Nichi nichi kore kōnichi

Nichi nichi kore kōnichi (日々是好日) also pronounced "hibi kore kõjitsu" is a Chinese-Japanese Zen Buddhist proverb at least 1.100 years old which means "Every day is a good day", or "All days are good days". It was Zen Master Yunmen's answer in the sixth case of the koan collection Hekiganroku. It has been presented by some Zen masters (notably, Kodo-Sawaki and his disciple Taisen Deshimaru) as a kōan, that is, a statement that appears contradictory to rationality but that can be grasped through intuition. It was a favorite saying of the avant-garde composer John Cage, featured in Song Books (1970) as Solo for Voice 64.