Five Hundred Arhats No.307 · The Venerable True Dharma | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.307 The Venerable True Dharma

Here dharma is the Sanskrit word for the teaching and its reality; the name means awakening to truth through Dharma, meeting suchness, reaching the true nature of all dharmas, neither born nor ceasing; the name marks one awakened to the true Dharma, realizing suchness. The venerable looks genuine and simple with a profound presence, possessing the authenticity of awakening to true nature, meeting suchness, realizing truth beyond marks, directly according with the true aspect of dharmas.

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