Passage from an Inscription on Trust in the Mind (Xinxinming)
Jiun Onkō Japanese
Not on view
With an appreciation for the visual power of “flying white”—the streaks caused by allowing the brush’s bristles to separate as the ink runs dry against the paper—Jiun Onkō intentionally left uninked areas within his strokes, accentuating the appearance of rapid, abbreviated brushwork. He was ordained as a Shingon Buddhist monk but practiced various religious traditions, including Shinto and Zen, a sect focused on meditation. As a calligrapher, Jiun was renowned for his Sanskrit pieces and his inscriptions of Zen sayings, like this one. The passage distills fundamental Buddhist wisdom into a succinct observation:
一心不生 萬法無咎
If the “one-mind”
is not roused,
Then ten thousand things
give no offense.
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