On 'No Merit'

mu ku doku — No Merit.

On the origin

From the Blue Cliff Record (Hekiganroku), Case 1. When Emperor Wu of Liang asked what merit he had earned by building temples, copying sutras, and ordaining monks, Bodhidharma answered: “No merit.”

On the reading

Temples raised, sutras copied, monks ordained — and a sovereign counting it all as merit. To which the reply was: no merit. The moment the deed is weighed for its reward, the merit has already drained from the hand. Only what is done outside of all reckoning is, without being named merit, merit.

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