Calligraphy of “Maku mōzō (stop delusory thinkings)”

Fuyō Rōran (1724-1805) was a Sōtō Zen monk during the late Edo period and a grand disciple of Tenkei Denson (1648-1735), called Mugen Rōran. He was born in Uzen Province. He lived at Yūshōin Temple in Uzen, and in Tenmei 7 (1787), he moved to Dōsenji Temple in Suō Province. Dōsenji Temple was the Bodaiji (a family temple) of the Kikkawa clan, domain lord of Iwakuni domain, and the lord of the time, Kikkawa Tsunetomo, was a devotee of Rōran. From the following year to Kansei 10 (1798), he served as the resident priest of Kōshōji Temple in Uji. In Kyōwa 3 (1803), he retired to Hakyōan Temple in Tsuruoka, near his hometown.
He devoted himself to the study of “Shōbōgenzō” and wrote the “Shōbōgenzō benchū,” a deepening of Tenkei’s “Shōbōgenzō naichihō,” which became a benchmark for later scholars.

The word ‘莫妄想 (Maku mōzō)’ means don’t think about anything else. When there are two opposing sensible minds, delusion is the mind that seeks one even though it has abandoned the other. If you are not bound by either of them and have no delusion, you are enlightened as you are. It is said that Fenzhou Wuye (760-821), a disciple of the Tang Dynasty Chinese high priest Mazu Daoyi, recited this phrase throughout his life, and it was a popular Zen phrase in the Tang Dynasty. During a Zen dialogue, a Zen master responded to a monk’s question with these words.

The signature of this Bokuseki (calligraphy) of Fuyō indicates that it was made during his period as resident priest at Kōshōji Temple (1787-1798).