"Zenga means, ‘Seeing Zen through the vehicle of painting.’ Zenga bear witness to Zen ideals and challenge the viewer to look deeply into the meaning of the painting – and by extension look deeply into oneself. A Zenga is a teaching aid, a vehicle for awakening, a means to elevate consciousness, a prod to behave better, an image to foster compassion, and a statement on social responsibility. Zen art is meant to inspire, instruct, and generate insight. In many ways, Zenga is anti-art. It is never meant to be merely decorative or aim to be a thing of beauty. Mistakes, omissions are never corrected – it is not uncomm to see the phrase ’Oops! I left out a character’ added to a Zenga. If a piece has drips, splashes, or cat paw prints so much the better. Sengai wrote: My play with brush and ink is not calligraphy or painting; Ordinary painting has a method; Sengai’s painting has no method. As Buddha says, ‘The True Law is no Law’. The highest wisdom in Zen is not to take anything too seriously – especially oneself. In Zenga, just about everything – including Buddha and the artist himself – is made fun of, lampooned or satirised. In the Zenga featured in this exhibition the humor runs the gamut from subtle to laughout-loud funny. Seeing Zen presents 60 Zenga masterpiece from the Kaeru-An collection of Felix Hess. Kaeru-An, perhaps the largest collection of Zenga in the West, presently consists of 560 pieces. Zenga on display range from the fourteenth to twentieth century. Works by the greatest of Zenga masters – such as Fügai, Hakuin, Sengai, Göchö, Tesshü and Nantenbö – are prominently featured"--Publisher's website.