MYSTICISM EAST AND WEST
Joshu's Dog
A monk asked Joshu, a Chinese Zen
master: `Has a dog Buddha-nature or not?'
Joshu answered: `Mu.'
[Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning
`No-thing' or `Nay'.]
Mumon's comment:s To realize Zen one has
to pass through the barrier of the patriarchs. Enlightenment always comes after
the road of thinking is blocked. If you do not pass the barrier of the
patriarchs or if your thinking road is not blocked, whatever you think,
whatever you do, is like a tangling ghost. You may ask: What is a barrier of a
patriarch? This one word, Mu, is it.
This is the barrier of Zen. If you pass through
it you will see Joshu face to face. Then you can work hand in hand with the
whole line of patriarchs. Is this not a pleasant thing to do?
If you want to pass this barrier, you must work
through every bone in your body, through ever pore in your skin, filled with
this question: What is Mu? and carry it day and night. Do not believe it is the
common negative symbol meaning nothing. It is not nothingness, the opposite of
existence. If you really want to pass this barrier, you should feel like
drinking a hot iron ball that you can neither swallow nor spit out.
Then your previous lesser knowledge disappears.
As a fruit ripening in season, your subjectivity and objectivity naturally
become one. It is like a dumb man who has had a dream. He knows about it but
cannot tell it.
When he enters this condition his ego-shell is
crushed and he can shake the heaven and move the earth. He is like a great
warrior with a sharp sword. If a Buddha stands in his way, he will cut him
down; if a patriarch offers him any obstacle, he will kill him; and he will be
free in this way of birth and death. He can enter any world as if it were his own
playground. I will tell you how to do this with this koan:
Just concentrate your whole energy into this Mu,
and do not allow any discontinuation. When you enter this Mu and there is no
discontinuation, your attainment will be as a candle burning and illuminating
the whole universe.
Has a dog Buddha-nature?
This is the most serious question of
all.
If you say yes or no,
You lose your own Buddha-nature.
Jesus said, "If those who lead you say, 'See, the Kingdom is
in the sky,' then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you,
'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is
inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then
you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of
the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty
and it is you who are that poverty."
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Jesus saw infants being suckled. He said to His disciples, "These
infants being suckled are like those who enter the Kingdom." They said to
Him, "Shall we then, as children, enter the Kingdom?" Jesus said to
them, "When you make the two one, and when you make the inside like the
outside and the outside like the inside, and the above like the below, and when
you make the male and the female one and the same, so that the male not be male
nor the female female; and when you fashion eyes in the place of an eye, and a
hand in place of a hand, and a foot in place of a foot, and a likeness in place
of a likeness; then will you enter [the Kingdom]."
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Jesus said, "He who is near Me is near the fire, and he who
is far from Me is far from the Kingdom."
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Jesus said, "Recognize what is in your sight, and that which
is hidden from you will become plain to you. For there is nothing hidden which
will not become manifest."
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Jesus said, "It is I who am the light which is above them
all. It is I who am the All. From Me did the All come forth, and unto Me did
the All extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and
you will find Me there."
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Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you
bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what
you do not bring forth will destroy you."
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Jesus said, "I took my place in the midst of the world, and I
appeared to them in the flesh. I found all of them intoxicated; I found none of
them thirsty. And My soul became afflicted for the sons of men, because they
are blind in their hearts and do not have sight; for empty they came into the
world, and empty too they seek to leave the world. But for the moment they are
intoxicated. When they shake off their wine, then they will repent."
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Jesus said, "Blessed is he who came into being before he came
into being. If you become My disciples and listen to My words, these stones
will minister to you. For there are five trees for you in Paradise which remain undisturbed
summer and winter and whose leaves do not fall. Whoever becomes acquainted with
them will not experience death