Artistic Arrowheads Meeting in the Air for Two Arrows Zen

Two Arrows Zen

Nonprofit Name: Two Arrows Zen

Mission: Two Arrows Zen is a center for Zen study and practice serving the Intermountain West, and practitioners world-wide. We offer meditation and mindfulness instruction, daily meditation, retreats, classes and telecourses grounded in traditional Zen practice informed by the insights of Integral philosophy. Two Arrows Zen practitioners are also supported to mature their interpersonal and communication skills as a part of spiritual practice and development.

The Two Arrows Zen program of study and practice is designed to appeal to a broad audience--to those in the mainstream, including householders who raise children, hold jobs, and seek liberation within that life plan.

Summary: We're looking for a logo that connects powerfully with symbolism that is meaningful in our lineage; something that has meaning. We would love to find a way to represent two arrows meeting in a beautiful, non-cliche way. We would like to see something that looks like water color with some definition. The imagery is derived from a core text in our lineage. It is a text that is chanted daily in thousands of temples around the world. It is not a random phrase and other Zen Buddhists would recognize the image of two arrows.

Arrow Points Meeting in the Air “Arrow Points meeting” is a reference to a classic Chinese story about two archery masters. One was the teacher and the other his excellent disciple. -When the student felt his skill had surpassed his teacher’s, he challenged him. When they took aim at each other and shot, the arrows met in midair and fell to the ground. Both lived because they had equal skill. Shitou says that phenomena and principle, difference and unity, should meet like the arrows.

Our practice is to actualize this relationship between difference and unity in each situation. For example, we cannot live by ourselves. We are part of a community, and yet to be a member of a community, I have to transcend “I am I” and see the situation of the whole community. We have a point of view as an individual and also as a member of the Sangha or community. We also have another “I” who sees the situation from both perspectives. The viewpoint of an individual person is in this case an example of difference. It’s very natural that I have an opinion different from other people. We shouldn’t negate our individual opinions, but as a member of a community, we have to see things as a whole. The most desirable condition is when both ways of seeing meet each other like the arrows shot by the masters. If we can perceive a situation like that, we can be really peaceful. It doesn’t happen very often because it’s really difficult. Our way of life is always like arrows missing each other. That’s why we have pain in our social lives. There is no way another person or a god can make these arrows meet. Our practice is to find the “appropriate situation” in which this person as an individual and this person as a member of the Sangha can meet like a box and cover joining, or like two arrows in midair.

Who we are: Two Arrows Zen, founded by Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei and Michael Mugaku Zimmerman Sensei, is a center of Zen study and practice with two locations in Utah. One is an urban center located at Artspace in downtown Salt Lake City. The other is a new retreat center zendo located in the town of Torrey, just outside of Capitol Reef National Park in the heart of Utah's red rock country.

Two Arrows Zen retreats take place in a traditional Zen sesshin atmosphere, including zazen, dharma talks, and interviews with the teachers. We hold daily meditation practice and regular “mini-retreats” for practitioners at all levels. Practitioners from all over the world regularly participate in our programs.

Diane Musho Hamilton Sensei also regularly offers programs and trainings to develop interpersonal and communication skills as a part of spiritual practice and adult development.

Words/phrases that describe the organization/practice:
Strong container for practice
Developmental
Strong connection to nature and the landscape of Southern Utah
Organic
Beauty of forms
Simplicity
Imperfection and asymmetry
Stillness and depth
Flex-flow
Culturally diverse
International
Membership based
Dynamic
Training environment
Developing and Encouraging Coherence
Awakening
Intergenerational
Lineage

Colors: Neutral, natural colors

Styles:
Stillness of the Japanese Zen aesthetic with the feel of the Native American Southwest of Utah
Artistic rendering of “two arrows meeting in mid-air” preferred over strictly graphic approach.
Would like to see someone try to include an artistic rendering of native american arrowheads meeting
Brush stroke and calligraphy (doesn’t have to be this way but would like to see some ideas with this approach)

What we like:

Needs to have readability on mobile devices
Be able to work across a variety of mediums and applications such as instagram
Should endure the test of time
Feature something unexpected or unique without being overdrawn
Versatile and memorable
Needs to fit into the online mediums such as instagram etc.
Adaptable to online and print even small print
Reproduces or adaptable in black & white and alternate color palettes

Please DO NOT include:
Anything that is corporate, industrial, hard-edged
Zen Buddhist cliches such as raked sand, stones, enzos, figure in sitting meditation, lotus blossoms, or mandalas
Anything your grandma would like (unless you have the world's coolest grandma).
Anything tye-dye or 80s.
Faded, neon or bright colors
Soft, fluffy and/or furry things
Stock imagery or stock vector art
More than 2 fonts
More than 2 colors
Trendy design styles and/or typography
Anything cartoonish
Anything with just a letter like L or Z for Zen

Typography: Needs to be simple and straightforward, We're not set on serif, sans-serif, futuristic, etc. It needs to last for decades, so it shouldn't be anything trendy that will fade out in a few years.

Feel free to try different capitalizations (TWO ARROWS ZEN, Two Arrows Zen)

Taglines (haven't settled on anything, but here are a few possibles):
Where the Earth Meets the Sky
Zen Study and Practice in Utah

Final delivery: We'd like to receive the final product in all of the following file types:

.ai, .eps, .psd, .gif, .jpg

Our Approach: The following is a quote of one of the teachers Diane Musho Hamilton on the approach of our practice: “ So just in terms of Two Arrow Zen, it's sort of like the mind: it has this dualistic "twoness" that we're always dealing with and yet how do we perceive the oneness that's always underlies that, that there's no separation, it's all one. But this duality is very vigorous and very creative and very interesting. Where there are two there's always tension; it can be creative or erotic or aggressive, so wherever there's two there's real possibility, and yet within the two, our task of course, is to see with the mind of non-separation, which is, in terms of practice, what you and I are working with all the time, and as you said, it's not always easy for all kinds of reasons.

Awareness itself has been present since you took your first breath and prior. It's the only thing. All the objects of awareness have changed. But what hasn't changed is this pristine, unconditioned, opened like a mirror that reflects whatever is happening -- that is the one thing in your life that's continuous. And it doesn't change. And it's continuous. And it's dependable until you take your last breath. Awareness is timeless. So the more you identify, or you actually get a felt sense of awareness being beyond time, but awareness was carried through this instrument of continuity: birth and death and teaching. So I would say rather than changing you, you're awakening to who you truly are, to what's real as opposed to the content of our mind in a post-modern world with a lot of advertising and marketing, as Mike put it, "immortality projects." That becomes thin gruel and pretty soon you're actually feeling the depth of your own body, and you are this expansive, timeless unconditioned space. As one of the Zen masters said, when you develop a taste for it nothing else will do.

Natural, neutral tones

We would like to have an artistic rendering (version) of two arrowheads meeting that are taken from the Native American tradition of arrowheads here in southern Utah. I have included a couple versions of how these arrowheads could possibly be shaped in the pics. The pics of the arrowheads below are from the area of Capitol Reef National Park from the Natives that were here a long time ago. We would like something that has beauty and is done in neutral and natural tones. Any creative ideas around using these shapes of arrowheads but while also keeping the shape not too rectangular and long. BUT I want to emphasize that you don't have to follow this exact direction if you can come up with something that represents two arrowheads meeting in mid air in some other beautiful way. We are very open.