Avalokiteshvara, the Great Warrior

Avalokiteshvara
in seal script

16" x 39"
41 x 100 cm

Private collection

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This calligraphy depicts the Great Bodhisattva of Compassion Avalokiteshvara. The Japanese rendering of the Sanskrit word Avalokiteshvara is Kwannon or Kanjizai. Kanjizai bosatsu means Bodhisattva with FREE AND UNRESTRICTED SEEING. It is the Great Warrior who, full of compassion, looks down (Sanskrit ava-lok) at a world of suffering and helps whoever calls his name.

One day I had been doing a lot of shakyo -sutra copying. Late at night I was sitting alone in my Berlin Studio. There was a bright full moon looking through the single window of the room. I spontaneously took up the brush inspired by the brilliant beauty of the moon and wrote down KANJIZAI BOSATSU, feeling the clarity and beauty of this great Bodhisattva emerging from the sky.