25 Feb Koan 10

“Does a dog have Buddha nature?”

This is the first and perhaps most famous of 48 Zen koans compiled in the early 13th century in “The Gateless Gate.”

To the question, the Zen Master Zhaozhou responded: “Mu.”

Mu means “nothing.”

A dog is a dog. Buddha nature, the innate potential for enlightenment, is a concept. Two seemingly independent things in the now.

Yet, all things before and after the now are one thing: nothing, mu.