Honrai Muichimotsu (本来無一物)
The Zen expression Muichibutsu or Muichimotsu (無一物) literally means “not a single thing.” When these words appear on their own in Zen calligraphy, their meaning may depend on the larger expression or context.
Here, I am considering them in connection with Honrai Muichimotsu (本来無一物), meaning “Originally, there is not a single thing.” The same characters also appear in Muichimotsu-chu Mujinzo (無一物中無尽蔵), an expression suggesting that freedom from attachment allows us to recognize an inexhaustible richness in the world around us.
Honrai Muichimotsu is traditionally associated with Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chinese Zen Buddhism, and appears in the Platform Sutra. It expresses the Buddhist understanding that nothing has a fixed, independent existence and that there is ultimately nothing to which we need to cling.
Zen priest Masuno Shunmyo offers a practical way of understanding this teaching. We come into the world without possessions, but as we live, we acquire many things and often become attached to them. When something important is lost, we may feel deeply discouraged. Yet remembering that we began with nothing can help us see that loss is not necessarily the end.
In this sense, Honrai Muichimotsu is also a reminder that we can begin again. Rather than holding too tightly to what we have or what we have lost, we can turn our attention to the present and move forward with a freer mind.
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