平常心 heijōshin Presence of Mind

In a dojo it is the mind that holds steady when attacked: the composure a person keeps or loses. Presence of mind is the dictionary's gloss of that sense. Under it is the older and larger sense, the Zen one. There the ordinary mind is the Way itself, the mind before calm and agitation were ever a pair, and it needs no cultivation. That sense has its own reading, byōjōshin, and a monk answers a koan with it. Both are right, and the sword joined them. The shogun's fencing master read the koan and turned it into plain advice: do everything with the ordinary mind, and everything goes without difficulty. A person who wants composure has the modern word. A person who wants what the characters have said for twelve centuries has the Zen one. The choice is yours.

The Tang master Mazu taught that the ordinary mind is the Way. His heir Nanquan gave the same five characters, 平常心是道, to the young Zhaozhou when he asked what the Way was. That exchange is the nineteenth case of the Gateless Barrier. It came to the sword when Yagyū Munenori, the shogun's fencing master, quoted the koan. He turned it into plain Japanese for the archer and the swordsman. Do everything with the ordinary mind, and everything goes without difficulty.

The Japanese word 平常心 meaning "Presence of Mind" is composed of the kanji 平 (read hei) meaning "peaceful; even", 常 (read jō) meaning "normal, ordinary" and 心 (read shin) meaning "mind, heart, spirit".

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 平常心.

Each design is Master Japanese Calligrapher Eri Takase's hand-brushed calligraphy of the word or phrase on this page, delivered as a PDF you can print. Every PDF includes the line art, so a tattoo artist or a craftsperson can work from the outline as well as the brushed image.

Your purchase includes a personal-use license: use the design as a tattoo reference, frame it, engrave it, print it for yourself, or make it into a gift. For more information see Licensing, which also covers commercial-use options that may be purchased separately.

Your PDF is available for download the moment your order completes, and a copy is attached to your emailed receipt.

If you need your design again later, ask us for it and we will send it.