Mu (encountered, not defined)
Mu, in human context, is not negation — it is unclenching
In Zen, Mu is often translated as “no”, but that translation collapses its depth.
Mu is not the absence of an answer; it is the absence of a boundary that demands an answer.
In human experience, that absence cannot be felt unless there is space.
Why even Mu requires space (for humans)
Mu itself is not a thing.
But our encounter with Mu happens inside a nervous system, a psyche, a body, a language-formed mind.
For a human:
- Insight needs cognitive slack
- Silence needs attentional openness
- Non-conceptual seeing needs room for concepts to fall away
Without space, Mu is reduced to:
a word,
a posture,
or worse, an identity.
So yes — Mu requires space, not because Mu depends on it,
but because humans do.
"Mu" appears when the mind stops furnishing the room.
Nothing to polish. Nothing to explain.
Explanation would only start moving furniture back in.
If you place it at the end of a section, let it stand alone — white space above and below.
That silence is part of the sentence.
But for now — let it rest.
