Date sent: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 08:58:18 +0100 From: Michele Andreoli To: mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk Subject: Re: Word processing in Mulinux Reading a book about Buddism and Zen, i found the word "Mu" has some relevant meaning for his. Surprise :_) -- I'd like to conclude with a positive statement, but I can't remember any. Would two negative ones do? -- Woody Allen Date sent: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 22:55:59 +0100 To: mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk From: Arvid Nymoen Subject: Re: Word processing in Mulinux >Reading a book about Buddism and Zen, i found the word "Mu" >has some relevant meaning for his. Surprise :_) Yes, I was reading some Zen Buddhist litterature some years ago - amoung them I liked a collection of fables or Zen stories called "Zen flesh, Zen bones" especially well. Therefore I immediately thought of Zen when I saw the word mulinux the first time. The book mentioned above has this explaination: "Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning "No thing" or "Nay". (But it does not mean "No".) >I'd like to conclude with a positive statement, but I can't >remember any. Would two negative ones do? -- Woody Allen Perhaps two Chinese mu can be used too? :-) Arvid N. Date sent: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 14:10:49 +0100 From: Michele Andreoli To: mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk Subject: Re: Word processing in Mulinux On Sun, Mar 05, 2000 at 10:55:59PM +0100, Arvid Nymoen nicely wrote: > >Reading a book about Buddism and Zen, i found the word "Mu" > >has some relevant meaning for his. Surprise :_) > > Yes, I was reading some Zen Buddhist litterature some years ago > - amoung them I liked a collection of fables or Zen stories called > "Zen flesh, Zen bones" especially well. My reference is "The Tao of Physics" (F. Capra): it try to demonstrate parallelism between Ying and Yang, Quantum Mechanics and modern physics in general, pointing on duality nature of matter. Very acute argumentations but, I'm sure, some other book might to affirm the contrary. For example: the monistic basis of greek philosophy can match with the nostop search of unified theories in Physics. Anycase, I like to consider modern physics as product of Occident culture. >Therefore I immediately >thought of Zen when I saw the word mulinux the first time. An illumination, in the buddhistic sense? If I projected muLinux as Zen tool, boot process should never finish! But, yes this is true, the "clone" concept sounds like buddhist reincarnation. > The book mentioned above has this explaination: > "Mu is the negative symbol in Chinese, meaning "No thing" or "Nay". > (But it does not mean "No".) So, MuLinux does not mean "muLinux is-not-Linux"? Mmm ... a philosophic concept. Also in italian "No" does not mean really "No" , but "It's suggested to avoid that", "Meglio di No" :-)) Michele From agcosta@gis.net Wed Mar 22 13:54:26 2000 From: "Alfie Costa" To: mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk Status: RO Content-Length: 4063 Lines: 139 Date sent: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 22:23:14 -0500 Subject: More "mu" lore On 5 Mar 00, at 8:58, Michele Andreoli wrote: > Reading a book about Buddism and Zen, i found the word "Mu" > has some relevant meaning for his. Surprise :_) mu /moo/ The correct answer to the classic trick question "Have you stopped beating= your wife yet?". Assuming that you have no wife or you have never beaten your w= ife, the answer "yes" is wrong because it implies that you used to beat your wi= fe and then stopped, but "no" is worse because it suggests that you have one = and are still beating her. According to various Discordians and Douglas Hofsta= dter the correct answer is usually "mu", a Japanese word alleged to mean "Your question cannot be answered because it depends on incorrect assumptions". Hackers tend to be sensitive to logical inadequacies in language, and many= have adopted this suggestion with enthusiasm. The word `mu' is actually from Chinese, meaning `nothing'; it is used in mainstream Japanese in that sens= e, but native speakers do not recognize the Discordian question-denying use. = It almost certainly derives from overgeneralization of the answer in the foll= owing well-known Rinzei Zen koan: A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" Joshu retorted, "= Mu!" See also has the X nature, Some AI Koans, and Douglas Hofstadter's "G=F6de= l, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" (pointer in the Bibliography in App= endix C. (taken from:) http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html/entry/mu.html Date sent: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 21:23:16 +0100 From: Michele Andreoli To: Alfie Costa Subject: Re: More "mu" lore On Wed, Mar 08, 2000 at 10:23:14PM -0500, Alfie Costa nicely wrote: > On 5 Mar 00, at 8:58, Michele Andreoli wrote: > > > Reading a book about Buddism and Zen, i found the word "Mu" > > has some relevant meaning for his. Surprise :_) > > > mu /moo/ Please, Alfie. Save also this funny email, and resend when list is newly usable > The correct answer to the classic trick question "Have you stopped beati= ng your > wife yet?". Assuming that you have no wife or you have never beaten your= wife, > the answer "yes" is wrong because it implies that you used to beat your = wife > and then stopped, but "no" is worse because it suggests that you have on= e and > are still beating her. According to various Discordians and Douglas Hofs= tadter A part I have really a wife, the question fall in the class of auto-referential, as Douglas Hofstadter name seems to shows (it mantains a section on Scientific American, if well remember). A kind of problem "not decidible" (following K.Godel terminology). No suprise if guru answered "Mu"! Michele -- I'd like to conclude with a positive statement, but I can't remember any. Would two negative ones do? -- Woody Allen Date sent: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 19:49:27 +1100 (EST) From: Daniel Hayato Thomas To: mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk Subject: Re: More "mu" lore (Repost...) On Fri, 10 Mar 2000, Alfie Costa wrote: > On 5 Mar 00, at 8:58, Michele Andreoli wrote: > > A monk asked Joshu, "Does a dog have the Buddha nature?" > Joshu retorted, "Mu!" Well actualy in that context it pretty much means "meaningless" Or "there is no answer" and most older japanese would understand it in that context "meanlingless linux" "there is no answer linux" daniel - native japanese speaker hrrrm :P Date sent: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 00:14:10 UTC From: nw3v@k3ygg.ampr.org To: mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk Subject: Re: More "mu" lore Zen koan: Q: What is mu? A: The sound of one disk flopping. Please pardon the frivolity...I couldn't resist! >;^)> --Michael -- Michael B. Callaham mailto:callaham@alum.mit.edu http://www.erols.com/callaham/ Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2000 22:14:35 +0100 To: mulinux@sunsite.auc.dk From: Alfred Breull Subject: [mu] :-/ For your collection (found in the signature of a mail): > "So, the cows were part of a dream that dreamed itself into >existence? Is that possible?" asked the student incredulously. > The master simply replied, "Mu." > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: mulinux-unsubscribe@sunsite.auc.dk For additional commands, e-mail: mulinux-help@sunsite.auc.dk