AtDDtA(15): Does a Dog Posess the Buddha Nature?

[Dave Monroe]

   "His shipmates having departed, Chick entered the shadowy taproom
once more, obtained a glass of beer, sat at a table with a view of the
entrance, and waited, a technique learned years before in Japan, among
the Zennist mystics of that country (see The Chums of Chance and the
Caged Women of Yokohama), known as 'just sitting.'  It was during that
same trip, Chick recalled, that Pugnax had confounded a Zennist
monastery, by answering the classic koan 'Does a dog possess the
Buddha-nature?' not with 'Mu!' but with 'Yes, obviously--was there
anything else?'" (AtD, Pt. II, pp. 411-2)


The Chums of Chance and the Caged Women of Yokohama

Caged Women of Yokohama
Possible: Yokohama was one of the first Japanese cities with the
heaviest industrialization...wherein many young women from the
surrounding rural areas came to work in dreadful working and living
conditions? "The early 20th century was marked by rapid growth of
industry. Entrepreneurs built factories along reclaimed land to the
north of the city towards Kawasaki, which eventually grew to be the
Keihin Industrial Area. The growth of Japanese industry brought
affluence to Yokohama, and many wealthy trading families constructed
sprawling residences there, while the rapid influx of population from
Japan and Korea also led to the formation of Kojiki-Yato, the largest
slum in Japan at the time."

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_397-428#Page_411

Cf., e.g., ...

Caged (1950)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0042296/

The Big Doll House (1971)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0066830/

The Big Bird Cage (1972)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0068273/

Caged Heat (1974)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0071266/

Ilsa, She-Wolf of the SS (1975)
http://imdb.com/title/tt0071650/

U.s.w., et soforthiam ...

Women in Prison Films
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_prison_films

The Encyclopedia of Women in Prison Films
http://www.premiumwanadoo.com/wipfilms/

Women and Prison Film
http://www.theprisonfilmproject.com/prisonfilmanalysis/genres/womenprisonfilm.htm

Babes behind Bars
http://alansmithee.5u.com/intro/bars/bars.html

And while I'm at it ...

The Girls of Kamare (1974)
http://www.ubu.com/film/vienet.html

Not immediately relevant, but well worth watching ...


"just sitting"

Zazen (坐禅; Chinese: zuò chán pinyin or tso-chan Wade-Giles) is at the
heart of Zen Buddhist practice. The aim of zazen is just sitting,
opening the hand of thought. This is done either through koans,
Rinzai's primary method, or whole-hearted sitting (shikantaza), the
Soto sect's method. (Rinzai and Soto are the main extant Zen schools
in Japan; both originated in China, as, respectively, the Linji and
Caodong schools.) Once the mind is able to not be hindered by its many
layers, one will then be able to realize one's true Buddha nature. In
Zen Buddhism, zazen (literally "seated meditation") is a meditative
discipline practitioners perform to calm the body and the mind and
experience insight into the nature of existence and thereby gain
enlightenment (satori).

The posture of zazen is seated, with folded legs and hands, and an
erect but settled spine. The legs are folded in one of the standard
sitting styles....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zazen


"Mu!"

Cf. ...

 "'There is something I must know,' Mason hoarsely whispers, in the
tone of a lover tormented by Doubts, '-- Have you a soul,-- that is,
are you a human Spirit, re-incarnate as a Dog?'
   "The L.E.D. blinks, shivers, nods in a resign'd way.  'You are
hardly the first to ask.  Travelers return'd from the Japanese Islands
tell of certain religious Puzzles known as Koan, perhaps the most
fam'd of which concerns your very Question,-- whether a Dog hath the
nature of the divine Buddha. A reply given by a certain very wise
Master is, "Mu!"'
   "'Mu,' repeats Mason, thoughtfully.
   "'It is necessary for the Seeker to meditate upon the Koan until
driven to a state of holy Insanity,-- and I would recommend this to
you in particular.  But please do not come to the Learned English Dog
if it's religious Comfort you're after. I may be praeternatural, but I
am not supernatural.  'Tis the Age of Reason, rrrf?  There is ever an
Explanation at hand, and no such thing as a Talking Dog,-- Talking
Dogs belong with Dragons and Unicorns....'" (M&D, Ch. 3, p. 22)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=60225


"'Yes, obviously--was there anything else?'"

Recall ...

   "'I say, Pugnax--what's that you're reading now, old fellow?'
   "'Rr-Rff-rff Rr-rr-rff-rrf-rrf,' replied Pugnax without looking up,
which Darby, having like others in the crew got used to Pugnax's voice
[...] interpreted as, 'The Princess Casamassima.'" (AtD, Pt. i, pp. 5-6)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114337

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114339

Since when is --or, perhaps more properly here, when was--Pugnax quite
so articulate, or, at least, quite so easily intelligible?  Hm ...