‘Believing in Nothing’ by Shunryu Suzuki

44 page MS book, black stick ink and gouache illustrations on Zerkall paper, yellow Canson endpapers, Khadi card covers, printed jacket. Completed October 2015

This was an exhibition piece for a Society of Scribes and Illuminators exhibition on the theme ‘Divine inspiration’ held in York Minster during 2016 (and which I am very pleased to say was sold to a good friend!).

I often use pieces from Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Suzuki – aided by the generous granting of permission by Shambhala Publications for re-use of his work. The essays (all of which were transcribed from Suzuki’s talks by his acolytes) are just the right length for calligraphic treatment and contain a particular blend of mysticism and specificity.

In a way, I wanted to take issue with the theme of ‘divine inspiration’ as a notion of some kind of external metaphysic, while Suzuki’s text about ‘believing in nothing’ is, for me, the source of true spirituality.