We had a lovely couple of hours of Shakyō Sutra copying, working on the second half of the Lotus Sutra Chapter 25 Bodhisattva of Compassion Universal Gateway (Fumonbonge). It is a fascinating, poetic and visually spectacular chapter, with many interesting characters to discover meanings from, and engage with the translation.
The Sutra often repeats the phrase – bring awareness to the power of Kannon (Avalokitesvara Perceiver of the Sounds of the World), and the tracing or copying itself is a very caring, mindful and awareness type of practice. Some of those taking part worked with pens and other used brushpens or Shakyō brushes with solid sumi ink.
Blair talked more about the Sutra and the spirit and meanings of it, and chose some kanji characters to demonstrate the meanings, stroke order to follow, and how to hold the pen or brush and prepare all the materials.
The next shakyo meeting will be Sunday 27th June at the same time, here is the eventbrite link –
https://shakyo-tracing-the-sutras-june-2021.eventbrite.co.uk
It will be a short one next time, just five lines including the title – copying the famous Four Vast Wishes (Shiguseiganmon, also known as Four Vows). It is deep and inspiring and as there is less to copy we’ll have more time to take in the meanings of the characters and the translation. Many thanks to the participants below who were happy to share images of their Sutra copy and setup.
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