“In every direction, there is nothing fixed or unchanging”

Our center has the usual scattering of calligraphy pieces that you’d expect for a temple this size, but one of them recently caught my attention.

I see this one every day on my way out of the Dharma hall, but it finally dawned on me that each of these characters is another way of writing “Mu(無)”(literally “nothing” but in its historical context it’s mixed with an undercurrent of “stop doing that!”)

Four “Mu” likely means “Mu” in every direction, or in other words, everywhere you turn, let go of your fixed ideas about things. For in every direction you look, there is only flowing and changing. Nothing is fixed. Nothing remains the same.