Buddhism came to China 2,000 years ago. As early as 65 A.D, a community of Buddhist monks was reported living under royal patronage in the northern part of Kiangsu Province, not far from the birth place of Confucious, and the first monks probably arrived a 100 years earlier. Since then, tens of thousands of Indian and Central Asian monks have journed(journeyed) to China, none has had the impact of Bodhidharma.
Unknown to all but a few disciples during his life time, Bodhdharma is the patriarch of millions of Zen Buddhists and students of kung-fu. He’s also the subject of many legends. Along with zen and kung-fu, Bodhidharma, we are told, also brought tea to China. To keep from falling asleep while meditating, he cutting his eyelids, and, and where they fell, tea bushes grew. Since then, tea has become the beverage of not only monks but everyone in the Orient. Faithful to this tradition, artists invariably depict Bodhidharma with bulging, lidless eyes.
And the Buddha is the path. And the path is Zen. But the word Zen is one that remains a puzzle to both mortals and sages. Seeing your nature is Zen. Unless you see your nature, it’s not Zen. Even if you can explain thousands of sutras and shastras, unless you see your own nature yours is the teaching of a mortal, not a Buddha. Excerpted from The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma trans by Red Pine. Buddhism came to China 2000 years ago. Among those who brought the teachings of the Buddha to China, none has had the impact of Bodhidharma. Unknown to all but a few disciples in his own lifetime, Bodhidharma is the patriarch of millions of Zen Buddhist and students of kung-fu. Of course, zen, as meditation, had been taught and practiced for several hundred years before Bodhidharma arrived. And much of what he had to say concerning doctrine had been said before-by Tao-sheng, for example, a hundred years ear lier. But Bodhidharma's approach to zen was unique. As he says in these sermons, 'Seeing your nature is zen. Zen teacher Norman Fischer takes you through the principles and practices of the major schools of Zen Buddhism. Chan Patriarch Bodhidharma. 17th century China. Porcelain with ivory glaze. Via The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Bodhidharma, the Founder of Zen Buddhism Written by Fuyu in Zen Masters Bodhidharma, also known as Daruma in Japan, was an Indian Buddhist Master, considered as the founder of Chan Buddhism in China – later known as Zen in Japan.
As often happens with legends, it’s become impossible to saperate fact from fiction. Not only are his dates uncertain, I’ve met at least one Buddhist scholar who doubted that Bodhidharma ever existed. But at the risk of writing about a man who never lived, I’ve put together a likely biograhy based on the earliest records available to provide a backdrop for the sermons attributed to him.
Bodhidharma was born around the year 440 in Kanchi, the capital of Southern Indian kingdom of Pallava. He was the third son of King Simhavarman and a Brahman by birth. When he was young, he was converted to Buddhism, and later, he received instruction in the Dharma from Prajnatara, whom his father had invited from the ancient Buddhist heartland Magadha. It was also Prajantara who told Bodhidharma to go to China. Since the traditional overland route was blocked by Huns in the 5th century, and since Kanchi was a commercial power as well as a center for Buddhist studies, Bodhidharma left by ship from the nearby port of Mahaballiputram. After skirting the Indian coast and the Malay Peninsula for three years, he finally arrived in Southern China around 475.
At that time, the counry was divided into the Northern Wei and Liu Song dynasties. This division of China into a series of northern and southern dynasties began in the early third century and conntinued until the country was reunited under the Sui dynasty in the late six century. It was during this period of division and strife that Indian Buddhism developed into Chinese Buddhism. This political division also led to differences in the kind of Buddhism practiced in the North and South. The more millitary minded northerners emphasized meditation and magic. The more intellectual southerners preferred philosopical discussion and intuitive grasp of principles.
When Bodhidharma arrived in the latter part of the fifth century, there were approximately 2,000 Buddhist temples and 36,000 clergy in the South. In the North, a census in 477 counted 6,500 temples and nearly 80,000 clergy. Less than fifty years later, another census conducted in the North raised these figures to 30,000 temples and 2,000,000 clergy, or aboubt five percent of the population. This undoubtedly included many people who were trying to avoid taxes and conscription or who sought the protection of the Church for other, non religious, reasons. But clearly, Buddhism north of the Yangze was spreading among the common people. In the South, it reamined largely confined to the educated elite until well into the sixth century.
Following his arrival in the port of Nanhai, Bodhidharma probably visited Buddhist center in the South and began learning Chinese, if he hadn’t done so already on his way from India. According to Tao-yuan’s ‘Transmission of the lamp’ finished in 1002, Boddhidharma arrived in the South as late as 520 and was invited to the capital in Chienkang for an audience with Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty, successor to the Liu Sung. During this meeting, the Emperor asked about the merit of performing religious works, and Boddhidharma responded with the doctrine of emptiness. The Emperor didn,t understand, and Boddhidharma left. No early records, however, mention such a meeting.
In any case, Bodhidharma crossed the Yangze – according to legend, on a hollow reed – settled in the North. At first, he stayed near the Northern Wei capital of Pingcheng. Later, in 494, Emperor Hsiao-wen moved his capital south to Loyang on the northern bank of the Lo river, and most of the monks living in the Pingcheng area moved too, Bodhidharma among them. According to Tao-hsuan’s Further Lives of Exemplary Monks, the first draft of which was written in 645, Bodhidharma ordained a monk by the name of Seng-fu. When Bodhidharma moved to Loyang, Sheng-fu moved to the South. Since ordination normally requires a three-year apprenticeship, Bodhidharma must have already been in the North by 490 and must have been reasonably conversant in Chinese by then.
A few years later,in 496, the Emperor ordered the construction of Shaolin Temple on the highest of China’s five sacred mountains, Mount Sung, in Honan Province south of Loyang. The temple was built for Fo-t’o(Buddhata?), another meditation master from India, not for Bodhidharma. But While zen masters have come and gone at the temple for the past 1,500 years, Bodhidharma is the only monk anyone but a Buddhist historian associates with Shaolin. It was here,on Mount Sung’s western Shaoshih Peak that Bodhidharma is said have spent nine years facing a rock wall near the temple meditating. Shaolin later became famous for training monks in in kung-fu, and Bodhidharma is honored as the founder of this art as well. Coming from India, he undoubtedly instructed hisdisciples in some form of yoga, but no early records mention him teaching any exercise or martial art.
By the year 500, Loyang was one of the largest cities in the world, with a population of over half a million. When Emperor Hsuan-wu died in 516, and the Empress Dowager Ling assumed control of the governmet, one of the first things she did was order work to begin on Yong-ning temple. The construction of this temple and its 400-foot high pagoda nearly exausted(exhausted) the imperial treasury. According to a record of Loyang’s temples written in 547 by Yang Hsuan-chih, golden wind – chimes that hung along the temple’s eaves could be heard for three miles, and the spire of the temple’s pagoda could be seen over 30 miles away. Yang’s account also includes the comments of a monk from the west named Bodhidharma, who calls it the most imposing structure he had ever seen. Since the temple wasn’t built until 516 and was destroyed by fire in 534, Bodhidharma must have been in the capital around 520. Early records say he travelled throughout the Loyang area, coming and going with the seasons. In the capital, though, he must have stayed at Yung-ming Temple. Not to be confused
with Yung-ning Temple, Yung-ming was built a few years earlier by Emperor Hsuan-wu at the beginning of the sixth century as a headquarters for foreign monks. Before the mass evacuation of the city during the collapse of the Northern Wei in 534, the temple reportedly housed over 3,000 monks from countries as far as Syria.
Despite the sudden popularity of Buddhism in China, Bodhidharma found few disciples. Besides Sheng-fu, who moved to the South soon after his ordination, the only other disciples mentioned are Tao-yu and Hui-k’o, both of whom are said to have studied with Bodhidharma for five to six years. Tao-yu, we’re told, understood the Way but never taught. It was Hui-k’o that Bodhidharma entrusted the robe and bowl of his lineage and, according to Tao-hsuan, a copy of Gunabhadra’s translation of the Lankavatara sutras. In the sermons translated here, though, Bodhidharma quotes mostly from Nirvana, Avatamsaka, and Vimilakirti Sutras and uses none of the terminology characteristic of the Lankavatara. Perhaps it was Hui-k’o, not Bodhidharma , who thought so highly of this sutra
In his transmission of the lamp, Tao-yuan says that soon after Bodhidharma transmitted the patriarchship of his lineage to Hui-k’o, he died in 528 on the fifth day of the tenth month, poisoned by a jealous monk. Tao-hsuan’s much earlier biography of Bodhidharma says only that he died on the banks of the Lo River. He doesn’t mention the date or cause of death. According to Tao-yuan, Bodhidharma’s remains were interred near Loyang at Tinglin Temple on the Bear Ear Mountain. Tao-yuan adds that three years later a official met Bodhidharma walking in the mountains of Central Asia. He was carrying a staff from which hung a single sandal, and he told the official he was going back to India. This meeting aroused the curiosity of other monks, and they agreed to open Bodhidharma’s tomb. But all they found was a single sandal, and ever since then, Bodhidharma has been pictured carrying a staff from which hangs the missing sandal.
With the assassination of Emperor Hsiao-wu several years later in 534, the Northern Wei split into the Western and Eastern Wei dynasties, and Loyang came under attack. Since the powerful Kao family of the Eastern Wei was renowned for its patronage of Buddhism, many of the monks living in Loyang moved to the Eastern Wei capital Yeh. Hui-k’o moved to Yeh too, and eventually he met T’an-lin there. T’an-lin worked first in Loyang and later in Yeh writing prefaces and commentaries to new translations of Buddhist sutras. After meeting Hui-k’o, he became interested in Bodhidharma’s approach to Buddhism and added a brief prefaces to the Outline of Practice. In this preface, he says that Bodhidharma was from Southern India and that following his arrival in China, he had found only two worthy disciples, namely Hui-k’o and Tao-yu. He also says that Bodhidharma taught wall-meditation and the four practices descrived in the Outline.
If this is all we know about Bodhidharma, why is he the most famous of all the millions of monks who taught and studied the Dharma in China? For the simple reason that he is credited with bringing zen to China. Of course, zen, as meditation, had been taught and practiced for several hundred years before Bodhidharma arrived. And, as far as doctrine is concerned, much of what he had to say had been said before, by Tao-sheng for exemple, a hundred years earlier. But Bodhidharma’s approach to zen was unique. As he says in these sermons, “Seeing your nature is zen. . . Not thinking about anything is zen. . . Everything you do is zen.” While others viewed zen as purification of the mind or as a stage on the way to Buddhahood, Bodhidharma equated zen with Buddhahood – and Buddhahood with the mind, the everyday mind. Instead of telling his disciples to purify their minds, he pointed them to rock walls, to the movements of tigers and cranes, to hollow reed floating across the Yangze, to a single sandal. For Bodhidharma, zen wasn’t meditation. Zen was the sword of wisdom. As did other masters, he undoubtedly instructed his disciples in Buddhist discipline, meditation, and doctrine, but he used the sword that Prajnatara had given him to cut their minds free from rules, trances and scriptures. Such a sword, though, is hard to grasp and hard to use. Small wonder that his sole successor, Hui-k’o, was a one-armed man.
But such a radical understanding of zen didn’t originate with Bodhidharma, nor with Prajnatara. It’s said that one day Brahma, lord of creation, offered the Buddha a flower anf asked him to preach the Dharma. When the Buddha held up the flower, his audience was puzzled. Except for Kashyapa, who smiled. This is how zen began. And this is how it was transmitted. With a flower, with a rock wall, with a shout. This approach, once it was made known by Bodhidharma and his successors, revolutionized the understanding and practice of zen in China.
Such an approach doesn’t come across very well in books. But in his Further Lives of Exemplary Monks, Tao- hshuan says that Bodhidharma’s teachings were written down. Most of scholar agree that the Outline of Practice is one such record, but opinion is divided concerning the other three sermons translated here. All three have long been attributted to Bodhidharma, but in recent years, a number of scholars have suggested that these sermons are the work of later disciples. Yanagida, for exemple, thinks that the Blood Stream Sermon was written by a member of the Oxenhead Zen School, which flourished in the seventh and eighth centuries. He also thinks that the wake-up sermon was an eighth-century work of the Northern Zen School and the Breakthrough Sermon was by Shen-hsiu, the seventh-entury patriarch of the Northern School.
Unfortunately, documentary evidence that would conclusively prove or disprove the traditional attribution is lacking. Until the present century, the earliest copies of these sermons were fourteenth-century version of T’ang dynasty(618-907) originals in the collection of Japan’s Kanazaws Bunko. But with the discovery earlier in this century of thousands of T’ang dynasty Buddhist manuscripts in China’s Tunhuang caves, we now have seventh and eighth century copies of these sermons. Clearly, they were compiled by monks who trace their ancestry to Bodhidharma at a very early date. If it wasn’t Huik’o, it might have been one of his disciples, or perhaps T’anlin who wrote them down. In any case, in the absence of convincing evidence to the contrary, I see no reason why they shouldn’t be accepted as the sermons of the man to whom they’ve been attributed for more than 1200 years.
The Zen Teaching Of Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma’s disciples were few. And the zen tradition that traced its ancestry to him didn’t begin its full flowering until nearly two hundred years after his death. Given the spontaneity and detachment fostered by Bodhidharma’s approach to zen, it’s easy to see why these sermons were eventually neglected by native Chinese zen masters. By comparison, Bodhidharma’s sermons seem somewhat alien and bare. I only found them myself by accident in an edition of Huangpo’s Essentials on the transmission of Mind. That was twelve years ago. Since then, I’ve grown quite fond of their bare-bone zen, and I’ve often wondered why they aren’t more popular. But popular or not, here there are again. Before they fade once more into the dust of time, read them through once or twice. And look for the one thing that Bodhidharma brought to China. Look for the print of the mind.
Red Pine, Taiwan
On The Way: The Daily Zen Journal
Bodhidharma’s Breakthrough Sermon
Bodhidharma (440-528)
Bodhidharma Body Found
If someone is determined to reach enlightenment, what is the most essential method one can practice?
The most essential method, which includes all methods, is beholding the mind.
But how can one method include all others?
The Zen Teaching Of Bodhidharma Book
The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included. It's like a tree. All of its fruit and flowers, its branches and leaves, depend on its root. If you nourish its root, a tree multiplies. If you cut its root, it dies. Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort. Those who don't understand the mind practice in vain. Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.
But how can beholding the mind be called understanding?
When a great bodhisattva delves deeply into perfect wisdom, he realizes that the four elements and five shades are devoid of a personal self. And he realizes that the activity of his mind has two aspects: pure and impure. By their very nature, these two mental states are always present. They alternate as cause or effect depending on conditions, the pure mind delighting in good deeds, the impure mind thinking of evil.
Those who are not affected by impurity are sages. They transcend suffering and experience the bliss of nirvana. All others, trapped by the impure mind and entangled by their own karma, are mortals. They drift through the three realms and suffer countless afflictions. And all because this impure mind obscures their real self.
The Sutra of the Ten Stages says, 'In the body of mortals is the indestructible buddha-nature. Like the sun, its light fills endless space. But once veiled by the dark clouds of the five shades, it's like a light inside a jar hidden from view.' And the Nirvana Sutra says, all mortals have the buddha-nature. But it is covered by darkness from which they can not escape. Our buddha-nature is awareness: to be aware and to make others aware. To realize awareness is liberation.' Everything good has awareness for its root. From this root of awareness grows the tree of all virtues and the fruit of nirvana. Beholding the mind like this is understanding.
The mind is the source of all virtues. And this mind is the chief of all powers. The eternal bliss of nirvana comes from the mind at rest. Rebirth in the three realms also comes from the mind. The mind is the door to every world. And the mind is the ford to the other shore.
Those who know where the door is do not worry about reaching it. Those who know where the ford is don't worry about crossing it. The people I meet nowadays are superficial. They think of merit as something that has form. They foolishly concern themselves with erecting statues and stupas, telling people to pile up lumber and bricks, to paint this blue and that green. They strain body and mind, injure themselves and mislead others. How will they ever become enlightened? They see something tangible and instantly become attached. If you talk to them about formlessness, they sit there dumb and confused. Such disciples wear themselves out in vain.
If you can simply concentrate your mind's inner light and behold its outer illumination, you'll dispel the three poisons and drive away the six thieves once and for all. And without effort you will gain possession of an infinite number of virtues, perfections and doors to the truth. Seeing through the mundane and witnessing the sublime is less than an eye-blink away. Realization is now. Why worry about gray hair? The true door is hidden and can't be revealed. I have only touched upon beholding the mind.
Zen Teachings Of Bodhidharma Pdf
Bodhidharma (440-528)
Excerpted from The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma trans by Red Pine
Buddhism came to China 2000 years ago. Among those who brought the teachings of the Buddha to China, none has had the impact of Bodhidharma. Unknown to all but a few disciples in his own lifetime, Bodhidharma is the patriarch of millions of Zen Buddhist and students of kung-fu. He's also the subject of many legends.
Along with zen and kung-fu, Bodhidharma also brought tea to China. To keep from falling asleep while meditating, he cut off his eyelids, and where they fell, tea bushes grew. Since then, tea has become the beverage of not only monks but everyone in the Orient. Faithful to this tradition, artists invariably depict Bodhidharma with bulging, lidless eyes.
Source:
- The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
By: Red Pine 1987 - Light of the Kensei
By: G BlueStone 2016
This teaching of Bodhidharma's is a kind of bare bones approach to practice, a nothing extra direct experience. Nothing extra is a term we hear in practice which represents both movement with no added tension and ideally a minimal sense of self to interfere with unhindered, spontaneous expression.
The Kensei's Haven
To live in Nothing-Extra is to live simply in the present with clarity. It applies not only to martial training but to every aspect of life.
To enter Nothing-Extra is to penetrate to the bare bones and discover the doorway to the light of the kensei. Though it appears a desolate realm to the ordinary mind of attachment, the kensei basks often in the simple luxury of Nothing-Extra. It is part of the kensei's profound craft to diminish and dissolve what is extra so that the Way of Action is not obscured.
The Zen Teaching Of Bodhidharma Pdf
The kensei, instead of becoming full of self, learns to become unfilled of self. Far from being a desolation, this emptiness is synonymous with vital energy itself; it is the realm of Nothing-Extra, the basis of the kensei's total action. taken from Light of the Kense
The Zen Teaching Of Bodhidharma
Return to the Source,
Elana, Scribe for Daily Zen