69” x 30”, oil on canvas

In its range and beauty and from a distance,

the desire to be without desire

looks like a mountain range.

But all things lie.

Scholars poled across in barges

disturb a placid mirror of the world.

Even the lotus is a kind of bait.

Once as I sat in meditation, I saw a distant range of mountains. When the bell rang to end the meditation, I realized that these were my own thoughts, as though they were seen from a great distance.

Buddhists believe that writing out a sutra brings great merit. The Lotus Sutra is probably the most famous of all the sutras: it is believed to free sentient beings from suffering. But this painting does not represent the Lotus Sutra. The title misleading, though the text speaks of the lotus. Here even the possibility of enlightenment can be misleading. After I finished the painting, I remembered that a light box I made in 1981 says, “We think as bait.”