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's a great mistake, a kind of dishonesty, to sweep nature'smu answers under the carpet.
[p. 233] Achilles: Oh, but ‘MU’ is Jōshū’s answer. By saying ‘MU’, Jōshū let the other monk know that only by not asking such questions can one know the answer to them. Tortoise: Jōshū “unasked” the question. [p. 312] Achilles:[…]And the answer of “MU” here rejects the premises of the question, which are that one or the other must be chosen.
1996, Dan Simmons, “Looking for Kelly Dahl”, inThe Year's Best Science Fiction,page424:
"Mu," said Kelly Dahl. On one levelmu means onlyyes, but on a deeper level of Zen it was often used by the master when the acolyte asked a stupid, unanswerable or wrongheaded question such as "Does a dog have the Buddha-nature?" The Master would answer only, "Mu," meaning—I say "yes" but mean "no," but the actual answer is: Unask the question.
2002, Norman Waddell, Masao Abe,The Heart of Dōgen's Shōbōgenzō,page72:
The Fifth Patriarch's utteranceYou saymu [Buddha-nature] because Buddha-nature is emptiness articulates clearly and distinctly the truth that emptiness is not "no". In utteringBuddha-nature-emptiness one does not say "half a pound." One does not say "eight ounces." One says "mu."
2010, Joan Price,Sacred Scriptures of the World Religions,page70:
A monk once asked Master Joshu, 'Has a dog the Buddha Nature or not?' Joshu said, 'Mu!'
2012, Omori,Introduction To Zen Training,→ISBN, page115:
That being the case, we should naturally choose to contemplatemu from morning to night, forgetting everything.
2012, Dr Robert Wilkinson,Nishida and Western Philosophy,→ISBN:
Consequently, thoughmu is mindlike, the likeness to individual consciousness cannot be pushed very far.
2013, Sean Murphy, Natalie Goldberg,One Bird, One Stone: 108 Contemporary Zen Stories,→ISBN, page xvii:
The monk posed to Chaoi-chou a question: Does a dog have a buddha nature or not?" Chao-chou, without a moment's hesitation, answered, “Mu." (Translated as "No.")
A unit of surface area, currently equivalent to two-thirtieths of ahectare.
[1959 September, Tung Ta-lin [董大林], “The Inevitability of Quick Transition from Lower to Higher Stage of Agricultural Co-operation”, inAgricultural Co-operation in China [中国农业合作化的道路] (China Knowledge Series)[3], 2nd edition, Peking:Foreign Languages Press,→OCLC,page72:
The Lucky Star Co-operative in Chuwo County on the plains of southern Shansi had, before the anti-Japanese war, 26 wells, 4 water-wheels and 166.1mou of irrigated fields, 4.82 per cent of its total arable land.]
Good news on the summer harvest prevailed in the countryside of Chienchiang County, Hupeh. The county reported remarkable increased in its 600,000mou of summer food crops this year, surpassing the yield in 1962 which was considered as the best year.]
2004, Peter Ho, “The Wasteland Auction Policy in Northwest China: Solving Environmental Degradation and Rural Poverty?”, inRural Development in Transitional China: The New Agriculture[6],→ISBN,→ISSN,→LCCN,→OCLC,→OL,page125[7]:
Pengyang county was administered by Guyuan before 1988. In contrast to Guyuan, Pengyang is relatively wealthy. Farmers earn a considerable income through tobacco cultivation, which can yield an annual gross income of Rmb 1,500-2,000 permu. In 1996, the cultivated area of tobacco in Pengyang was 11,000mu.⁷
2007, Chang Liu,Peasants and Revolution in Rural China: Rural Political Change in the North China Plain and the Yangzi Delta, 1850-1949,page87:
Of 114 village farming families, only ten had more than 30mu of land and only five had more than 60mu.
Lock, Arnold Hugo. 2011.Abau Grammar. Data Papers on Papua New Guinea Languages 57. Ukarumpa, Papua New Guinea: SIL-PNG Academic Publications.Available online.
* The default tone of the direct object pronouns is high, but it usually changes to low immediately after a high tone, unless that high tone is part of a verb with a high-low-high pattern.See also theHausa possessive pronouns.
Kurabe, Keita (31 December 2016), “Phonology of Burmese loanwords in Jinghpaw”, inKyoto University Linguistic Research[8], volume35,→DOI,→ISSN, pages91–128
Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the criticaltonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.
Jan Karłowicz (1903), “mu”, in Hieronim Łopaciński, Wacław Taczanowski, editors,Słownik gwar polskich [Dictionary of Polish dialects] (in Polish), volume 3: Ldo O, Kraków: Akademia Umiejętności, page195
^Oftedal, M. (1956),A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. III: The Gaelic of Leurbost, Isle of Lewis, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, page221
^John MacPherson (1945) The Gaelic dialect of North Uist (Thesis)[1], Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh, page 162
^Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1937),The dialect of Barra in the Outer Hebrides, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, page182
^Borgstrøm, Carl Hj. (1941),A linguistic survey of the Gaelic dialects of Scotland, Vol. II: The dialects of Skye and Ross-shire, Oslo: Norsk Tidsskrift for Sprogvidenskap, page53
Hoàng Văn Ma; Lục Văn Pảo; Hoàng Chí (2006),Từ điển Tày-Nùng-Việt [Tay-Nung-Vietnamese dictionary] (in Vietnamese), Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Từ điển Bách khoa Hà Nội
Note: This amalgamation of terms comes from a number of different academic papers focused on the unique varieties and languages spoken in the Yoruboid dialectal continuum which extends from eastern Togo to southern Nigeria. The terms for spoken varieties, now deemed dialects of Yorùbá in Nigeria (i.e. Southeast Yorùbá, Northwest Yorùbá, Central Yorùbá, and Northeast Yorùbá), have converged with those of Standard Yorùbá leading to the creation of what can be labeled Common Yorùbá (Funṣọ Akere, 1977). It can be assumed that the Standard Yorùbá term can also be used in most Nigerian varieties alongside native terms, especially amongst younger speakers. This does not apply to the other Nigerian Yoruboid languages of Ìṣẹkírì and Olùkùmi, nor the Èdè Languages of Benin and Togo.
mu on the Dutch Wikipedia.Wikipedianl
