Five Hundred Arhats No.151 · The Venerable Dharma-Eye | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.151 The Venerable Dharma-Eye

The Dharma-eye is one of the five eyes, with which a bodhisattva clearly sees all phenomena, discerns beings' capacities and teaches to liberate them; the name marks one who holds the Dharma-eye, knows capacities well and understands both the worldly and the transworldly. The venerable's gaze is clear and his expression keen, possessing the lucid wisdom of a bright, complete Dharma-eye that reads capacities, converts beings and penetrates the marks of the Dharma.

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