Joshu’s Mu Vs. Christian Theology
Before I was called to Christianity, I spent twenty years studying the various religious systems of the world. Among the ones I was especially drawn to was Zen Buddhism. Currently, I am attending seminary, because I have to in order to get ordained, and taking HTH 100 — History of Theology — because it’s required. The professor is good; the readings are horrible, boring, technical to the point of being unintelligible, and deeply useless. I’m convinced that theology is what Christians do to avoid following the teachings of Jesus.
One of the techniques used in Zen to help novices along the path is the koan — short, enigmatic riddles that don’t have a “right” answer, but do have “wrong” ones. The teacher will give the student a koan to meditate on for a while. The student returns and gives their response. If the teacher approves, the student gets another koan. If the teacher disapproves, the student is sent away to work on it some more. In the past, a bad answer might also get the student a smack upside the head, but this is done less often now.
One of the most famous koans is “Joshu’s Mu”. Joshu was a Zen teacher in the eighth century who got famous for being enlightened and weird. The koan goes -
A monk asked Joshu, “Does a dog have Buddha nature?”
Joshu replied, “Mu.”
A couple things you need to know to understand why this is a riddle — in Buddhism, all things have Buddha nature; and “mu” is a negative. It’s not possible that Joshu was saying that a dog doesn’t have Buddha nature, so why did he say “mu”? That’s it. Zen looks really simple, but there is a lot going on and much of it looks like nonsense. That’s a lot of why I was so attracted to it. The fact that I’m a Christian now doesn’t mean I don’t still appreciate the good parts of other ways.
Christian theology is elaborate answers to questions that none of the writers of the Bible asked. “What did God make the world out of?” is a good example. The official answer is “nothing”, which is sort of like “mu”, but actually isn’t at all — though the question is a lot like the one the monk asked Joshu. The monk is an unenlightened fool, by the way. No where in the Bible does anyone ask what God made the world out of, probably because it didn’t matter. It still doesn’t. But a bunch of bureaucrats sat around in Nicea in 325 CE and yammered about it until they decided to just make up an answer — Creatio ex nihilo — which I had to read some truly tedious essays about earlier in the semester. This doctrine has never helped anyone to follow the teachings of Jesus. If any doctrine has ever helped anyone follow the teachings of Jesus, I’d be surprised.
Jesus didn’t instruct His followers to study theology. He instructed them (us) to care for the poor, to be peacemakers, to help the marginalized and to be willing to die for their friends. He said the greatest commandments were “Love God and love your neighbor”. I assume He knew what He was talking about.
It is kinda fun to ponder big stuff occasionally. I’ve had a few moments on my back porch with a cup of coffee, zoning out and thinking about something my HTH prof said, but I don’t think that my idle musings matter much. The work that I do with people who are experiencing homeless, substance abuse problems and mental illness matter. In my back porch moments, I’ve come to the conclusion that I do not believe in the doctrine of original sin, which makes me a heretic — maybe. I don’t know if that actually makes me a heretic or just “wrong”, and I don’t care. It doesn’t matter if I agree with Augustine and a bunch of other dead people.
Following the teachings of Jesus is simple — which is not the same thing as “easy”. I freely admit that I do not love my neighbors — though I do try to be helpful when I can whether I love them or not. That’s the best I can do, which is all I have to do.
Theology contributes nothing.