of great doubt and concentrate on this word "Mu." Carry it continuously day and night. Do not form a nihilistic conception of vacancy, or a relative conception of "has" or "has not." It will be just as if you swallow a red-hot iron ball, which you cannot spit out even if you try. All the illusory ideas and delusive thoughts accumulated up to the present will be exterminated, and when the time comes, internal and external will be spontaneously united. You will know this, but for yourself only, like a dumb man who has had a dream. Then all of a sudden an explosive conversion will occur, and you will astonish the heavens and shake the earth.
It will be as if you snatch away the great sword of the valiant general Kan’u and hold it in your hand. When you meet the Buddha, you kill him; when you meet the patriarchs, you kill them. On the brink of life and death, you command perfect freedom; among the sixfold worlds and four modes of existence, you enjoy a merry and playful samadhi.
Now, I want to ask you again, "How will you carry it out?" Employ every ounce of your energy to work on this "Mu." If you hold on without interruption, behold: a single spark, and the holy candle is lit!
The dog, the Buddha Nature,
The pronouncement, perfect and final.
Before you say it has or has not,
You are a dead man on the spot.
A monk asked Jōshū, "Has a dog the Buddha Nature?" Jōshū answered, "Mu."
This is almost universally the first koan prescribed by Zen teachers for formal koan practise. Mu means "no" or "not". According to Buddhist teaching, all sentient beings have Buddha nature, so this contradicts the Buddhist teaching. Dogs were considered very lowly animals in China, for us an equivalent would be a pig, but perhaps now we like pigs too much. Let's say a mosquito, which is universally hated. Does a mosquito have Buddha nature? How do we understand Joshu's answer?
In order to master Zen, you must pass the barrier of the patriarchs. To attain this subtle realization, you must completely cut off the way of thinking. If you do not pass the barrier, and do not cut off the way of thinking, then you will be like a ghost clinging to the bushes and weeds.
Joshu's answer causes massive friction to the deluded conceptual mind. That is why it is potent for our practise. It is impenetrable, and actually hurts us. That pain wears us down, the pain of trying to maintain grasping onto something real in our lives, for example our sense of self, or in this case our sense that we have some knowledge about Buddhism. This is the root of all our suffering, as we understand by struggling with Joshu's answer.
Now, I want to ask you, what is the barrier of the patriarchs? Why, it is this single word "Mu." That is the front gate to Zen. Therefore it is called the "Mumonkan of Zen." If you pass through it, you will not only see Jōshū face to face, but you will also go hand in hand with the successive patriarchs, entangling your eyebrows with theirs, seeing with the same eyes, hearing with the same ears. Isn't that a delightful prospect? Wouldn't you like to pass this barrier?
By passing through "Mu", i.e., dropping off all distinctions and conceptual thinking, we discover the undifferentiated mind right now. This mind is the same for everyone, so we meet all of the Buddhist ancestors face to face. He then encourages us to pursue it.
Arouse your entire body with its three hundred and sixty bones and joints and its eighty-four thousand pores of the skin; summon up a spirit of great doubt and concentrate on this word "Mu." Carry it continuously day and night.
We shouldn't ever stop practising for a moment, we should let our zazen and this "Mu" saturate our entire life every moment.
Do not form a nihilistic conception of vacancy, or a relative conception of "has" or "has not."
Rational conceptions take us further from the truth. The Faith in Mind poem says "The Supreme Way is not difficult if only you do not pick and choose. Neither love nor hate, and you will clearly understand. Be off by a hair, and you are as far from it as heaven from earth." It must all be gone to realise the truth.
It will be just as if you swallow a red-hot iron ball, which you cannot spit out even if you try. All the illusory ideas and delusive thoughts accumulated up to the present will be exterminated, and when the time comes, internal and external will be spontaneously united. You will know this, but for yourself only, like a dumb man who has had a dream. Then all of a sudden an explosive conversion will occur, and you will astonish the heavens and shake the earth.
Mumon is describing the experience of kensho (awakening), but also describing our usual zazen practise where we sit without making distinctions. "but for yourself only" means that we each have to find out how to do this for ourselves. There are thousands of writings by old great Buddhas trying to teach and convey the subtle effort that must be made to embody "Mu", to drop off all conceptions, they all struggle. He is also conveying that is a huge shock after living life for a long time without spotting it. "Internal" means what we usually consider to be our personal self, "external" means the outside world we interact with. When we stop differentiating between the two, we dissolve completely into unity with reality.
The dog, the Buddha Nature,
The pronouncement, perfect and final.
Before you say it has or has not,
You are a dead man on the spot.
Since you even spent a moment thinking about it, even before you try to discuss it, you have been through vast amounts of deluded attachments and thinking. We have to go straight to the end right now, rather than chipping away and "making progress".