NOTHING
Bankei Yōtaku 盤珪永琢 (1622-1693)
Japan, Edo Period (1615-1868)
Hanging scroll, ink on paper
33 x 52 cm; 24.7 x 67.1 cm (mounted)
Collection of Stuart Katz
無生法忍
NOTHING
Arises, patient acceptance
—trans. adapted from Digital Dictionary of Buddhism
Bankei’s genius was to convey his own enlightenment experience to a wide audience via lectures on
the concept of the “Unborn,” which he often wrote as 不生. Here, brushing a classic Buddhist
phrase, he energetically evokes the qualities of patience and acceptance of the non-arising of
phenomena (法) critical to the bodhisattva path. Bankei was a Rinzai Zen monk whose connection to
Obaku Zen was as a disciple of Daozhe Chaoyuan, an early Obaku abbot and the calligrapher of
“Within the moon” also in ROOM 2.