Passage from the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment Zekkai Ch?shin ???? Japanese ca. 1380s–1405 Two brusquely brushed columns of cursive Chinese characters by the celebrated monk-calligrapher Zekkai Ch?shin comprise a famous passage about overcoming delusional thinking from the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, referred to as Engaku-ky? in Japanese, and Yuanyue jing in Chinese (fig. 1). The transcription reads: ???? ???????? ????Japanese pronunciation: ???????? ????????????? ??????M?s? no ky? ni j?shite, ry?chi o kuwaezu ry?chi naki ni oite, shinjitsu oo benzezuDwelling in the realm of delusional th

Passage from the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment Zekkai Ch?shin ???? Japanese ca. 1380s–1405 Two brusquely brushed columns of cursive Chinese characters by the celebrated monk-calligrapher Zekkai Ch?shin comprise a famous passage about overcoming delusional thinking from the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, referred to as Engaku-ky? in Japanese, and Yuanyue jing in Chinese (fig. 1). The transcription reads: ???? ???????? ????Japanese pronunciation: ???????? ????????????? ??????M?s? no ky? ni j?shite, ry?chi o kuwaezu ry?chi naki ni oite, shinjitsu oo benzezuDwelling in the realm of delusional thinking, one cannot attain a clear understanding of things. Without a clear understanding of things, one cannot discern actual reality.(Translated by John T. Carpenter)The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, though borrowing ideas and phrases from earlier sources, is believed to be an apocryphal text created in China in the late seventh or early eighth century that provided legitimacy for the localized practice of Buddhism, including the early Chan (Zen) movement. It advocates that all beings are inherently enlightened and gives guidance on how to free oneself from delusion and how to rediscover one’s original enlightened state. The practices of gradual versus sudden enlightenment described in this sutra later became the core of debate within Chan Buddhism in China, which led to the division into the Southern and Northern Schools (perpetuated in Japan as the distinction between the S?t? and Rinzai Zen sects).The sutra is structured into a prologue and twelve chapters, in each of which a Bodhisattva asks the Buddha questions about religious practice and enlightenment that are then answered by the Buddha. The phrase cited here is from the Chapter Five, where the Buddha is responding to the Bodhisattva Maitreya about increasing understanding as an approach to obliterating delusion, which prevents people from realizing their fundamentally enlightened Ch?shin, a Zen sc

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