This month we brushed the expressive Omoi Yokoshima Nashi 思無邪, a Confucian and zenny phrase Blair’s first Shodo teacher Master Waskabayashi worked on. He was a great Granpa to Blair and gifted him several materials, books and lots of Shodo inspiration about Zen, nature and… Read More »Brushing freedom at Zen Shodo Calligraphy
At Shodō calligraphy for our first group this Tiger year (Tora in Japanese), we peacefully brushed the very airy and natural feeling Genpū 玄風 . This is a lovely zen word that can mean mysterious winds, meaning the profound teachings of the ancient zen teachers… Read More »Shodo Brushing the Winds of the Ancient Teachings
At Shodō calligraphy for our last group together in 2021, we had great fun brushing the lovely loose characters of Shikantaza 只管打坐 , about Zen sitting meditation (Zazen). We enjoyed exploring the kanji characters together in the semi cursive Gyōsho style and the quirky old… Read More »Brushing Shikantaza at Shodō Zen Calligraphy
At our Shodō calligraphy group (on the last or second last Monday monthly on Zoom), we brushed two characters Kōyo 紅葉 , meaning Autumn Colours. The kanji literally means crimson red leaves, so we celebrated and embraced the autumn season through Shodо̄ 🍁 We brushed… Read More »Celebrating 紅葉 Autumn Colours in Sōsho Calligraphy
At our monthly Shodo calligraphy group online on Zoom we brushed the four deep characters Soku Shin Ze Butsu 即心是佛 , a famous old zen saying – heart-mind here and now is Buddha – about being together with all things. We brushed this in the… Read More »Brushing Mind Here and Now is Buddha
After the summer break we met at our online group and enjoyed brushing the characters kiryoku 気力 , which means – vitality or energy, or willpower. The first kanji Ki 気 (in the pic attached) is the same character as qi/chi in Chinese such as… Read More »Vitality of Shodo calligraphy at Zen Brush
On the long sunny night of midsummer’s day we had our monthly shodo calligraphy group! We worked on the famous characters ei wa kyuu nen 永和九年 , which literally means – eternal, harmony, nine, year – from the beginning of the old classic by famous… Read More »Midsummer Shodo brushing the Orchid Pavillion Preface
Our May Zen Brush was very relaxed and an enjoyable time brushing together. We worked with two characters u mu 有無, which together can be translated as something like – ‘nature of being is free and untethered’. We brushed them in the kaisho style, tried… Read More »Shodo brushing the curves of 有無 Umu
At our recent Zen Brush calligraphy group we brushed a lot of strokes and had fun laying out the kanji. The text we copied was the first line of Chapter seven of Lao Tzu’s mystical Tao Te Ching (道德經 The Way of Virtue Classic, expressing… Read More »Heaven and Earth in Shodo calligraphy
We had a peaceful shodo calligraphy session together meditatively brushing. The theme we brushed was Zazen zen sitting meditation, and we preceded this with enso 円相 brushing, which is a great practice in itself and helps you express and feel interconnection with all things and… Read More »Brushing Zazen Meditation and Enso Zen Circle