What are we to make of such enigmatic discourse? What can contemplation (or analysis or any other attempts to unravel meaning and significance) tell (or teach) us about... East Asian mind or modes of thought? The answer probably isn't (but might be...) "Mu!".
(of contemplation of Bodhidharma): ...practicing monks try to grasp the meaning of the patriarch through Zen meditation --that is, by a constant practsie of 'gazing at' or 'holding up' the topics, usually a word or phrase, of certain cases(koan), dialogues or stories associated with him. This is the form of meditation known as 'gazing-at-the-topic Zen', the mainstay of all Korean Son (Zen) and important as well in Japanese Zen. As the classic theoretician of the practise of gazing at the topic states, in this method the trainee is not to employ discriminative understanding, doctrinal understanding, thinking or calculation, intuition, verbal strategy, absolute nonchalance, engagement, analysis of the words, or anything else; one should simply "twenty-four hours a day and in all four postures constantly raise up the topic and constantly be aware of it." The topic is no more than a tool that can be used to burn up all defilements and views, the things that bind the trainee to the suffering cycle of rebirth, much as a candle flame melts snowflakes. There is no absolute truth in the case and topic, and there certainly is nothing of the scholarly impulse, nothing historical.
(from Jeffrey L. Broughton The Bodhidharma Anthology: the earliest records of Zen, pp. 1-2 [BQ9299 .B623 E5 1999] --emphasis added)
(and about "Go wash your bowl"): ...whatever a master says or does in that context is always about awakening, so the more mundane it looks, the more profound it must be. The reader is forced, by way of conventions of the genre, to interpret "go wash your bowl" as some sort of indirect speech, that is, as a figurative statement that is not about bowls at all but about the ultimate truth.
(from Steven Heine and Dale S. Wright The Koan: texts and contexts in Zen Buddhism, pg. 40 [BQ9289.5 .K625 2000])
from The Jargon File (a.k.a. The Hacker's Dictionary):
mu /moo/
The correct answer to the classic trick question "Have you stopped beating your wife yet?". Assuming that you have no wife or you have never beaten your wife, the answer "yes" is wrong because it implies that you used to beat your wife and then stopped, but "no" is worse because it suggests that you have one and are still beating her. According to various Discordians and Douglas Hofstadter the correct answer is usually "mu", a Japanese word alleged to mean "Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions". Hackers tend to be sensitive to logical inadequacies in language, and many have adopted this suggestion with enthusiasm. The word `mu' is actually from Chinese, meaning `nothing'; it is used in mainstream Japanese in that sense. Native speakers do not recognize the Discordian question-denying use, which almost certainly derives from overgeneralization of the answer in the following well-known Rinzai Zen koan:A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu retorted, "Mu!"
See also has the X nature, Some AI Koans, and Douglas Hofstadter's "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" [see the full entry with links]
from a collection of Chinese and Japanese Buddhist Texts
The Mu KoanThe Rinzai (Chinese: Lin-chi) school of Zen is renowned for its use of koan, riddles that cannot be answered by rational or discursive modes of thought. The following passage contains the koan that is generally given to beginning students, referred to as the "Mu koan." It reports that a monk asked the Zen master Joshu if a dog has the buddha nature, to which Joshu answered, "Mu!" Mu may be translated as "not," but in the koan Joshu's answer is not a denial, but rather an indication that the question makes no sense from the point of view of enlightenment.
The dilemma behind the question is based on traditional Japanese Buddhist ideas about the path. It is widely accepted in Japanese Buddhism that all beings--including dogs--have the buddha nature, or an inherent potential for buddhahood. Thus, from the point of view of tradition, Joshu's answer should be "Yes." But since Zen claims to transcend blind adherence to tradition, this would be an unacceptable answer. On the other hand, if Joshu were to state that dogs do not have the buddha nature, he could be accused of contravening Buddhist doctrine and setting himself above the buddhas.
Thus Joshu's answer is an invitation to move beyond tradition and conceptualization to a direct perception of truth. The Zen tradition refers to this koan as the "closed opening" or the "gateless barrier," because once a meditator perceives the meaning behind Joshu's statement, this marks the first dawning of realization that will eventually culminate in full awakening, referred to in Zen as "satori." It is intended to cause a cognitive crisis as the meditator attempts to solve the riddle by means of conceptual thought, but finds all such attempts utterly frustrated. This leads to the development of the "great doubt" (daigi), which is said to burn inside of one like a red-hot ball of iron. When the koan is solved, however, the pain and frustration disappear, and are replaced by a serene, non-conceptual awareness.
A monk once asked Master Joshu, `Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?' Joshu said, `Mu!'
Mumon's commentary: In studying Zen, one must pass the barriers set up by ancient Zen Masters. For the attainment of incomparable satori, one has to cast away his discriminating mind. Those who have not passed the barrier and have not cast away the discriminating mind are all phantoms haunting trees and plants.
Now Tell me, what is the barrier of the Zen Masters? Just this `Mu'--it is the barrier of Zen. It is thus called `the gateless barrier of Zen.' Those who have passed the barrier will not only see Joshu clearly, but will go hand in hand with all the Masters of the past, see them face to face....Wouldn't it be wonderful? Don't you want to pass the barrier? Then concentrate yourself into this `Mu,' with your 360 bones and 84,000 pores, making your whole body one great inquiry. Day and night work intently at it. Do not attempt nihilistic or dualistic interpretations. It is like having swallowed a red hot iron ball. You try to vomit it but cannot....
You kill the Buddha if you meet him; you kill the ancient Masters if you meet them. On the brink of life and death you are utterly free, and in the six realms and the four modes of life you live, with great joy, a genuine life in complete freedom.
Some other Joshu (Chao-chou) koans
Comments on the Mu-Mon-kan (The Gateless Gate)