MU. Character for Nothingness, Emptiness, Void--Above. 1986. Brushed by same young Buddhist monk in 1986. Again note the uninterrupted sense of motion and fluidity of brush. Despite the negative connotations of this term in English, the term in Japan and China has glorious overtones, for it represents the principle of “going back to one’s nature,” of forgetting the forms of the material world, of finding enlightenment by discarding the mundane world and all its concepts. Be nothing, and become everything ! This was brushed by young Buddhist monk at Renge-ou-in (Rengeō-in) 蓮華王院, more popularly known as Sanjusangendo (Sanjūsangendō) 三十三間堂, one of the most impressive of all Buddhist temples in Kyoto. The temple houses the Kannon of 1000 hands and is said to contain 33,333 of her images. The fluid sweeping brush strokes invoke a sense of vitality and spontaneity. When watching him brush this character, it seemed as though his hand and arm were dancing rather than writing.
Desires of our five senses
Arises
Alike the waves of vase ocean
Alike the clouds on the vast sky
We will never satisfied
Chasing
One desire to another one
We turn to excitement soon we gain it
We turn to insanity soon we lost it
Desires
Come and go
Arise and vanish
Yet we don’t realize
Nothing is actually existence
Desires merely the illusion creation of our minds
We paint this illusory world as we wish
We cry for sensual pleasure as ultimate happiness
We hunger for sensual love as true love
We crave to vivid beauty objects as permanence existence
Our five senses
Our enless desires
Like the waves
Shake us to endless sufferings
Sufferings of hope and fear
As we don’t realize
The external world
Our unborn natural mind
Like the vase sea
Like the vase sky
As is it
Has no true existence as emptiness
