Shakyo: the Guide to the Most Productive Meditation You Can Start Today
Try this if you can’t meditate with apps
Many of us know that meditation is good for our health. It’s difficult, however, isn’t it? When I close my eyes, I think about my job and family (did I text back to my mom?) Even if I try to focus on my breath with some Yoga breathing techniques, I just can’t forget everything; and my child is running around me, anyway.
So, what I want to introduce to you in this article is 写経 Shakyo. It’s also called sutra copying in the East Asian countries to describe the monks’ practice of hand-copying Buddhist sutras. According to Wikipedia, it is considered as merit in Buddhism:
The effort of sutra copying is considered an expression of piety. It is recognized as a devotional practice since it comprises worship, literature, and calligraphy.
In its simplest definition, Shakyo is the art of copying script taken from the practice. Here in Japan, people around me refer to a lot of things as Shakyo pretty casually. We write anything we like with any pen, not with a brush and ink as Buddhist monks do. Yet, for the sake of its culture, here’s an exemplary sutra copying that a professional…
