Curious Fresh Mind

Commissioned for the HeadSpace headquarters in California. Intended as visual reminders to the staff of their work ethics and meditation values:

• Courageous Heart – to have inner strength.
• Curious Mind – to remain in a state of ‘beginners mind’ freshness – *shoshin
• Bodhicitta – selfless driven motivation.

This piece is composed of the meaning of  Curious Mind – to remain in a fresh state of ‘beginners mind’ – shoshin.

The term ‘beginners mind’ is an important value for meditation practitioners. A popular quote originating from Shunryu Sazuki Roshi’s Zen literature Classic on meditation: ‘Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind’

Although this term translates well in English from Japanese, a direct translation in Tibetan is not quite as straight forward.

After much investigation, it was agreed that the best translation of ‘beginners mind’ was inspired from one line found in the famous Dorje Chang Tungmo, which reads In the very freshness of the essence of thought – གང་ཤར་རྟོག་པའི་ངོ་བོ་སོ་མ་དེ།

The key word in this sentence being so ma te – སོ་མ་དེ་ meaning that freshness of mind – Illustrated here as the primary calligraphy in a fresh, free and brisk moment of totality.

Below which is another line of Tsugtung script, acting as a foundation – which translates as to remain in a state of natural freshness – སོ་མར་བཞག་པ།

Although this was a private commission, there is a study piece on the same theme available here.