I wish I could remember exactly how, but some years ago I got interested in shakyō, or sutra-copying as practiced in Japan. Soon after I arrived in Japan in 2011 for a year of research, I learned of a shakyō demonstration and hands-on workshop being offered by a Buddhist temple in a Tokyo shopping mall. My experience there inspired me to copy the the 266-character Heart Sutra most every day that year. There are two ways that shakyō is done: you either trace the characters of the sutra or write the sutra while referring to a copy of it.