About Me & Mu

Mu, (pronounced myoo), in Japanese, roughly translates in English to mean 'without', or no, nothing, nothingness. (In Chinese it is Wu).

Mu  is also way of saying that the question demanding a yes or no answer cannot be answered in a yes or no. Mu is a way of saying that the question needs to be unasked, that the question rests on incorrect assumptions. A classic example of such a question along the Discordian line is, "Have you stopped hitting your dog?" If you do not have a dog or have one but have never hit it, answering in either yes or no would be the wrong answer because your answer would imply that either you once hit your dog or are still hitting it.

However, more than a word or a clever play of ideas to show logical inadequacies in language (or the logical dualism), Mu is a way of life. Mu dissolves the duality of yes and no, of self and other, of subject and object. "The teaching of mu is a matter of examining the essential question of whom and what we really are, of being pure at heart, and of no longer being confused by what confronts us."

Robert Pirsirg, in his book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, writes: 

"Because we're unaccustomed to it, we don't usually see that there's a third possible logical term equal to yes and no which is capable of our understanding in an unrecognized direction. We don't even have term for it, so I'll have to use the Japanese mu.

Mu means "no thing." Like "quality" it points outside the process of dualistic discrimination. Mu simply says, "no class: not one, not zero, not yes, not no." It states that the context of the question is such that a yes and a no answer is in error and should not be given. "Unask the question" is what it says.

Mu becomes appropriate when the context of the question becomes too small for the truth of the answer. When the Zen monk was asked whether a dog had Buddha nature he said "Mu," meaning that if he answered either way he was answering incorrectly. The Buddha nature cannot be captured by yes or no questions."

I use the term lightheartedly to refer to myself as MuSingh; as someone who is and is not a Singh; as someone whose Singhness needs to be unasked; as someone who is seeking to sift wisdom from cleverness in the people he meets and in the ideas they espouse.

And yes, the quote in the header of the blog -- about the caterpillar and the butterfly -- is by Richard Bach and is one of my favorites.