Five Hundred Arhats No.265 · The Venerable Dharma Without Abiding | Traditional Hand-Painted Chinese Ink Zen Buddhist Figure Painting | 100×50cm

Five Hundred Arhats · No.265 The Venerable Dharma Without Abiding

'Dharma without abiding' means all dharmas arise and cease each moment and abide nowhere; one should raise a mind that abides nowhere and form no notion of settling on a dharma; the name marks one who does not abide in dharmas, the heart unobstructed. The venerable looks free and unbound, possessing the ease of non-abiding dharmas, settling nowhere, stuck to nothing, penetrating dharma-nature through a non-abiding mind.

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