Guest guest Posted April 3, 2005 Report Share Posted April 3, 2005 Out of the fog comes a cow- MU! Issa Commentary by Pete The above, is one of my favorite. By now, I have rendered it in so many different variations, I'm not sure how the original goes, or even if it was Issa who wrote it. It doesn't really matter, not to me, and not to Issa, or to any long dead Japanese poet who happened to write it. Anyway, the spirit of the poem goes like this: The poet walks in dense fog up a country road. From the adjacent fields comes the faint tinkling of a bell. The poet stares into the fog in vain, he sees nothing. Then a mooing sound pierces the fog. In a flash, the moo becomes, MU! ( the Zen neti, neti) Has the mooing lifted the mystery of the fog, or deepened its spell? The poet, now half sees, half divines the lumbering dark shape of a cow coming out of the fog, but, at the same time realizes that knowing is unimportant, that mystery is Mu.That all attempt to know must be answered with a resounding: MU! And mystery (not knowing) must be swallowed whole. Then, certainty without knowing becomes clarity. Pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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