On 'The Straightforward Mind Is the Place of Practice'

jiki shin ze dou jou — The Straightforward Mind Is the Place of Practice.

On the origin

From the Vimalakīrti Sutra, the Bodhisattva chapter, where the layman Vimalakīrti answers the youth Glorious Light: “the straightforward mind is the place of practice, for it is without falsity.”

On the reading

The straightforward mind — turned neither by craving nor by the splitting of this from that. The place of practice is not bound to a hall or a mountain. Where such a mind stands, the ground of the way is already there.

On the garment

The seal for this phrase was hand-carved in Tokyo by the artist Satake Hōsen. The front carries this phrase’s seal; the back and inside label carry the Hōsen seal (寳千), printed in vermilion.

The garment is Bella + Canvas 3001 (short sleeve) or Gildan 2400 (long sleeve). A vessel for the word, not the subject itself.

― hosen, tokyo