Help identifying/reading a 1987 Chinese calligraphy scroll — Buddhist monk’s signature & seals?

Hoping someone here can help me read and identify this Chinese calligraphy hanging scroll I picked up at an estate sale.

What I’ve worked out so far:

• It’s an original hand-brushed ink work on paper (not a print) — you can see flying-white dry-brush texture and ink soaked into the paper fibers.

• Traditional hanging-scroll format, roughly 72 x 18 inches overall.

• Composition is one large dominant character with a four-character phrase beside it, then a signature column.

• The date inscription appears to read 丁卯年, which I take to be 1987.

• The signature looks like a Buddhist monk’s — a dharma name beginning with 海 (Hai-…), associated with a temple named 佛…寺.

• Three hand-stamped vermilion seals: two name/studio seals by the signature (one intaglio/white-character, one relief/red-character) and a leading/mood seal (引首章) up near the big character.

What I’d love help with:

1.	Reading the large character and the four-character phrase — what does it say?

2.	The monk’s full dharma name (the second character after 海) and the temple name.

3.	Reading the three seals.

4.	Whether this calligrapher is known/collected, and any rough sense of value.

Photos attached: full scroll, signature column close-up, the two name seals, the leading seal, and a macro of the brushwork. Happy to add more shots or measurements. Thanks so much!

Posted Jun 6, 2026, 9:37 PM UTC

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