Zen

A monk once asked the Chinese master Zhaozhou whether a dog has Buddha-nature. Zhaozhou answered with one syllable, wu, which comes into Japanese as mu. It means something like “no” or “not.” That’s the whole story. For centuries, Zen students have been handed that syllable and told to stay with it until it opens. A few centuries after Zhaozhou died, a monk named Wumen put the exchange first in his collection of 48 cases, The Gateless Gate, and it’s still the koan most beginners get. If you read the Gospel of Thomas long enough, you start to notice that a lot of its sayings behave the same way. They sit there, short and strange, and they don’t let you go until you’ve changed. ...