⛩️Week 2023-52: Ekai [Mumon Wumen Huikai] - Collected Quotes

"Arouse your entire body with its three hundred and sixty bones and joints and its eighty-four thousand pores of the skin. Summon up a spirit of great doubt and concentrate on this word 'mu'. In order to do so, hold to the problem from morning to night without letting it go even for one second, and become one with the word 'mu' (void) with all your strength."  (Mumon Ekai, "The Gateless Gate" ["Mumonkan"], 1228)

"Awaken your three hundred and sixty bones and eighty-four thousand pores into one great body of inquiry and concentrate yourself into this mu (void)." (Mumon Ekai)

"Enlightenment always comes after the road of thinking is blocked."  (Mumon Ekai, "The Gateless Gate" ["Mumonkan"], 1228)

"If anyone thinks that the one’s insight exceeds the other’s, he has no eyes."  (Mumon Ekai, "The Gateless Gate" ["Mumonkan"], 1228)

"If you want to study Zen, you must study it with your heart."  (Mumon Ekai, "The Gateless Gate" ["Mumonkan"], 1228)

"Just concentrate your whole energy into this Mu, and do not allow any discontinuation. When you enter this Mu and there is no discontinuation, your attainment will be as a candle burning and illuminating the whole universe." (Mumon Ekai, "The Gateless Gate" ["Mumonkan"], 1228)

"[Nansen:] The Way is not a matter of knowing or not knowing. Knowing is delusion; not knowing is confusion. When you have really reached the true Way beyond doubt, you will find it as vast and boundless as space. How can it be talked about on the level of right and wrong?" " (Mumon Ekai, "The Gateless Gate" ["Mumonkan"], 1228) 

"Repeat mu (void) with all the spiritual power you possess." (Mumon Ekai)

"Zen has no gates. The purpose of Buddha’s words is to enlighten others. Therefore Zen should be gateless." (Mumon Ekai, "The Gateless Gate" ["Mumonkan"], 1228)