Angelo, as I'm listening, time is collapsing into my curiosity over Mu that arose when I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a 15 year old (45 years ago). Sure, all I did was conceptualise. That was then. Then is now. Same sense of I Am-ness. Same fascination with paradox. I fades away.
Angelo… totally in awe about energy that moves you to work F/T … produce UTube videos faster than I can blink plus the retreats plus all the meetings snd Q&A and cannot find words to express gratitude for everything that flows through you directly from the source…. 🙏🙏🙏💕💕
I had been wondering what it was about for a while but it was so abstract to me that I did not even try to understand or analyze it, I felt there was nothing to understand, it was too weird 😂
My God, I’ve just been contemplating this exact koan the past few days after hearing you mention it occasionally, and was looking at your channel to see if you’d addressed it at length. Couldn’t help but laugh at seeing it suddenly appear in my feed
Thank you Angelo. This was really helpful and genuinely struck some sparks for me (especially the idea of not “negotiating” with MU etc). I THINK you made this video, in part, because of my repeated requests, and I want you to know that I really appreciate it. I’m sure you know about “upaya” or the use of “skillful means” (in the Buddhist tradition) to help lead others to awakening, and this video is a great example of that. 🙏🏻
Might you be willing to recount your own experience working on Mu and its impact on you? I’m curious why you don’t teach within the zen tradition and how your teaching might differ from zen? What place, if any, does zazen play in your teaching? It is, of course, the lifeblood of zen and its central method to bring about “kensho” or awakening. Thank you again! 🙏🏻
Is there anything I do differently as someone who has a long history of mania/psychosis, and uses lithium to manage? How does lithium use factor in? What happens if permanent realization happens, but then I stop taking lithium and have mania? Is there such a thing as a psychosis version of realization? Edit: basically if realization is permanent, but it happens while using lithium, wouldn't lithium become irrelevant? But I know stopping lithium would be equivalent to taking psychedelics to a complete disorientation level, does that mean realization cannot happen while on lithium because you could always remove it, and therefore remove any realization itself (and realization cannot be removed like that), or can it?
I'm so glad you explained this practice because my mind has been very resistant to it. In my complete ignorance I've ended up at very bovine places! 🐄😂I will now attempt it again. And also, for the months I've been watching your videos and listening to your audiobook, I was completely convinced that you were saying 'colon' (as in the punctuation mark) until today when someone spelled it in the comments as 'Koan'. No wonder it returned weird results when I googled 'Zen Colon'!! Leaves me wondering: Does the 'Zen colon' lead to the 'Zen taint'?!
me too lmao i thought it was : and I was like oh that's cool cos the : is supposed to represent the entry to the nothingness and emptyness but nope we just misheard it haha
@@Klazi 🤣Exactly the same conclusion I came to when I was also trying to make it make sense!🤣 I thought: "Well that's far too obscure and advanced for me!"
I looked for his book on Audible, but it’s not there. You mentioned listening to the audiobook - on what platform are you listening to it/where did you find it? Thanks!
Mu, who am I? Who is sitting, who is writing these words. Mu is this experience in the present moment. Can we also ask “what am I” or would this be a different koan?
10:15 and onwards hits hard. Not "X about Mu" Not "Y of Mu" Not "Z with Mu" Not "Mu is ____" Just "Mu" So simple and elegant, yet so easy to forget, to let that "Relation towards Mu" appear and cause separation, without even realizing we're looking at/through the relation (Desperation, Curiosity, Elation, Seeking, Thinking, Searching, Chasing...) rather than JUST MU. What is Mu without that relation, that perspective on it? Before it arises, after it passes? Or even in the midst of it maybe? Only Mu
There are many texts that use a name for the unnamable. The All, The Supreme, The Atman, etc. So people get hung up on an association with "other" in trying to objectify an inner-outer source as the center of themselves. The one who is doing the looking or asking will never find the answer to such questioning. But if the enquiry is pursued, the opening can occur when the seeking stops, perhaps out of frustration or some sort of collapse, a surrender to realizing that there is no Mu but only Mu and it is you. It's like realizing the scientific assertion that your body is mostly empty space and knowing yourself as only that space. But even that is a trap and should be discarded. What remains, or what watches remaining? Mu.
Hi Angelo first time commenter. I’m about to leave the lamest comment ever but will be tickled pink if I find out you read it. I swear to god i think I remember reading this small footnote in “3 pillars” that the u in Mu is actually pronounced like the u in “put”.😂
Is it ok to ask different questions at different times or is it better to just stick with one question such as What is mu? Who am I? What is this? Etc Thank you.
The teacher doesn’t say “What is mu?” He just says “Mu.” Buddhists teach that all things have Buddha nature. Incredulous, the monk asks him if even a dog has it, and the teacher says no (mu), in contradiction to the other teaching. So in regards to this story, the question becomes then “What is mu?” However you approach practice (mu, What am I? etc) there is no answer in the objective world.
What if you walk in and just don't answer. Isn't that the answer? I understand the answer is awakening, but I wonder what would happen if you walk into the teacher and just don't answer
You’re not the first one to think of that … At some point the teacher may start asking you questions if you look sincere. If you’re doing it further effect and haven’t had the insight they will probably just dismiss you.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake haha I assume it wouldn't go over well. Obviously the whole point is transformation. Although if I hadn't yet had the awakening and they asked me, silence would probably be my response because I know any conceptual answer isn't it. It wouldn't be me trying to be clever. It would just be the best answer I could come up with
@@SimplyAlwaysAwakeWhat comes to my mind is Ram Dass at a looongg zazen retreat.. 😂😅😂 At the last day exhausted, sick, with severe pains all over the body he enters to the Roshi to solve the koan. 😁😆 He looks at the Roshi and in culmination of frustration, anger, exhaustion says abruptly "Good morning Roshi!!" The answer that comes is "Ohhh.. Doctor.. You begin to understand the essence of Zen"!! 🤣😂🤣😂 Thank you. 🙏🤗❤️
hmmmm.... i was under the impression that the translation of mu as "no, has not, etc." doesn't actually matter, like mu could be a nonsense word and have the same effect. is the paradox not irrelevant? i believe joshu threw his whole being into this response, perhaps that is more relevant than the translation of mu or the paradox. but still maybe not even revelant. the dog, joshu, the question of the buddha nature all just incedental. only mu is relevant. am i correct in this?
to clarify, if you add the paradox dosesn't that just over complicate it anyway? maybe there is a perk to working on mu as an english speaker in that one doesn't get caught up in the literal definition or the paradox
![Existential Terror and Loss of Self [Trigger Warning!!]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/OD_bBy0nxLI/mqdefault.jpg)
Be sure to check out Mu part 2 as well!
"To know yourself is to forget yourself." - Doghen ✨🌟💫☺️🤗
Angelo, as I'm listening, time is collapsing into my curiosity over Mu that arose when I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance as a 15 year old (45 years ago). Sure, all I did was conceptualise. That was then. Then is now. Same sense of I Am-ness. Same fascination with paradox. I fades away.
Angelo… totally in awe about energy that moves you to work F/T … produce UTube videos faster than I can blink plus the retreats plus all the meetings snd Q&A and cannot find words to express gratitude for everything that flows through you directly from the source…. 🙏🙏🙏💕💕
My pleasure, thx for saying hi
I had been wondering what it was about for a while but it was so abstract to me that I did not even try to understand or analyze it, I felt there was nothing to understand, it was too weird 😂
I was so curious about this. Fantastic. So peaceful. Thank you!
My God, I’ve just been contemplating this exact koan the past few days after hearing you mention it occasionally, and was looking at your channel to see if you’d addressed it at length. Couldn’t help but laugh at seeing it suddenly appear in my feed
Kismet 💓
Synchronicity
Angelo, you seem to drop your videos on UA-cam right when I need them. Thank you.
Thank you Angelo. This was really helpful and genuinely struck some sparks for me (especially the idea of not “negotiating” with MU etc). I THINK you made this video, in part, because of my repeated requests, and I want you to know that I really appreciate it. I’m sure you know about “upaya” or the use of “skillful means” (in the Buddhist tradition) to help lead others to awakening, and this video is a great example of that. 🙏🏻
Might you be willing to recount your own experience working on Mu and its impact on you? I’m curious why you don’t teach within the zen tradition and how your teaching might differ from zen? What place, if any, does zazen play in your teaching? It is, of course, the lifeblood of zen and its central method to bring about “kensho” or awakening. Thank you again! 🙏🏻
Is there anything I do differently as someone who has a long history of mania/psychosis, and uses lithium to manage? How does lithium use factor in? What happens if permanent realization happens, but then I stop taking lithium and have mania? Is there such a thing as a psychosis version of realization? Edit: basically if realization is permanent, but it happens while using lithium, wouldn't lithium become irrelevant? But I know stopping lithium would be equivalent to taking psychedelics to a complete disorientation level, does that mean realization cannot happen while on lithium because you could always remove it, and therefore remove any realization itself (and realization cannot be removed like that), or can it?
realisation is beyond lithium so it wont go away when you stop taking the lithium as what has shifted is your perception so you cant unsee
Is there difference between "What is Mu?" and "Who Am I"?
They both point to the same realization. For a given person however they may feel rather different.
Found it. It's the sound a cow makes
Mu like you’re just Mu-ing the lawn (my fiancé says) 😂
😂
I'm so glad you explained this practice because my mind has been very resistant to it. In my complete ignorance I've ended up at very bovine places! 🐄😂I will now attempt it again. And also, for the months I've been watching your videos and listening to your audiobook, I was completely convinced that you were saying 'colon' (as in the punctuation mark) until today when someone spelled it in the comments as 'Koan'. No wonder it returned weird results when I googled 'Zen Colon'!! Leaves me wondering: Does the 'Zen colon' lead to the 'Zen taint'?!
me too lmao i thought it was : and I was like oh that's cool cos the : is supposed to represent the entry to the nothingness and emptyness but nope we just misheard it haha
@@Klazi 🤣Exactly the same conclusion I came to when I was also trying to make it make sense!🤣 I thought: "Well that's far too obscure and advanced for me!"
😂😂😂
😂
I looked for his book on Audible, but it’s not there. You mentioned listening to the audiobook - on what platform are you listening to it/where did you find it? Thanks!
I need to learn to listen to the whole video before question/comment🙃🙏
Mu, who am I? Who is sitting, who is writing these words. Mu is this experience in the present moment. Can we also ask “what am I” or would this be a different koan?
That's what my husband just said! What am I?
what does one pointed mean?
it sounds very focused on one small thing? like a single sensation?
Just mu.
mu… another word for the Toa…all that is the great mystery, is this what you are referring to Angelo? thx❤
10:15 and onwards hits hard.
Not "X about Mu"
Not "Y of Mu"
Not "Z with Mu"
Not "Mu is ____"
Just "Mu"
So simple and elegant, yet so easy to forget, to let that "Relation towards Mu" appear and cause separation, without even realizing we're looking at/through the relation (Desperation, Curiosity, Elation, Seeking, Thinking, Searching, Chasing...) rather than JUST MU.
What is Mu without that relation, that perspective on it? Before it arises, after it passes? Or even in the midst of it maybe?
Only Mu
Thumbnail looks like kenny
🐶
As far as i was aware it's the twelve letter of the greek alphabet 🤔😂
When will your audio book be available to purchase?
It’s been available for a long time now. See the first link in the description.
What's the point of koans?? Why not just say: "Look, and don't think" Mu seems like just adding a layer
If “look and don’t think” crosses you over then great. Mu has crossed over many thousands and will cross many thousands more over surely.
❤
There are many texts that use a name for the unnamable. The All, The Supreme, The Atman, etc. So people get hung up on an association with "other" in trying to objectify an inner-outer source as the center of themselves. The one who is doing the looking or asking will never find the answer to such questioning. But if the enquiry is pursued, the opening can occur when the seeking stops, perhaps out of frustration or some sort of collapse, a surrender to realizing that there is no Mu but only Mu and it is you. It's like realizing the scientific assertion that your body is mostly empty space and knowing yourself as only that space. But even that is a trap and should be discarded. What remains, or what watches remaining? Mu.
A cow muuuuu’s 🤪 ok sorry thats not funny 😬 thanks Angelo🙏🏻
My favorite koan: is the following statement true or false?
This statement is false.
Hi Angelo first time commenter. I’m about to leave the lamest comment ever but will be tickled pink if I find out you read it. I swear to god i think I remember reading this small footnote in “3 pillars” that the u in Mu is actually pronounced like the u in “put”.😂
Haven’t heard that before. In Zen circles I’ve always heard it pronounced like “Moo”
what to do if even hearing 'mu' makes me feel like im going to have an aneurysm?
Probably a good sign
Gorgeous.
Is it ok to ask different questions at different times or is it better to just stick with one question such as
What is mu?
Who am I?
What is this? Etc
Thank you.
freestyle it n do what feels good it will be more fun this way
"Mu walks, Mu sits, (...)"
Does Mu think?
So what’s the link with the student asking if a dog has Buddha nature?
The teacher says “what is mu” (no/has not) gives you the answer?
The teacher doesn’t say “What is mu?” He just says “Mu.”
Buddhists teach that all things have Buddha nature. Incredulous, the monk asks him if even a dog has it, and the teacher says no (mu), in contradiction to the other teaching.
So in regards to this story, the question becomes then “What is mu?”
However you approach practice (mu, What am I? etc) there is no answer in the objective world.
@@renko9067 Thanks so much! 👍
What if you walk in and just don't answer. Isn't that the answer? I understand the answer is awakening, but I wonder what would happen if you walk into the teacher and just don't answer
You’re not the first one to think of that … At some point the teacher may start asking you questions if you look sincere. If you’re doing it further effect and haven’t had the insight they will probably just dismiss you.
@@SimplyAlwaysAwake haha I assume it wouldn't go over well. Obviously the whole point is transformation. Although if I hadn't yet had the awakening and they asked me, silence would probably be my response because I know any conceptual answer isn't it. It wouldn't be me trying to be clever. It would just be the best answer I could come up with
@@SimplyAlwaysAwakeWhat comes to my mind is Ram Dass at a looongg zazen retreat.. 😂😅😂 At the last day exhausted, sick, with severe pains all over the body he enters to the Roshi to solve the koan. 😁😆 He looks at the Roshi and in culmination of frustration, anger, exhaustion says abruptly "Good morning Roshi!!" The answer that comes is "Ohhh.. Doctor.. You begin to understand the essence of Zen"!! 🤣😂🤣😂 Thank you. 🙏🤗❤️
@@buddhasdojo9368cool story. I never knew Ram Dass practiced Zen.
@@Twobytee He tells the story in one of his talks.. 😁😉😅 At that retreat Leonard Cohen was present too..😆😜 Much love. ❤️✨
hmmmm.... i was under the impression that the translation of mu as "no, has not, etc." doesn't actually matter, like mu could be a nonsense word and have the same effect. is the paradox not irrelevant? i believe joshu threw his whole being into this response, perhaps that is more relevant than the translation of mu or the paradox. but still maybe not even revelant. the dog, joshu, the question of the buddha nature all just incedental. only mu is relevant. am i correct in this?
to clarify, if you add the paradox dosesn't that just over complicate it anyway? maybe there is a perk to working on mu as an english speaker in that one doesn't get caught up in the literal definition or the paradox
🐮
Myself the dog......no, it's not that!
🧡🙏🏵
?
🙏🙏🙏
💝
❤
🙏🙏🙏
🙏