FU: Not In Any Particular Direction

I haven't finished investigating yet Master Dogen's intention, after coming back from China at the age of 27, in writing this character:



The two elements of the pictograph are said to be a sound (top half) and the sun (bottom half). How does that come to indicate the meaning of "everywhere"? I don't know. Waves/pulses of energy radiating out imperceptibly in all directions, as sound from the sun? I don't know.

What I do sense is the intimate connection between Master Dogen's choice of this character and his outstanding bodhi-mind. His wish was that the truth of sitting-zen should radiate out in all directions, covering not only sentient beings of his own family, race, nation, or world, but sentient beings everywhere; and not only sentient beings but also the sun and moon, and every star in the night sky.

And this wish was not just a wishy-washy wish. Having thought out already what he wanted to transmit by writing the rules of sitting-zen, he took hold of a writing brush, dipped it in black ink, and concretely expressed his intention on a big sheet of paper, like this: