What’s In A Name
Here’s a rough idea of what our logo might look like.
We’re still working on a tag line. Hmm. Maybe we will send out the bat signal and collect input on this one and see what our friends come up with!
As perhaps you are wondering what our name Empty Mountain means and how we came up with it, I thought it might be worth delving into it a little bit.
In Buddhism, emptiness does not refer to what some of us might think of when we think of something being empty, as in lacking something or hollow or meaningless. Emptiness in the Buddhist context means empty of a separate self. Otherwise stated, all of the many aspects of life are impermanent and subject to change. Thus, we as humans do not have a fixed state of being/self. The Nicole that I am right now, is not the same Nicole I was 10-years ago or 20-years ago - and the Nicole that I am right now is also not entirely different either. And the Nicole that will exist tomorrow or next week or next month will also be a different Nicole than I am today. As humans it is impossible for us to stay the same from day to day. We are each a collage of a myriad of causes, conditions, influences, and experiences. We have no fixed, permanent state of self that we can point to and declare: This is me!
Emptiness of a separate self also means full of everything else.
Even a mountain, which can seem so immovable and forever-lasting, is empty. Because a mountain, slowly slowly, is also always changing, just like everything else. There is no mountain in the world that is fixed in place.
In naming our aspiring practice center Empty Mountain, we are giving a proper nod in the direction of both a literal and metaphorical translation. Literal in the sense that yes, a real mountain is always in flux, changing with the weather, seasons, types of usage by animals, plants & humans, and water flow, and metaphorical in the sense that each one of us is our very own little mountain, full of an ever-flowing collection of feelings, thoughts, ideas, questions, struggles, joys, influences, preferences, and experiences.
There’s also an unintentional added bonus in this name, which I personally am still working on how best to potentially highlight. Empty Mountain could also be written out as MT Mountain, which of course is the abbreviation for our lovely state of Montana. I’ve been playing around with maybe writing it out as follows: eMpTy Mountain. Or it could simply be MT Mountain, although folks possibly thinking our name is Montana Mountain doesn’t thrill me.
And then, looking deeper, there is also the whole origin of the word Montana itself to consider. Montana comes from the Spanish word montaña, which means mountain or mountainous country. So technically, MT Mountain could then also be seen as: Mountain Mountain, which thrills me even less.