A Monk Meditating on Sutra

By Masatoshi Yamanaka, MD

This woodcarving, mounted on alderwood, was created from a piece of white oak picked up as firewood. The Chinese characters are copied from "The Great Prajna-Paramita Heart Sutra," a widely chanted sutra in the Buddhist canon. The translation is: "Shariputra, all things are essentially empty; not born, not destroyed; not stained, not pure; without loss, without gain." 

Masatoshi Yamanaka, MD, is an Orthopedic Surgeon at the Skyline Medical Office in Salem, Oregon. He is also a woodcarver and recently won a blue ribbon at the Oregon State Fair.