independent of words or writing ［不立文字］ ( furyū-monji): Also, no dependence on words or writing, not expressed in words or writing. It often accompanies the phrase “a separate transmission outside the sutras.” Both are attributed to Bodhidharma, the founder of the Chinese Zen (Ch’an) school. They express the school’s teaching that the Buddha’s enlightenment has been transmitted from mind to mind, independent of words or writing, and that enlightenment is attained not through the study of Buddhist scriptures but through meditation alone.