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Color
色 Iro, Shiki (Japanese), Si (Chinese)
This character literally means "color," but also means "sex," "sensuality," "the material world." In the Heart Sutra 般若心経 it is contrasted with emptiness, or nirvana, in a famous paradoxical saying that supposedly harbors the ultimate wisdom. 色即是空、空即是色 Shiki soku ze ku, Ku soku ze shiki: "the material world is the same as emptiness, emptiness is the same as the material world." Another translation would be: "Samsara (the sea of sorrows) is the same as Nirvana; Nirvana is the same as Samsara." All these undertones are contained in the word "Color".
I used a purple-blue ink with gold for this. In writing it there was a long splash that fell ecstatically off to the left of the character, suggesting something of the hedonism in the idea of Color.
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