Five Hundred Arhats No.120 · The Venerable of Sphere and State | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.120 The Venerable of Sphere and State

'Sphere/state' is the mental realm and stage realized through practice—when the mind is pure, the buddha-land is pure; the name marks one who sees every realm as mind-only manifestation, is not turned by conditions and gains freedom within them. The venerable looks transcendent and expansive as if viewing the realm of mind, possessing the non-duality of realm and wisdom, clarifying mind through its very objects and roaming free through every state.

Painted by Li Zongyi in the freehand Chinese ink (xieyi) tradition, the brushwork is fluent and the ink tones layered from dense to pale, capturing the arhat’s spirit in a few assured strokes. The blank paper itself breathes Zen; figure and spirit are one, blending monastic solemnity with the literati’s ease. Each of the Five Hundred Arhats bears its own name and practice, uniting faith, art and collectibility — an original, non-reproducible hand-painted work.

Size: approx. 100×50cm (4.5 square chi) | Traditional hand-painted Chinese ink Zen Buddhist figure painting | On paper