What is MU?

WHAT IS MU?
Joshu's MU is the essential koan in Rinzai zen, which is the active Zen that works with koans. The monk finally got an audience with the great master Joshu, and he has been troubled for years with this nagging question, a feeling that wouldn't let go, that wouldn't give him mind peace. So he finally got an audience in the hope the great guru would give his mind peace. "Does a dog have Buddha Nature?" he asked,

[@pchabanowich]

Thank you.

[@youarewhatyourelookingfor4496]

Go Ed! This is Sean D watching.

[@stevec8872]

I love the story of hui neng. It really hits home that he was an illiterate woodcutter. It resonates very much so here because the first glimpse and the hunger for awakening was aroused at hearing an audio recording of a recitation of the diamond sutra. Truly a powerful text about nothing at all.

[@conley347]

The books and talks by Albtert Low (Montreal Zen Center) introduced me to Chinese Zen and the Koans and writing of the Golden Age of Zen (7-9 OCE), and it shifted my understanding and practice from passive waiting for something to happen, to active, from intellectual zen to the kitchen and pantry everyday mind. It was the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra that gave me open heart massage of great waves of joy and sorrow..Stop...don't stop....oh..stop...don/t and I knew through and through that Prajaparamita...The diamond Surtra is its parent, and the Patriarchs are real. I'm on FB where I write about the Zen of everyday mind. kzbin.info/www/bejne/lYjLlKWMjZyMrsksi=9Fu0TlGOszD0BXmv

[@stevec8872]

@@conley347 thanks for your reply I actually found your videos from the link on your FB page! We were just chatting yesterday friend!

[@athosgomesfonseca]

🙏🏼

[@mralexander99]

Forgive me, but isn’t “Koan” pronounced as “Ko-Ann” instead of “Cone”……maybe this is a “Tomato vs Tomaatto” question? But either way the koan “Mu” is a fascinating journey that I am currently engaged with. Just recently as I was working on “Mu” while I was on a long walk in a park….i had a sudden flash of humor that reflected on this question….what if the monk had asked the great zen master Joshu - “Does a cow have Buddha Nature?”……would the answer have been the same? And immediately following this train of humor another sudden flash pierced my thoughts - “You will never ever ever ever understand “Mu” conceptually at all because it is the sword itself cutting off conceptual thought before it even begins throwing us into the wide chasm of immediate experience of this instant of falling into “not knowing” being most intimate that is unconcerned with answers and embraces the “not knowing” as it’s field of living experience --> “This Entire Universe Is One Bright Pearl?” --> “Mu?!?” Or as a dog would say “Woof?”

[@conley347]

I suggest the study of the works by Albert Low, Zen master of Montreal Zen Center. His teaching of koans has been a revelation in my practice, teaching me how to inhabit the koan, chewing on it, seeing it from every side, turning it over and over until it pops in the mouth like a grape.

[@mralexander99]

Thank You……and that is how I have been practicing with this Koan…from the moment I wake up until I lay down for heavenly sleep keeping the koan close to me…..sitting in Zazen “Mu” is what I keep in mind with me…..it is “Mu” in all sounds, all events such as disappointments, irritations, annoyances…it is all “Mu”…………every delight, joy and surprise is “Mu”……….”Mu” is the fulcrum containing everything, nothing and in between……”Mu” cracks me open revealing that my views, preferences, appetites, wishes and desires are just floating into the mist of life while living each moment, day, week, month…..I can’t say year yet since I picked up “Mu” a few months ago…. I have found Ruben Habitio, Henry Shukman on KZbin and “The Book of Mu” to give me the instruments to probe “Mu”……and I have ventured forth to a zen teacher in Berkeley CA for one day to see who I could find as a one to one teacher…but nothing came of it…..so my eyes and ears are geared towards those being out there who have fallen in love with “Mu” as she works inside of me cracking me open to the vastness of the universe as the “me” fades away it’s grip on my panoramic view of life….and today the KZbin algorithm gave me your video….so here I am🦅

[@conley347]

Albert Low, Zen master tucked away at Montreal Zen Center, opened the mysteries of Koan practice, and especially MU, which is called a breath through koan. You cannot begin the practice of Zen until you break through the barrier of MU. But all koans are MU. No, wait...my whole life is MU!. MU breaks through the ice of thinking. MU smiles through the fixed face of my mind. MU is everywhere in the movies. The dance of Zorba, the liberation of Barbie, the Life of PI when he reaches the Other Shore and finds that like Dorothy he never left Oz. . What is MU? What am I? I am MU, both the question and the answer. Check out Albert Low on the Montreal Zen Center. He died a few years ago, but his expositions and talks on Zen has aroused MU in me, the mind that does not rest on anything. @@mralexander99

[@mralexander99]

@@conley347 I just realized that the teachers I mentioned (Ruben Habito & Henry Shukman) that spurred my curiosity on koans and particularly the “Mu” koan are from the same lineage and training of Albert Low….so thanks again for the recommendation ❤️‍🔥

[@conley347]

Albert Low got his training at the Rochehster Zen Center under Philip Kaplau and. Yosatani Roshi, where he was awakened and got permission to teach. He went to Montreal and founded the Zen Center there. I've been reading his books over and over and listening to his Teishos for many years now. His teishos are available on the web site, and it has been them that has aroused my mind that doesn't rest on anything....the Prajna in the Diamond Sutra. @@mralexander99

[@chitraisenlightened]

all 700 koans are used to realize your Orginal Face..can you chat about that??