ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, I described how di‡ering conceptions of being and nonbeing held by the Jesuit missionaries and the Zenists resulted in a misunderstanding of Zen practice and beliefs. is chapter takes up the Zen koan “Joshu’s Mu” in relation to the psychoanalytic encounter.* is koan is one of many that address dualism/nondualism and serves as a specic example of the Zen discourse characterized by the use of apophasis and cuts through absolutist and nihilist extremism. e duality/nonduality antinomy is a fairly common theme throughout the various koan collections. For instance, the Mumonkan, the 13th-century Zen master Mumon’s (Wu-men) collection of koans and commentaries, which is introduced by “Joshu’s Mu,” addresses this theme in 10 of the 48 cases in the collection. ey include Case 5, “Kyogen Up a Tree”; Case 11, “Joshu and the Hermits”; Case 14, “Nansen Cuts a Cat”; Case 23, “ink Neither Good Nor Evil”; Case 24, “Separate From Words and Language”; Case 26, “Two Monks Roll Up Blinds”; Case 35, “Senjo Separated From Her Soul”;† Case
36, “On the Road Meet an Adept of the Way”; Case 43, “Shuzan’s Bamboo Rod”; and Case 44, “Basho’s Sta‡.”
