A person asked Seiho in all seriousness... do even the reckless... those who cause and/or have caused harm... such as addicts and alcoholic's-have Buddha nature... as you say, 'a Universal Identity of Loving Presence?' Seiho replied: Mu!"
Seiho's Commentary on Joshu's Mu:
In the practice of Zen, there is no awakening without confronting the barriers of delusion A.K.A. addiction-mind... negativity mind... endless self-doubting mind. The walls we build from habits, attachments, and the discriminating mind trying to satisfy craving and clinging to gain relief and soothing from negativity mind. These barriers are not "out there"; they are here... as close as our breath, embedded in the way we divide and label the world. To recognize your Buddha nature, to uncover the Universal Identity of Loving Presence that is already right here and now, we must dissolve this mind-made wall.
What is this barrier? It is Mu. It's not a thing, not a concept to grasp, not a word to explain. It's the living pulse of the question, the very heart of inquiry. It is called "the gateless barrier" because it has no door, no lock, no threshold to cross. The only way through is to become intimate with Mu, to embody it so completely that there is no longer any "you" or "me" separate from it. By doing THIS, the dualities that haunt the hungry ghost... the grasping, the endless wanting, the belief in separation... are consumed in the fire of direct experience.
The reckless person or one lost in addiction mind... the one who lives with their center of gravity outside themselves is like a ghost haunting people-places-and things to fix them, grasping for satisfaction that never comes, enslaved by an illusion of lack. Even so, the Buddha-DNA is not missing, only obscured by the fog of compulsive doing and grasping. Mu is not about fixing the ghost but about realizing the ghost was never real to begin with. When the question is fully embraced, the recklessness of the mind collapses, and what remains is not a better self but your Original Nature: Universal Loving Presence.
How do you work with Mu? It's not accomplished by thinking or explaining. It's about throwing yourself into it completely: body... attention... bones... pores--until the separation between question and questioner burns away. Mu is not a puzzle to solve; it is a practice of BEing. Let it pierce you so deeply that every moment, every breath, every thought becomes infused with the intensity of inquiry. It's like swallowing a red-hot iron ball--you can't digest it, and you can't spit it out. You must LIVE it.
If you think this is about negation... about saying "no" to aspects of selfing... Whoops! You're an arrow missing the mark. Mu is not a rejection but an invitation to drop the delusion of oppositions, beyond "this" and "that," beyond "reckless" and "kind." When you truly uncover Mu as authentic YOU, YOU don't become something else; YOU simply see that you were never separate from anything at all. The barriers dissolve, and you find yourself walking hand in hand with Joshu, with all Zen masters, seeing through their eyes, hearing through their ears, breathing their breath; without distance, space or time.
And what happens when this barrier shatters? There is no explanation, no story that can capture it. It is like waking from a dream so vivid you can't put it into words, yet everything in your life changes because of it. Suddenly, we are free... free to meet life on its terms, free to respond with compassion instead of clinging, free to act with wisdom instead of reacting from fear. Recklessness becomes kindness, and the ghost becomes the groundless ground of your BEing.
But this freedom is not the end; it is a beginning. To live as Mu is to live a life of intimate, continuous practice... meeting each moment with the same openness, the same courage, the same deep trust in your Buddha nature. In this way, the Dharma candle is always lit, and the darkness is continually illuminated.
So, how should you strive? How could we strive to BE that which we already are. NOTICE! NOTICE! NOTICE! YOU are the question itself. What has made you choose to live the life you're leading. Is it choice, karma, or both? Let it absorb you completely. And when the moment comes... when you notice the iron barrier was only a thought... a fantasy and a dream... and the gateless gate is NO BARRIER... don't stop. Keep walking the path of BEingness rather than seekingness, knowing that every moment is an opportunity to embody the Universal Identity of Loving Presence, right HERE, right NOW.
一Empty Flow, Clear Peak