Da-Fu Mu
"Big Dream of Good Fortune"

Members of the World Dreams Peace Bridge would like to invite you to join us in a night of Da-Fu Mu Dreaming for peace, especially for the children of Iraq.  This dream night will be held the night of April 10/11


What is Dafumu?

A couple of weeks ago, Kathy Turner from Australia asked, "Is there a name for this type of focused, intense, peace dreaming we are doing?"  There ensued a week of conversation on the Peace Bridge, tossing words around from various languages.  The word that came up as the favorite of all the Peace dreamers was Da-Fu Mu, which is a combination of Japanese and Chinese.

Here is May Tung's explanation:

May's post 4/7  "What's in a name"
It should be Da-Fu Mu. as "Da", meaning "big" describes the Fu. Mu (meng in Chinese) means "dream". Are we talking about a dream of big Fu?

When I first introduced Fu, I never thought it would grow like an oak tree!   Kathy, I am all for us being multi-lingual. Can someone else introduce a non-Asian word too?            May

Fu is the Chinese word for the greatest of good fortune.  To wish someone Fu is especially done at the Chinese New Year, but members of the Peace Bridge have been wishing one another Fu all year long.

From Japan, here is Kotaro's rendering of Da-Fu Mu in several different fonts.

And following Kotaro's post, here are several other comments on Dafumuing:

From Stephen's 4/9 post "More dafumuing"

Kotaro! I got them. Thank you very much! The character for Da reminds me of a person walking , does it mean other things besides" Big"? My favorites are #6 and #12.  #15 has a lot of soul! and #14 has so much attitude.
Dafumu light man
mOm,
Stephen

From Kotaro's 4/8 post "More dafumuing"

When I was making this on my Mac, I come to love it. Strong, Strange, and Sensitive.
Kotaro

From Victoria 4/9

For some reason it (dafumu) is reminding me of 'Baaa ram ewe' from
Babe the movie (with the pig in the title role)

Response to Victoria

Dear Victoria,

That is a positively wonderful connection!  For those of you who haven't seen the movie, "Baa ram ewe," is the animal equivalent of Dafumu as well.

From Ralf (Germany) 4/9 "More Dafumuing"


DAFUMU

From May 4/9 Da Fa Mu

Dear everyone: Just as I thought, this group will take no time to sculpture these three "foreign" words after our own image!

Dafumu, it is. When I first turned on the posts I didn't know what that strange word was. Some of you wrote "dafumuing" like we've always used that word. Maybe we have.

Jean, and everyone, I was only partially correct when I said these three words should be Da-Fu Mu, so that the "da", big, great, describes the amount of "Fu". One may wish to have a Da-fu dream as in "Dreaming of great Fu".

Now, I'm going to add another interpretation, equally sound, just to complicate matters a little more.  A dream that is greatly Fu, a very Fu dream describes the dream itself as very "Fu", a Fu dream! Imaging that! Anyone had a Fu dream? Here, Fu is an adjective while in the first version it was a noun.

Chinese "grammar" makes it possible to do such word plays. Is that the same in Japanese, Kotaro?
So, Dafumu it is.

Wish you all a Da Da de Fu Mu,                  May


From Ralf  (Germany) 4/9

Me, You

Will do

Everything

Make it

Come true

 

DAFUMU

 

(Just listening Queensryche, so much for the rhythm)

 


And finally, from May, on 4/8

DA-FU MU
Come to think of it, Jean, you are right. This name does sound like us. A bit weird, unusual, and US! 

We hope you will join us in dreaming Da-Fu Mu to all of the people of the world, and especially the children of Iraq.

History About The Characters

Japanese, as the language, use 3 types characters today.  About 3 thousands years B.C. Chinese people made the origin of characters, it changed or developed to the more useful typefaces.  In 57 A.D. a king of 'Wa no Na'(a local nation in those years) went to China for greeting and the Emperor Koubutei gave him a Golden Stamp on which were 7 characters. And in 6th century most of the Chinese characters were brought to the Emperor with the Chinese Buddhism. By this time it is said there were no characters in that Emperor. These people used the Chinese characters as the tools to express the sounds for writing on political, religious, historical documents, and songs like Mannyou should. Certainly China had been the mother of the ancient Japanese culture, and the role as the mother was continued for a very long time.
Here, time flies to recent years...

Before the WW2, Japanese used over 4000 Chinese characters, 88 Hiraganas, 88Katakanas. After the WW2. Actual number was 12 thousands characters. Japanese government made a rule to use 1850 characters, and 88 hiraganas and Katakanas=2026 characters, and alphabets, these must be taught by teachers to kids during 6~15years old. 

I know many foreign countries people, especially students who want to learn Japanese this Kanji (it means characters of Chinese emperor Kan, 202B.C.~220A.D.) becomes the difficulty. But I myself use almost 6 thousands characters on my personal writing. No wonder if we know the function of our brain's memory.

I am fond of read Chinese characters dictionaries, very attractive and many discoveries are buried there.

DaFuMu (I painted three characters red)
Kotaro

click on image to enlarge

Message from Goshengolly

I look forward to "Da-Fu-Mu" or "Big Dreams of Good Fortune" for the children of Iraq. I am happy to know of this invitation to dream on April 10-11 for the children of Iraq, and look forward to dreaming this night.

Your name for this dream effort struck my heart, and brought me to remember the little symbol of peace that I keep on my "dream books" bookcase in my home,  It is of a Japanese "Daruma."  The "Daruma" is a symbol of  resilience in the face of difficulty.  It is a small round head and face, that when knocked over, bounces back to an upright position.  An American equivalent is a "Weeble," a toy that American children are familiar with.  It is a small character that you can knock over, but it always rebounds and stands upright again. Children like to chant "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" when they push this little toy over. The Japanese tradition is to paint one of the two eyes with a wish, and when the wish is attained, to paint the other eye showing that the wish has come true. Although the Daruma is typically used as a symbol of goal attainment and success in business,  I painted one of the Daruma's eye with a wish for "World Peace."  

So on April 10-11, I will hold my Daruma in mind, and pray for peace for

Iraqi children, and pray for their resilience, as they attempt to heal from their experiences of War, in their cities, and their neighborhoods, and for some, in their homes.  May they "bounce" back, like the Daruma, and may their "Da-Fu-Mu Dreams" come true.

Peace....

Goshengolly

[back to top]

The character Da came from the figure of a man extend his hands and food greatly.  And the meanings are...from a dictionary at my desk...

1.Big
2.Wide
3.Generous
4.Strong
5.Great
6.Many
7.Tall
8.Thick
9.Extreme
10.Approxmately
11.Respectable
12.Splendid
13.Elder
14.Beginning
15.Basic          
more info

    - Kotaro