The Straightforward Mind Is The Place Of Enlightenment, Zen Painting

This calligraphy shows the Zen saying 'The Straightforward Mind Is The Place Of Enlightenment, 直⼼是道場, brushed in a flowing cursive style. This phrase is attributed to the famous laymen Vimalakirti. As the Vimalakirti sutra states: One day a young bodhisattva was about to leave the city of Vaisali where he met Vimalakirti who was just arriving. He asked him where he was coming from. Vimalakirti answered, "I am coming from the place of enlightenment." The bodhisattva asked him, "From the place of enlightenment? Where is that"? Vimalakirti replied "A straightforward mind is the place of enlightenment". Other possible translations for this saying are: The straightforward mind is the place of practice. The straightforward mind is the Dojo. The original calligraphy is not stretched yet. I don't know if you are familiar with rice paper, but when you brush on it, it absorbs the ink and it wrinkles. Therefore the artwork needs to be mounted, which means it is stretched and flattened to take the wrinkles away. Several Chinese and Japanese mounting services in the USA offer art mounting services on the internet. They will be happy to assist you with the mounting. You could also ask your local framer. Please note that the white borders showing in the 'View in A Room' image are not on the original artwork. The artwork will be shipped rolled in a tube.