Wrong
[on kong-an practice] Being clever isn't going to help you. You may have heard words like "spontaneous" used to describe what is needed to answer kong-ans, but that doesn't begin to get to the heart of the matter. Kong-ans are operating on a level that is far more fundamental than speech, far more fundamental than thinking. One of the first kong-ans people usually encounter is a monk asking the great ninth-century Master Jo Ju if a dog has buddhature; Jo Ju responds, "mu," meaning "has not." But if you're asked if a dog has buddhanature and you say no, you'll be wrong. If you say yes, you'll be wrong. If you say both yes and no, you'll be wrong. If you say neither yes nor no, you'll be wrong. Wrong wrong wrong wrong. You have to cut through your thinking, but through language. You have to touch something much more fundamental, much deeper, and your answer has to come from there. Your life has to come from there.