Mu! — An Understanding from Beyond the Gateless Gate

The monk asked Joshu in all earnestness, "Does a dog have Buddha nature or not?"

Joshu said, "Mu!"

This is perhaps the most famous Zen Koan. It appears in a compilation called the Mumonkan, or the Gateless Gate.

And we will be going into a simple and direct understanding of this koan shortly. Now, there's some taboo around explaining koans, which has some sense to it, but is also ironic given this gate is supposed to be gateless. So, we won't care about that here. Just listen if you like.

Let's start with some clarity on what transpired in this dialogue. Joshu or Zhaozhou is considered one of the greatest masters in Zen. But the monk here should not be thought of as ignorant or a novice. The question he asks is in all earnestness.

Let's not assume the question comes from narrow thinking. What the monk is asking is, does even a dog have Buddha Nature? This fundamental and most perfect inherently enlightened nature.

Don't think of a nice pet dog.

Think of an unkempt stray dog whose bite could mean disease and death. Who may steal your food and will bark at you, and fight over even a bone.

Buddha Nature refers to the inherently enlightened nature of all sentient beings. And the question is, does this dog have Buddha Nature?

The answer, if you base it on traditional Buddhism, must be yes. All sentient beings have this Buddha Nature. Saying yes would give the monk the hope for his own Enlightenment.

But Joshu answers, "Mu!"

No!

You see, there is a key assumption in the question that the dog is a sentient entity. An individual sentient entity. Joshu's answer sees through this assumption in this question and negates it.

The core of Buddhism and Zen is the Insight that there are no separate selves. No individual sentient entities. What to the monk appears as a stray dog, what through a human pair of eyes and ears, and a human language, is a dog, is simply a collection of a familiar phenomena.

But the dog in itself is not that human image of a dog.

The dog in itself is not an entity at all.

The dog in itself IS this Buddha Nature.

Buddha Nature is not what resides in the dog, or is possessed by the dog for a short duration.

Buddha Nature IS the dog.

The dog is made perceivable by and perceived by Buddha Nature. And Buddha Nature is what the dog really IS in truth!

There's nothing else in fact.

All there is, is Buddha Nature.

This fundamental nature is not something that can be possessed, not something that can be contained inside these bodies granting them sentience. It is what the dog is. What you are.

So, even if the monk asked whether a human being has Buddha Nature, the answer is, "Mu!"

No.

Buddha Nature cannot be possessed. You cannot HAVE it. Reality cannot be owned or apportioned to imaginary entities.

And if the question was, does this pile of dung have Buddha Nature?

Then the answer is yes!

What is considered insentient and impure is in fact just this fundamental Nature being given expression. Appearing as a passing form.

The duality of sentient beings and insentient objects is entirely flawed. And this assumption and belief is the barrier of the Gateless Gate.

So, now you know how grievously wrong the monk was. How much in error the question is.

The starting position is wrong. The entire basis of the question is wrong.

And faced with a world where such a perspective is considered 'normal', maybe now you can see why Joshu just said, "Mu!"

The monk cannot get enlightened.

You cannot get enlightened.

But you can see the that you are already alight. That your true nature is pure Light.

Let's conclude with Master Mumon's commentary on this koan.

"For the practice of Zen, you must pass the barrier set up by the ancient masters of Zen. To attain to marvelous enlightenment, you must completely extinguish all thoughts of the ordinary mind. If you have not passed the barrier and have not extinguished all thoughts, you are a phantom haunting the weeds and trees.

Now just tell me what is the barrier by the patriarchs?

Merely this Mu — the one barrier of our sect. So it has come to be called 'The Gateless barrier of the Zen sect.'

Those who have passed the barrier are able not only to see Joshu face to face but also to walk hand in hand with the whole descending line of patriarchs and be eyebrow to eyebrow with them. You will see with the same eye that they see with, hear with the same ear that they hear with.

Wouldn't it be a wonderful joy!

Isn't there anyone who wants to pass this barrier?

Then concentrate your whole self into this Mu, making your whole body with its 360 bones and joints and 84,000 pores into a solid lump of doubt. Day and night, without ceasing, keep digging into it, but don't take it as 'nothingness' or as 'being' or 'non-being'.

It must be like a red-hot iron ball which you have gulped down and which you try to vomit but cannot. You must extinguish all delusive thoughts and beliefs which you have cherished up to the present. After a certain period of such efforts, Mu will come to fruition, and inside and out will become one naturally.

You will then be like a dumb man who has had a dream.

You will know yourself and for yourself only.

Then all of a sudden, Mu will break open.

It will astonish the heavens and shake the earth.

It will be just as if you had snatched the great sword of General Kan: If you meet a Buddha you will kill him.

If you meet a patriarch you will kill him.

Though you may stand on the brink of life and death, you will enjoy the great freedom. In the six realms and the four modes of birth, you will live in the samadhi of innocent play.

Now, how should you concentrate on Mu?

Exhaust every ounce of energy you have in doing it. And if you do not give up on the way, you will be enlightened the way a candle in front of the altar is lighted by one touch of fire."

Mumon ended his commentary on this koan with this verse:

"Dog – Buddha nature!

The perfect manifestation, the absolute command.

A little 'has' or 'has not,'

And body is lost! Life is lost!"