What is Mu?

ALL MY RESOURCES and LINKS: simplyalwaysawake.com/links/
JOIN FOR PERKS AND LIVES: shorturl.at/oruyV
MY BOOK: shorturl.at/vBVWX
T-SHIRTS: simplyalwaysawake.com/store/
RETREAT INFO: simplyalwaysawake.com/live-ev...
FREE GUIDED MEDITATION APP: shorturl.at/ijqJ8
WEBSITE: simplyalwaysawake.com
About my videos: These videos are a resource for anyone wishing to wake up from the dream of separation. Awakening, enlightenment, and liberation are becoming far more mainstream possibilities than they once were. There are many good teachers out there, and if you resonate with the teachings of Eckhart Tolle, Rupert Spira, or Sadhguru, you might find resources here that address these deeper promptings to investigate your true nature.
Disclaimer: The information presented in these videos is not meant to diagnose or treat any psychiatric or medical illness. The inquiries presented herein are potent and can have powerful effects on the way you experience yourself and reality. If you feel you are at risk of harming yourself or others, these videos and practices may not be the best thing for you at the moment. Seek help wherever necessary which might include a hospital emergency department, a suicide helpline etc.

[@glittermuse-1]

Be sure to check out Mu part 2 as well!

[@buddhasdojo9368]

"To know yourself is to forget yourself." - Doghen ✨🌟💫☺️🤗

[@BenBurkeSydney]

Angelo, as I'm listening, time is collapsing into my curiosity over Mu that arose when I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a 15 year old (45 years ago). Sure, all I did was conceptualise. That was then. Then is now. Same sense of I Am-ness. Same fascination with paradox. I fades away.

[@Jensterkc]

I was so curious about this. Fantastic. So peaceful. Thank you!

[@Kali.245]

Angelo… totally in awe about energy that moves you to work F/T … produce UTube videos faster than I can blink plus the retreats plus all the meetings snd Q&A and cannot find words to express gratitude for everything that flows through you directly from the source…. 🙏🙏🙏💕💕

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

My pleasure, thx for saying hi

[@eoghain5021]

My God, I’ve just been contemplating this exact koan the past few days after hearing you mention it occasionally, and was looking at your channel to see if you’d addressed it at length. Couldn’t help but laugh at seeing it suddenly appear in my feed

[@glittermuse-1]

Kismet 💓

[@marksweet6298]

Synchronicity

[@rafreitas]

Angelo, you seem to drop your videos on KZbin right when I need them. Thank you.

[@Buddhishgirl]

I had been wondering what it was about for a while but it was so abstract to me that I did not even try to understand or analyze it, I felt there was nothing to understand, it was too weird 😂

[@JGCanning]

Thank you Angelo. This was really helpful and genuinely struck some sparks for me (especially the idea of not “negotiating” with MU etc). I THINK you made this video, in part, because of my repeated requests, and I want you to know that I really appreciate it. I’m sure you know about “upaya” or the use of “skillful means” (in the Buddhist tradition) to help lead others to awakening, and this video is a great example of that. 🙏🏻

[@JGCanning]

Might you be willing to recount your own experience working on Mu and its impact on you? I’m curious why you don’t teach within the zen tradition and how your teaching might differ from zen? What place, if any, does zazen play in your teaching? It is, of course, the lifeblood of zen and its central method to bring about “kensho” or awakening. Thank you again! 🙏🏻

[@Sean.F]

10:15 and onwards hits hard. Not "X about Mu" Not "Y of Mu" Not "Z with Mu" Not "Mu is ____" Just "Mu" So simple and elegant, yet so easy to forget, to let that "Relation towards Mu" appear and cause separation, without even realizing we're looking at/through the relation (Desperation, Curiosity, Elation, Seeking, Thinking, Searching, Chasing...) rather than JUST MU. What is Mu without that relation, that perspective on it? Before it arises, after it passes? Or even in the midst of it maybe? Only Mu

[@jenikondrashtin4822]

Is there difference between "What is Mu?" and "Who Am I"?

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

They both point to the same realization. For a given person however they may feel rather different.

[@clairme_5865]

I'm so glad you explained this practice because my mind has been very resistant to it. In my complete ignorance I've ended up at very bovine places! 🐄😂I will now attempt it again. And also, for the months I've been watching your videos and listening to your audiobook, I was completely convinced that you were saying 'colon' (as in the punctuation mark) until today when someone spelled it in the comments as 'Koan'. No wonder it returned weird results when I googled 'Zen Colon'!! Leaves me wondering: Does the 'Zen colon' lead to the 'Zen taint'?!

[@Klazi]

me too lmao i thought it was : and I was like oh that's cool cos the : is supposed to represent the entry to the nothingness and emptyness but nope we just misheard it haha

[@clairme_5865]

@@Klazi 🤣Exactly the same conclusion I came to when I was also trying to make it make sense!🤣 I thought: "Well that's far too obscure and advanced for me!"

[@TerryFarrah]

😂😂😂

[@AjaAum]

Gorgeous.

[@Shazam4321]

mu… another word for the Toa…all that is the great mystery, is this what you are referring to Angelo? thx❤

[@Shazam4321]

I need to learn to listen to the whole video before question/comment🙃🙏

[@imranganiy2836]

Is there anything I do differently as someone who has a long history of mania/psychosis, and uses lithium to manage? How does lithium use factor in? What happens if permanent realization happens, but then I stop taking lithium and have mania? Is there such a thing as a psychosis version of realization? Edit: basically if realization is permanent, but it happens while using lithium, wouldn't lithium become irrelevant? But I know stopping lithium would be equivalent to taking psychedelics to a complete disorientation level, does that mean realization cannot happen while on lithium because you could always remove it, and therefore remove any realization itself (and realization cannot be removed like that), or can it?

[@Klazi]

realisation is beyond lithium so it wont go away when you stop taking the lithium as what has shifted is your perception so you cant unsee

[@lynnhunter4493]

Mu like you’re just Mu-ing the lawn (my fiancé says) 😂

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

😂

[@iami2596]

Mu, who am I? Who is sitting, who is writing these words. Mu is this experience in the present moment. Can we also ask “what am I” or would this be a different koan?

[@cindifranck72]

That's what my husband just said! What am I?

[@AlastairGames]

what does one pointed mean? it sounds very focused on one small thing? like a single sensation?

[@DJ_Duck_Sick]

Just mu.

[@VioletSynergy]

Thumbnail looks like kenny

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

🐶

[@HiluT]

❤

[@Moleshaveeyes]

What's the point of koans?? Why not just say: "Look, and don't think" Mu seems like just adding a layer

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

If “look and don’t think” crosses you over then great. Mu has crossed over many thousands and will cross many thousands more over surely.

[@frediwalker2381]

what to do if even hearing 'mu' makes me feel like im going to have an aneurysm?

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

Probably a good sign

[@S-G-E-77]

As far as i was aware it's the twelve letter of the greek alphabet 🤔😂

[@michael35241]

Found it. It's the sound a cow makes

[@lynnhunter4493]

🙏🙏🙏

[@cheriemiller669]

💝

[@Kali.245]

When will your audio book be available to purchase?

[@GumbyTheGreen1]

It’s been available for a long time now. See the first link in the description.

[@hansenmarc]

My favorite koan: is the following statement true or false? This statement is false.

[@garethbishop]

So what’s the link with the student asking if a dog has Buddha nature? The teacher says “what is mu” (no/has not) gives you the answer?

[@renko9067]

The teacher doesn’t say “What is mu?” He just says “Mu.” Buddhists teach that all things have Buddha nature. Incredulous, the monk asks him if even a dog has it, and the teacher says no (mu), in contradiction to the other teaching. So in regards to this story, the question becomes then “What is mu?” However you approach practice (mu, What am I? etc) there is no answer in the objective world.

[@garethbishop]

@@renko9067 Thanks so much! 👍

[@LightandJoyDesigns]

Is it ok to ask different questions at different times or is it better to just stick with one question such as What is mu? Who am I? What is this? Etc Thank you.

[@Klazi]

freestyle it n do what feels good it will be more fun this way

[@lennartp186]

A cow muuuuu’s 🤪 ok sorry thats not funny 😬 thanks Angelo🙏🏻

[@Grateful_Acres]

🧡🙏🏵

[@alexhansen6648]

What if you walk in and just don't answer. Isn't that the answer? I understand the answer is awakening, but I wonder what would happen if you walk into the teacher and just don't answer

[@SimplyAlwaysAwake]

You’re not the first one to think of that … At some point the teacher may start asking you questions if you look sincere. If you’re doing it further effect and haven’t had the insight they will probably just dismiss you.

[@alexhansen6648]

@@SimplyAlwaysAwake haha I assume it wouldn't go over well. Obviously the whole point is transformation. Although if I hadn't yet had the awakening and they asked me, silence would probably be my response because I know any conceptual answer isn't it. It wouldn't be me trying to be clever. It would just be the best answer I could come up with

[@buddhasdojo9368]

​@@SimplyAlwaysAwakeWhat comes to my mind is Ram Dass at a looongg zazen retreat.. 😂😅😂 At the last day exhausted, sick, with severe pains all over the body he enters to the Roshi to solve the koan. 😁😆 He looks at the Roshi and in culmination of frustration, anger, exhaustion says abruptly "Good morning Roshi!!" The answer that comes is "Ohhh.. Doctor.. You begin to understand the essence of Zen"!! 🤣😂🤣😂 Thank you. 🙏🤗❤️

[@alexhansen6648]

@@buddhasdojo9368cool story. I never knew Ram Dass practiced Zen.

[@buddhasdojo9368]

@@alexhansen6648 He tells the story in one of his talks.. 😁😉😅 At that retreat Leonard Cohen was present too..😆😜 Much love. ❤️✨

[@trevorfurness5695]

Myself the dog......no, it's not that!

[@racoonattackable]

hmmmm.... i was under the impression that the translation of mu as "no, has not, etc." doesn't actually matter, like mu could be a nonsense word and have the same effect. is the paradox not irrelevant? i believe joshu threw his whole being into this response, perhaps that is more relevant than the translation of mu or the paradox. but still maybe not even revelant. the dog, joshu, the question of the buddha nature all just incedental. only mu is relevant. am i correct in this?

[@racoonattackable]

to clarify, if you add the paradox dosesn't that just over complicate it anyway? maybe there is a perk to working on mu as an english speaker in that one doesn't get caught up in the literal definition or the paradox

[@WandaThePanda]

🐮

[@MsCankersore]

?

[@earlyoyster2793]

❤

[@lynnhunter4493]

🙏🙏🙏