MDMD "Chao-chou, dog"

[David Morris]

http://www.io.com/~snewton/zen/mu.html

This is from "The Gateless Barrier" (Wu-Men Kuan), translated and with a 
Commentary by Robert Aitken.

Case I
Chao-chou's Dog

The Case
A monk asked Chao-chou, "Has the dog Buddha nature or not?" Chao-chou said, 
"Mu."

Wu-Men's Comment
For the practice of Zen it is imperative that you pass through the barrier 
set up by the Ancestral Teachers. For subtle realization it is of the utmost 
importance that you cut off the mind road. If you do not pass the barrier of 
the ancestors, if you do not cut off the mind road, then you are a ghost 
clinging to bushes and grasses.

What is the barrier of the ancestral Teachers? It is just this one word "Mu" 
-- the one barrier of our faith. We call it the Gateless Barrier of the Zen 
tradition. When you pass through this barrier, you will not only interview 
Chao-chou intimately, you will walk hand in hand with all the Ancestral 
Teachers in the successive generations of our lineage -- the hair of your 
eyebrows entangled with theirs, seeing with the same eyes, hearing with the 
same ears. Won't that be fulfilling? Is there anyone who would not want to 
pass this barrier?





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