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From
commentary by Stephen Addiss, Zen
No Sho: The Calligraphy of Fukushima Keido Roshi, 2003,
Clear Light Publishers
"One of the most famous
koan
comes from the Master Yun-men (Japanese: Ummon, died 949), speaking
to his Zen students. 'I don't ask you about before the fifteenth
day, but try to say something about after the fifteenth day.'
He then answered for them, 'Every day is a good day.' Literally
the five words in this phrase are 'Day day this good day.' The
pictographic character for 'sun'
also means 'day,' and it occurs three times in the five words.
Avoiding direct repetition of form, Fukushima writes 'day' at
the top in its usual square form with a dot inside, then uses
a repeat sign for the second character, and finally makes the
fifth word an unusual and creative variation in a triangular
shape. This may suggest that every day is good, but each day
is also different."
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