a koan answered?
William Karlin
karlin at barus.physics.brown.edu
Wed Jul 9 16:33:17 CDT 1997
Hey crew,
I don't mean to drag the list too far afield from an illuminating flame
session, but I noticed something in the Book (remember that?) I found
rather interesting.
(I checked the archives and I don't think it has been mentioned, my
apologies if it has been....)
to wit: on p. 22 L.E.D. relates the koan in which a student asks
"whether a Dog hath the nature of the divine Buddha." The master answers
with a single word: "mu."
Later on p. 61 the phrase "assigning to every Looking-Glass a
Coefficient of Mercy,-- term it u,--..." Actually, that "u" is the greek
character "mu" (can't do the real symbol).
The answer to the koan is mercy. The question whether the dog hath the
nature of the divine buddha (and hence deserving the respect we *should*
afford our fellow man) is not the right question. I think the real
question,-- how do we treat the dog without knowing whether it hath the
NDB?,-- is answered...we show it mercy. (Which may mean that the Dog
hath the NDB.)
Goes along with the "soul in every stone", I think.
cheers,
will
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