異体同心 itaidōshin Different Bodies One Mind

異体 is different bodies, separate persons, and 同心 is one mind; the phrase is built on the contrast, and it says the two stay two. Its mirror image, 同体異心, one body and different minds, is the state in which nothing gets done, and the two were set against each other by Nichiren, who made the phrase Japanese in a letter to a congregation under persecution: a few people of one mind accomplish what a multitude of divided minds cannot.

Before him the four characters described comrades, colleagues and sworn friends, and it is still the everyday word for a team that pulls one way. Said of a couple, which is its modern sense and a dictionary's first, it wishes them alignment rather than fusion: of the classical phrases a Japanese couple might be given, this is the one that keeps both people in it.

English-speaking practitioners know it as many in body, one in mind; different bodies, one mind keeps the different the phrase is built on.

異体同心 is composed of the kanji 異 (read i) meaning "uncommon; different; queerness", 体 (read tai) meaning "body; substance; object", 同 (read dō) meaning "same; agree; equal", and 心 (read shin) meaning "heart; mind; spirit".

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