One More Mu

And here is the view from the reading chair (see Blue Dog Mu). Like I am stepping back and letting Mu continue to take more in. Which it will do. So, there's another dog (see Nikki), and the bark paper from Papua New Guinea, and the pre-Columbian statue of the lady with the dog on her lap (see Pre-Columbian Statue), and the red OWU cap hanging on the bannister. Oh, and the little clock (to the left of the statue on the hutch) that I got for 30 years of service at NYBG. 

Blue Dog Mu

George Rodrigue painting, Blue Dog at the Revel (thx, Jim and Jacque), hanging in the living room (see Reading). I sit in a chair across the room in front of this painting and read. And think. A lot.  

This from George Rodrigue:

"People say the dog keeps talking to them with the eyes, always saying something different. People who have seen a Blue Dog painting always remember it. They are really about life, about mankind searching for answers. The dog never changes position. He just stares at you. And you’re looking at him, looking for some answers, ‘Why are we here?,’ and he’s just looking back at you, wondering the same. The dog doesn’t know."

And this, from a teisho by Susan Murphy Roshi on the koan Mu (see Mu):

"So your job is not to resolve some questions about dogs. Dogs, like cats, are a settled matter. They don't have Buddha Nature, they are Buddha Nature–overflowing with it–and luckily we don't assume that we know what that is. It is experienced, but remains always alive and beyond attempted capture by the known."

As the Blue Dog has been trying to tell us. 

[NOTE: Reflections in the painting are from the side window, and I can make out the little jade plant sitting on the window sill].

Mu

A monk asked Chao-chou, "Does a dog have buddha nature or not?" Chao-chou said, "Mu". Mu is a Japanese word meaning "no", "not", "nothing" or "non-". That's all. And like this, Zen's most important "breakthrough" koan came to life.

The Book of Mu compiles contributions from forty teachers, both ancient and modern, to address the issue of that dog and its Buddhanature.  Doesn't really matter if you are currently working on this koan, i.e. "striving to penetrate the Mu obstruction", or not–this is a terrific book. From the Introduction: "An expression of the boundless nature of all things and how that boundlessness interacts, informs, and completes the particularities of our lives". Maybe not for everyone. But definitely everyone. [NOTE: Love the dog on the cover, "Blizzard Dog" by Kate Hartland].