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Koans are dialogues that stand at the center of Zen Buddhist literature and are often used to provoke the "great doubt" in testing a trainee's progress. The Mu Koan consists of a brief conversation in which a monk asks Master Zhaozhou whether or not a dog has Buddha-nature. According to the main version, the reply is "Mu": literally, "No," but implying the philosophical notion of nothingness. This case is widely considered to be the single best- known and most
widely circulated koan record of the Zen school that offers existential release from anxiety to attain spiritual illumination.In a careful analysis of the historical and rhetorical
basis of the literature, Steven Heine demonstrates that the Mu version of the case, preferred by advocates of the key-phrase approach, does not by any means constitute the final word concerning the meaning and significance of the Mu Koan. He shows that another canonical version, which gives both "Yes" and "No" responses, must be taken into account. Like Cats and Dogs offers critical insight and a new theoretical perspective on "the koan of koans."
Koans are dialogues that stand at the center of Zen Buddhist literature and are often used to provoke the "great doubt" in testing a trainee's progress. The Mu Koan consists of a brief conversation in which a monk asks Master Zhaozhou whether or not a dog has Buddha-nature. According to the main version, the reply is "Mu": literally, "No," but implying the philosophical notion of nothingness. This case is widely considered to be the single best- known and most
widely circulated koan record of the Zen school that offers existential release from anxiety to attain spiritual illumination.In a careful analysis of the historical and rhetorical
basis of the literature, Steven Heine demonstrates that the Mu version of the case, preferred by advocates of the key-phrase approach, does not by any means constitute the final word concerning the meaning and significance of the Mu Koan. He shows that another canonical version, which gives both "Yes" and "No" responses, must be taken into account. Like Cats and Dogs offers critical insight and a new theoretical perspective on "the koan of koans."
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 More Cats Than Dogs? A Tale of Two Versions
Chapter 2 Would a Dog Lick a Pot of Hot Oil? Reconstructing the Ur
Version
Chapter 3 Fightin' Like Cats and Dogs: Methodological Reflections
on Deconstructing the Emphatic Mu
Chapter 4 Cats and Cows Know That It Is: Textual and Historical
Deconstruction of the Ur Version
Chapter 5 Dogs May Chase, But Lions Tear Apart: Reconstructing the
Dual Version of the''Moo Koan''
Chapter 6 When Is a Dog Not Really a Dog? Or, Yes! We Have No
Buddha-Nature
Notes
Sino-Japanese Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Steven Heine is an authority on East Asian religion and society, especially the history of Zen Buddhism and its relation to culture in China and Japan. He has published two dozen books.
"This is another book dealing with koan literature in the rapid
succession of monograph publications by Steven Heine. It is a study
on probably the most famous koan in the history of Chan/Zen
Buddhism, the so-called " Mu Koan."... Heine traces many versions
and commentaries that emerged over time in China and Japan ... the
treatment of a wealth of koan and commentary literature constitutes
a great value of the publication."--Journal of Chinese
Religions
"Steven Heine's latest book on the history of koans, Like Cats and
Dogs: Contesting the Mu Koan in Zen Buddhism, is his second
monograph dedicated to a single koan case record....In Like Cats
and Dogs Heine again raises relevant questions about predominant
assumptions with regard to a koan well known to both practitioners
and scholars."--Philosophy East and West
"[Heine]'s done it again - produced a fine piece of scholarship on
a really important topic for Zen practice, provides many juicy
historical tidbits and context, a fine sampling of original sources
(this time including some material from the Korean tradition -
often overlooked in Zen studies, it seems to me) some translated
here for the first time, and advances a provocative revisionist
theory of the history of Zen while also rolling some inspired Dogen
study
into the mix." --Wild Fox Zen, Patheos
"Despite the popularity of koan stories in Western Buddhist
scholarship, the complexity of their formation and the different
ramifications in subsequent developments of the tradition in China,
Korea, and Japan have been frequently overlooked. In Like Cats and
Dogs, Steven Heine fills this gap by engaging philosophical,
soteriological, historical, geographical, and many more layers of
the koan tradition with a sustained focus on the famous Mu Koan.
His
writing is clear and reading this is most enjoyable. Readers will
be pleasantly surprised by the transformation that this book brings
to their understanding of Zen Buddhism and koan practice." --Jin Y.
Park,
author of Buddhism and Postmodernity: Zen, Huayan, and the
Possibility of Buddhist Postmodern Ethics
"Steven Heine's Like Cats and Dogs examines the history of the
famous Mu koan...This classic puzzle becomes even more puzzling
when the broader textual record is taken into consideration."
--Buddhadharma
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