Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id FAA13190 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Wed, 13 Sep 2000 05:04:17 +0100 Message-Id: <f04310100b5e4a0574651@[194.154.110.185]> In-Reply-To: <200009122140.RAA24133@mail5.lig.bellsouth.net> References: <200009120010.UAA25232@mail6.lig.bellsouth.net> <200009122140.RAA24133@mail5.lig.bellsouth.net> Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2000 05:01:36 +0100 To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk From: Chris Lees <chrislees@easynet.co.uk> Subject: Re: solipsistic view on memetics Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Joe wrote :
>No, it was "Wu!",
I don't think it matters very much, but I think it was/is Mu in Japanese,
Wu in Chinese, yes ?...meaning, I believe, literally 'nothing', but with
a more technical or special meaning in this particular context. (As in
Joshu's 'Has a dog a buddhanature ?' )
> which is more than a negative answer, it is a
>rejection of the question. That's like invoking God or different
>dimensions to foreclose further questioning; a mystical and anti-
>intellectual response, indeed.
Hmm. This is a bit tricky. I agree on "more than a negative answer",
but not that it is "a rejection of the question". It's more like saying
'neither positive or negative', in the sense that to progress insight
it is nescessary to move from that simple binary opposed pair.
I see Mu! is an injunction, a clue, a pointer to look elsewhere.
I see what you mean (I hope) by saying it is "like invoking God or
different dimensions" or a some other non-empirical principle.
That's true, but only at the level of this verbal intellectual debate. I wrote
because stimulated by your "if selves didn't exist, what could possibly
be there to be deluded ?" which is a magnificent, powerful and
fundamental question. In my view, Mu! or similar koans are not
nescessarily 'anti-intellectual' (in the sense of being against rational
thought or scholarship ) rather that there is recognition by a questing
intellect that when we hit such tough questions on the ultimate nature of
our reality or being, the intellect, as a tool, can go no further, whilst
direct experience in meditation can go further, and it is from such
a position, a position outside or beyond conventional verbal speculation
or rational analysis that the Mu! answer can be found, as a practical
project. I don't think this is at all 'anti-intellectual', nescessarily.
It's just an approach which has been found to provide an answer to
those who are insistent upon pursuit of that question, ' what is there
to be deluded ? ' Or what is there to be Enlightened ? for that matter.
C.L.
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