”Abiding nowhere, the awakened mind arises”

These eight Chinese characters convey a fundamental Zen message: Awakening can be achieved by transcending all aspects of the material, transitory world. They were forcefully inscribed utilizing the technique known as “flying white” (hihaku); the term refers to the brush moving across the paper in such a manner that streaks of white—actually the paper surface—appear within brushstrokes. Although the characters are written in bold, cursive script with no linkages between them, they evince a distinctive wayō (Japanese-style) expression, associated with a soft touch of the brush and an overall roundness of forms. the text emphasizes the concept of “nothingness”:

応無所住　而生其心
Abiding nowhere,
the awakened mind arises.[1]

This famous verse originates from the Chinese translation of the diamond Sutra by the bilingual Buddhist monk Kumarajiva (344–413).[2] Its basic meaning is that we should let our minds function without attachment to any physical object or setting, whether through sensory or cognitive experience. While the goal of Buddhist practice is to achieve calmness, it does not mean bringing the mind to a full halt. The prominence of this phrase in the Chan tradition is magnified in the story of Huineng, the sixth patriarch in the lineage of Bodhidharma, as recounted in the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch. Huineng attained enlightenment instantaneously upon hearing this phrase during a lecture on the diamond Sutra by his teacher, the fifth patriarch, Hongren (601–674).[3] Huineng’s advocacy for sudden enlightenment became the core principle of the Southern school of Chan, from which the Linji (Japanese: Rinzai) school later emerged.

The phrase was here inscribed by Musō Soseki. He was one of the most important and influential Rinzai Zen clerics of the fourteenth century and, according to apocryphal accounts, was related by blood to both the imperial and the Kamakura shogunal families. Initially training in the Esoteric Buddhism of the Shingon and Tendai sects, Musō later became a pupil of the Chinese émigré Chan monk, author, and calligrapher Yishan Yining (Japanese: Issan Ichinei; 1247–1317). Unlike many of his predecessors, Musō did not go to China for training but instead had the opportunity to study under Yishan in Japan. He spent his early career in Kamakura before accepting an invitation in 1333 from the emperor to move to Kyoto, where he spent the rest of his life. He founded more than fifteen Zen temples in the course of his long career and served as the abbot of Shōkokuji, one of the Gozan, the network of prominent monastic complexes in the ancient capital city. Among his many esteemed disciples was Zekkai Chūshin (MMA 2022.432.6; 2024.412.3).[4]

Musō was also renowned for his skill in writing Chinese-style cursive script, as demonstrated in this example. His teacher Yishan had previously brushed a version of this same phrase, thereby providing a template for Musō’s subsequent transcriptions and facilitating a clear transmission of its idiosyncratic qualities. Yishan’s version, originally a pair of hanging scrolls, was formerly in the collection of the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616); it is now preserved at the Tokugawa Art Museum.[5] Musō was clearly fond of this particular phrase, and at the time this work was brushed he must have done multiple versions, including two in a diptych format that survive in Shōkokuji and its subtemple Rokuonji, more famously known as Kinkakuji—the temple of the Golden Pavilion.[6] the similarities in style and the concurrence of seal impressions across these versions suggest they were rendered by the same hand, albeit with natural variations. Musō’s close disciple Shun’oku Myōha (1311–1388) is also known to have brushed this phrase, perhaps based on one of the versions created by his master. This phrase was clearly cherished by generations of Zen masters and tea afficionados who found inspiration in its call for nonattachment.[7]

[John T. Carpenter, with Tim T. Zhang, The Three Perfections (2025), cat. 15, p. 70–71, adapted 4/1/2025]

Notes

[1] Translation adapted from Shodo Harada, 2018, pp. 2, 27.
[2] For the English translation of the Diamond Sutra (Sanskrit: Vajracchedikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra), see Price and Wong 1990, p. 20; for the original text, see Takakusu, Watanabe, and Ono 1924–34, vol. 8 (1924), p. 750.
[3] This phrase is also referred to as the sacred Verse of the Sixth Patriarch (Rokuso ge), owing to its association with Huineng. For an English translation of the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, see Yampolsky 2012, p. 133; for the original text, see Takakusu, Watanabe, and Ono 1924–34, vol. 48 (1928), p. 349.
[4] For Musō’s biography, see Tamamura 2003, pp. 652–67.
[5] Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya (acc. no. TAM001216, Kakemono 1044; photograph no. 46129-0).
[6] The Rokuonji version has two different accepted Musō seals, one on each scroll: one is identical to the example here, and the other is an elephant-shaped Musō seal; see Arima Raitei in Yomiuri Shimbun Ōsaka Honsha 1991, p. 142 and p. 28, ill. no. 15.1–2. For a discussion and documentation of Musō’s calligraphies at Rokuonji, see Arima 1982, p. 63; Arima 1984b; Yoshida 2018. The Shōkokuji version, currently housed in the Jōtenkaku Museum, is impressed with the Musō seal identical to this example; see Arima 1984a, no. 19; Tayama 1981, p. 99, pl. 202 (sequel volume). Interestingly, the same elephant-shaped Musō seal is impressed on Poem on the Theme of Snow by Musō in The Met’s sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection (MMA 2011.534). For examples of these seals, see Tadayuki Kasashima in Murase 2002, pp. 131–32, no. 36; Nagoya Akira in Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts and Gotoh Museum 2006, p. 324, no. 191. Musō’s close disciple Shun’oku Myōha (1311–1388) also brushed this phrase; see Arima 1984a, no. 23; Arima Raitei in Yomiuri Shimbun Ōsaka Honsha 1991, p. 143 and p. 33, ill. no. 22.
[7] For a discussion of the use of this phrase in hanging scrolls for tea gatherings and in Noh drama, see Iwasaki 2007.

Bibliography:

Arima 1982. Arima Raitei. Zen to cha: Zengo no imi to sono ajiwai (Zen and tea: the meaning and enjoyment of Zen sayings). Tokyo: Gakushū Kenkyūsha, 1982.

Arima 1984a. Arima Raitei, ed. Jōtenkaku Bijutsukan meihō zuroku (Catalogue of the treasures at Jōtenkaku Museum). Kyoto: Jōtenkaku Museum, 1984.

Arima 1984b. Arima Raitei, ed. Rokuonji meihōten zuroku (exhibition catalogue of the art treasures of Rokuonji temple). Exh. cat. Kyoto: Jōtenkaku Museum, 1984.

Iwasaki 2007. Iwasaki Masahiko. “Zeami, Zenchiku to bokuseki” (Zeami, Zenchiku, and Zen calligraphy). Tessen, no. 562 (November 9, 2007), pp. 4–5.

Murase 2002. Miyeko Murase. The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Painting from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection. With contributions by sylvan Barnet and William Burto et al. Exh. cat. New York: the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2002.

Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts and Gotoh Museum 2006. Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts and Gotoh Museum, eds. Sho no kokuhō: Bokuseki (Bokuseki: treasures of calligraphy by Zen monks). Exh. cat. Osaka: Yomiuri shimbunsha, 2006.

Price and Wong 1990. A. F. Price and Mou-lam Wong, trans. The Diamond Sūtra and the Sūtra of Hui-Neng. Shambhala Dragon editions. Boston: Shambhala, 1990.

S. Harada 2018. Shodo Harada. Not One Single Thing: A Commentary on the Platform Sūtra. Translated by Priscilla Daichi Storandt. Edited by Jane Shotaku Lago. Somerville, Mass.: Wisdom Publications, 2018.

Takakusu, Watanabe, and Ono 1924–34. Takakusu Junjirō, Watanabe Kaigyoku, and Pno Genmyo, eds. Taishō shinshū Daizōkyō (Taishō Tripiṭaka). 100 vols. Tokyo: Taishō Issaikyō Kankōkai, 1924–34.

Tamamura 2003. Tamamura Takeji. Gozan zensō denki shūsei (Compiled biographies of Gozan Zen monks). New edition. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 2003. [1st edition, Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1983.]

Tayama 1981. tayama Hōnan. Zenrin bokuseki (Calligraphy by Zen monks). 6 vols. Kyoto: Shibunkaku, 1981.

Yampolsky 2012. Huineng. The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch: The Text of the Tun-huang Manuscript. Translated by Philip B. Yampolsky.Ttranslations from the Asian Classics. New York: Columbia University Press, 2012. [Originally published in the series Records of Civilization: sources and studies 76. New York: Columbia University Press, 1967.]

Yomiuri Shimbun Ōsaka Honsha 1991. Yomiuri shimbun Ōsaka Honsha, ed. Kinkaku, Ginkaku meihōten: Daihonzan Shōkokuji sōken roppyaku nen kinen (The exhibition of renowned treasures of Kinkakuji and Ginkakuji: 600th anniversary of the founding of the great head temple Shōkokuji). Exh. cat., Nihonbashi Takashimaya and three other venues. Osaka: Yomiuri Shimbun Ōsaka Honsha, 1991.

Yoshida 2018. Yoshida takuji. “Kinsei Rokuonji ni okeru shinkō to bijutsu: sho shiryō no seisa to onki kiroku ni tsuite no kōsatsu o chūshin ni” (Faith and art in Rokuonji temple in the early modern period: An examination of various primary sources and records of anniversaries). Kyoto Sangyō Daigaku ronshū: Jinbun kagaku keiretsu, no. 51 (March 2018), pp. 387–418.

Musō’s role as a trusted advisor to both Emperor Go-Daigo (1288–1339; reigned 1318–1339) and the politically and militarily powerful Ashikaga brothers—Takauji (1305–1358) and Tadayoshi (1307–1352)—proved particularly consequential as they strove to establish the Ashikaga shogunate in 1336. This diplomatic prowess found its aesthetic expression in the meditation gardens Musō designed for temples like Saihōji and Tenryūji in Kyoto, where he orchestrated natural elements so they embodied Zen principles. To raise funds for the construction of Tenryūji, Musō dispatched a trading ship sent to Yuan China in 1342 that also carried Zen monks eager to study abroad. His influential text Dialogues in a Dream (Muchū mondōshū), a work that recorded his spiritual discussions with Tadayoshi, became instrumental in articulating Zen Buddhist teachings for Japanese audiences. Musō’s enduring eminence and exceptional status are further evidenced by his reputation as the “Imperial Teacher of Seven Reigns” (Shichichō teishi), a recognition of receiving seven State Preceptor (Kokushi) titles from successive emperors, testifying to his sustained prominence across multiple imperial reigns during and after his lifetime.[1].

Musō Soseki’s transcription of a verse from Buddhist scripture exemplifies how bokuseki powerfully mediated spiritual authority through both scriptural content and calligraphic execution. With bold, sweeping strokes that command the viewer’s attention, he inscribed a foundational passage from the Diamond Sutra, arranging eight large characters into two vertical lines:



応無所住　而生其心

Abiding nowhere,
the awakened mind arises.[2]

This passage carries profound significance within Zen Buddhism, representing the transmission of the Buddhist teachings across generations. The sutra takes the form of a discourse between the Buddha and his senior disciple Subhūti, exploring the fundamental Buddhist concepts of emptiness and non-attachment. Through their dialogue, the Buddha guides Subhūt to understand that true enlightenment comes from letting go of all fixed concepts and attachments, even a fixation to the idea of enlightenment itself. This teaching was later translated into Chinese by the renowned Buddhist monk Kumarajiva (344–413), whose translation became the standard version throughout East Asia. It is Kumārajīva’s translation of the Diamond Sutra that Musō transcribes.

This phrase from the Diamond Sutra gained importance in Zen Buddhism, in part owing to a passage from the Platform Sutra, a sutra central to Chan/Zen Buddhism. This recounts how Huineng (638–713), a Chinese illiterate layman, who would later become the Sixth Patriarch of Chan, attained sudden enlightenment upon hearing the Fifth Patriarch, Hongren (601–674), lecturing on the Diamond Sutra. Huineng’s experience became the basis for his revolutionary teaching that true wisdom could be accessed directly through a non-dual state of awareness, rather than through gradual cultivation or scholarly study. This emphasis on sudden awakening and direct insight, unbounded by dogma or doctrine, would become the hallmark of the Southern school of Chan, standing in contrast to the more gradualist approach of the Northern school. Huineng’s lineage continued through Linji Yixuan (died 866), the latter's iconoclastic teaching methods laying the foundations for the Linji school of Chan, known in Japan as Rinzai Zen, to which Musō and al Gozan monks traced their spiritual ancestry.

Such a rendering of this verse would have been an effective and accessible medium for Musō to introduce Zen Buddhism to young monks and lay patrons, echoing the transformative moment when the illiterate Huineng attained enlightenment upon hearing these words. While Huineng’s awakening story emphasizes the non-textual and experiential nature of Zen enlightenment, the preservation of these teachings through written scriptural texts has been crucial for guiding practitioners, as evidenced by the survival of two other notable versions in Kyoto of this phrase from the Diamond Sutra: one preserved at Shōkokuji, the temple posthumously attributed to Musé as its founding abbot, and another at its sub-temple, Rokuonji, famously known as Kinkakuji or the Temple of the Golden Pavilion.

It is plausible that Musō Soseki found inspiration in an earlier rendition of this verse’s first half, attributed to the Chinese master, Yishan Yining (1247–1317), who arrived in Japan in 1299. Yishan’s version of the verse, presumably originally a pair of hanging scrolls, was once part of Tokugawa Ieyasu’s (1603–1867) shogunal collection.[3] The parallels in brushwork execution and compositional structure between Yishan’s piece and Musō’s adaptation strongly indicate that Musō deliberately modelled his approach on Yishan’s artistry. While Musa studied under Yishan and attained the leading position of “Chief Seat” (shuso) at the monastery, he was not granted an inka, certificate of enlightenment, leaving him outside the formal line of Yishan’s spiritual successors.[4]

Instead, Musō turned to calligraphy as a means of establishing his legitimacy and authority, emphasizing artistic inheritance over the direct religious discipleship pursued by many of his peers. While others sought recognition through studying outside Japan or official transmission from Chinese masters, Musō used his calligraphic style to anchor himself within Zen Buddhism’s continental heritage. His mastery of calligraphy became a potent instrument in aligning himself with the Zen tradition, circumventing the need for formal spiritual accreditation.

Tim T. Zhang, “Bokuseki from Gozan Monasteries: Zen Calligraphy of Muso Soseki and His Spiritual Heirs”, in Arts of Asia (Spring 2025), pp. 41–43, fig. 1.

[1] For a biographical study of Musō Soseki, particularly his role in institutional building, see Molly Vallor, Not Seeing Snow: Musō Soseki and Medieval Japanese Zen, Leiden: Brill, 2019.

[2] Translation adapted from Shodo Harada, Not One Single Thing: A Commentary on the Platform Siitra, translated by Priscilla Daichi Storandt, edited by Jane Shotaku Lago, Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2018, pp. 2, 27; for discussion of this calligraphy, see John T. Carpenter, with Tim T. Zhang, The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting; The Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025, pp. 70–71, cat. 15.

[3] Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya (ace. no. TAMO001216, Kakemono 1044; photograph no, 46129-0)

[4] For a discussion of Musō’s calligraphy style, and the difficulty of definitively attributing it to the influence of any specific calligrapher, including Yishan, see Idegarda Scheidegger, Bokutotsusō: Studies on the Calligraphy of the Zen Master Musō Soseki (1275–1351), Bern: Peter Lang, 2005. However, in her Ph.D. dissertation on Yishan’s calligraphy, Xiaohan Du observes that Musō drew significant inspiration from Yishan’s calligraphy, developing a refined and flowing style that reflects the influence of Wang Xizhi and bears similarities to it; see “On A Snowy Night: Yishan Yining (1247–1317) and the Development of Zen Calligraphy in Medieval Japan”, Ph.D. diss.. Columbia University, 2021, p. 148–49.

Signature: Square relief seal on the lower left: Musō 夢窓

[ Takashi Yanagi , Kyoto, until 2005; sold to Cowles]; Mary and Cheney Cowles , Seattle, 2005–23; donated to MMA

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japan: A History of Style," March 8, 2021–April 24, 2022.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting from the Mary and Cheney Cowles Collection," August 10, 2024–August 3, 2025.

John T. Carpenter, and Tim T. Zhang. The Three Perfections: Japanese Poetry, Calligraphy, and Painting. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2025, pp. 70–71, cat. no. 15.

Tim T. Zhang. "“Bokuseki from Gozan Monasteries: Zen Calligraphy of Muso Soseki and His Spiritual Heirs”." In Arts of Asia. Spring 2025, pp. 41–43, fig. 1.