I love mu. It’s really something we need in English. It eliminates catch-22s like the classic “Have you stopped beating your wife” question. That, and sometimes people just ask bad questions.
Whoever popularized that “unask the question” explanation has much to answer for, as does Douglas Hofstadter with his “neither true nor false” explanation.
For what it’s worth “mu” doesn’t *actually* mean anything remotely like that. “Mu” just means “No” in ancient Chinese, transliterated into Japanese. It isn’t any kind of clever wordplay either. It’s just “no”.
(The challenge to break through in Zen practice is what that “no” expresses.)
It’s not a matter of what the word “literally” means. (And since the end meaning of words – particularly in Japanese and Chinese – depends largely on context, “mu” does not have a literal meaning. It simply implies a negative condition.) It’s a matter of how the word is used. And how the word is used is that no answer can exist with the conditions given. Answering “mu” is the same as saying “I can’t answer that question.”
My understanding was that its meaning is closer to “nothingness” than plain “no,” which is the reason it was used to answer a stupid question. Rather than acknowledge the question, even as a negative, the answerer is disregarding its validity by saying that there is no answer to the question posed, even though the question poses a dichotomy.
Nick… just tell him you got Robocopped and leave it at that.
I love mu. It’s really something we need in English. It eliminates catch-22s like the classic “Have you stopped beating your wife” question. That, and sometimes people just ask bad questions.
Pedant time!
Whoever popularized that “unask the question” explanation has much to answer for, as does Douglas Hofstadter with his “neither true nor false” explanation.
For what it’s worth “mu” doesn’t *actually* mean anything remotely like that. “Mu” just means “No” in ancient Chinese, transliterated into Japanese. It isn’t any kind of clever wordplay either. It’s just “no”.
(The challenge to break through in Zen practice is what that “no” expresses.)
“The difference between desire and decision, that is the distance between yes and no” – Rebekkah DeMere
Bigger pedant time…
It’s not a matter of what the word “literally” means. (And since the end meaning of words – particularly in Japanese and Chinese – depends largely on context, “mu” does not have a literal meaning. It simply implies a negative condition.) It’s a matter of how the word is used. And how the word is used is that no answer can exist with the conditions given. Answering “mu” is the same as saying “I can’t answer that question.”
Almost (or pretty much YMMV) the definition of an abstention vote
My understanding was that its meaning is closer to “nothingness” than plain “no,” which is the reason it was used to answer a stupid question. Rather than acknowledge the question, even as a negative, the answerer is disregarding its validity by saying that there is no answer to the question posed, even though the question poses a dichotomy.