Words from Our Ancestors:

A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?"

Zhaozhou said, "Mu."

This one word "mu" is a knife to sunder the doubting mind of birth and death. The handle of this knife is in one's own hand alone: you can't have anyone else wield it for you; to succeed you must take hold of it yourself. You consent to take hold of it yourself only if you can abandon your life. If you cannot abandon your life, just keep to where your doubt remains unbroken for awhile: suddenly you'll consent to abandon your life, and then you'll be done....You won't have to ask anyone else...

During your daily activities twenty four hours a day, you shouldn't hold to birth and death and the Buddha Path as existent, nor should you deny them as nonexistent. Just contemplate this: A monk asked Zhaozhou, "Does a dog have Buddha-nature or not?" ZhaoZhou said, "Mu."

 - from a letter of Dahui to a student in Swampland Flowers translated by Christopher Cleary

Words from Don:

We make use of the expedients passed down in our tradition: 'sayings', koans, encounter dialogues, poems. We engage with, inhabit, enliven them in our practice. The process does not require anyone else's presence or permission. As Yasutani reminded us, "You sit alone, You awaken alone, You die alone." 

The great matter of birth and death is your matter to resolve. No one else can do it for you; no teachings will settle it; guidance can be reduced to "let go of false thinking."

"You can not grasp it; you can not reject it."

 -From Hilo Zen Circle Newsletter