“None whatsoever.”

 

Very similar to the Jiun’s other wall-gazing Daruma in this catalogue, this painting illustrates how the Zen patriarch’s iconic form and utterance can be made manifest in only a few confident brushstrokes. There is perhaps a hint of irony in Jiun’s invocation of Daruma’s words about accruing merit and good karma through acts of devotion, considering this painting is in some ways just such an act, making this painting the embodiment of Zen’s philosophy of nonduality, both virtuous and pointless at the same time.

 

—Bradley Bailey