Our teacher is gently preparing the sangha for next year's
transition. After founding Still Point and offering five years of
service, she will step down as our Guding Teacher and pass the reins to
a recently ordained Dharma student. He is a great teacher. He oversees
the Intensive Practice program. He wakes us up. He is funny, gentle,
kind, and very serious about this practice. He will be great for Still
Point. What I realize, though, is that I have a limited time to
practice and study with my first teacher... the teacher who presided
over my precepts ceremony and gave me a name. I intend to take
advantage of it. I decided when I learned of the transition that I
would attend as many interviews as possible from now through September.
That was nearly three weeks ago. I haven't missed one yet.
We sit and she watches as I settle into the cushion and count my
breaths. She tells me my practice is strong, that she sees that I am
serious about my practice, that she intends to push me a bit if it is
okay. I nod and smile. She starts to tell me about Mu.
"You can pour everything into Mu... hope, fear, heartbreak,
everything." Then she demonstrates. My first instruction was to count
my breaths. Breath in... Breathe out "One...." Breathe in... Breathe
out "Two...." Now, I breathe in, and breathe out "Mu". I hear her and I
get it... it comes right from the abdomen... gentle but constant like
the whisper of sea shells. "Now, you try..." Mine is not as gentle or
constant as hers yet... my voice breaks a bit, but I push my belly
inwards as I try it. It's not comfortable... I will need to work with
it a bit, but the prospect excites me. She tells me that many teachers
feel that Mu is all you need. Once you have Mu, you have everything. I
feel like I've graduated. I smile and push ego away. So I am instructed
to take Mu, use it, make it my own, and go save the world.
The student in me accepts that all I have to do is Mu but has to know
more. I wouldn't be satisfied until I properly consulted my books,
Google searched, collected and documented my findings. This has been a
week-long inquiry.
The first article I read online suggested that Mu is not even something to do... it is something to be:
The teaching of mu is a matter of examining the essential question of
whom and what we really are, of being pure at heart, and of no longer
being confused by what confronts us.
Being mu, or empty of self, allows one to actively take in whatever
comes. Our world today and all in it are separated into dualistic
distinctions of good and evil, birth and death, gain and loss, self and
other, and so on. By being mu, not only does one's self-centeredness
disappear, the conflicts that arise with others dissolve as well.
[quotes from the article The Zen Teaching of Mu by the editorial staff of Kateigaho]
After I read the Kateigaho article, I continued to browse through the results of my Google search. Wikipedia posts a definition of Mu [무]
along with its Hanja character and a brief account of the koan that
inspires practitioners to penetrate Mu. I think the Hanja would make a
good T-shirt.
Many Buddhist teachers and writiers have written commentary on Mu.
I've bookmarked several articles that I intend to read later:
I'm sure I will post more on this subject as my practice continues. For now, I'll end with the koan as printed in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones:
A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen master:
"Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?"
Joshu answered: "Mu."
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