On 'No Idle Thought'

maku mō zō — No Idle Thought.

On the origin

Words of the Tang-dynasty master Fenzhou Wuye (760–821). The Jingde Record of the Transmission of the Lamp records that, whatever he was asked, he answered only “莫妄想” — do not give rise to delusive thought.

On the reading

Delusive thought: the mind that weighs what has gone, what has not come, what is right against what is wrong. A single word that asks only this — do not raise it. Before one question is piled on the next, the answer is already complete. When the dividing stops, what stands before you appears as it is.

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