noun
the one-character reply 'no' in the Zhaozhou kōan
A technical term in Zen Buddhism referring to Zhaozhou's answer '無' (mu) to the question 'Does a dog have Buddha nature?'. The term 無字 literally means 'the character 無'.
See also: 狗子仏性
禅宗では、無字の公案が修行者に与えられることがある。
In Zen Buddhism, the kōan of the character 'mu' is sometimes given to practitioners.