Bodhidharma

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Bodhidharma, woodblock print by Yoshitoshi, 1887.
Names (details)
Known in English as: Bodhidharma
Sanskrit: बोधिधर्म
Traditional Chinese: 菩提達摩
Hanyu Pinyin: Pútídámó
Wade-Giles: P'u-t'i-ta-mo
Japanese: 達磨 Daruma
Vietnamese: Bồ-đề-đạt-ma

Bodhidharma is the legendary[1] Buddhist monk credited as the founder of Zen.

Biography

The major sources about Bodhidharma's life conflict with regard to his origins, the chronology of his journey to China, his death, and other details.

Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang (547) by Yang Xuanzhi

The earliest historical record of Bodhidharma was compiled in 547 by Yang Xuanzhi, the Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang, in which Yang identifies Bodhidharma as a Persian Central Asian (Wade-Giles: po-szu kuo hu-jen).[2]

At that time there was a monk of the Western Region named Bodhidharma, a Persian Central Asian. He traveled from the wild borderlands to China. Seeing the golden disks [on the pole on top of Yung-ning's stupa reflecting in the sun, the rays of light illuminating the surface of the clouds, the jewel-bells on the stupa blowing in the wind, the echoes reverberating beyond the heavens, Bodhidharma sang its praises. He exclaimed: "Truly this is the work of spirits." He said: "I am 150 years old, and I have passed through numerous countries. There is virtually no country I have not visited. But even in India there is nothing comparable to the pure beauty of this monastery. Even the distant Buddha realms lack this." He chanted homage and placed his palms together in salutation for days on end.[3]

According to Broughton, Yung-ning was built in 516 and destroyed in 526, dating Bodhidharma's exultation to these years.[4]

According to Reid and Croucher, in 528 troops were billeted in Yung-ning, which was destroyed in 538.[5]

Tanlin's preface to the Two Entrances and Four Acts

Tanlin, who was probably a disciple of Bodhidharma,[6] identifies him as South Indian.[7]

The Dharma Master was a South Indian of the Western Region. He was the third son of a great Indian King....His ambition lay in the Mahayana path, and so he put aside his white layman's robe for the black robe of a monk....Lamenting the decline of the true teaching in the outlands, he subsequently crossed distant mountains and seas, traveling about propagating the teaching in Han and Wei.[8]

This biography of Bodhidharma is found in Tanlin's preface to the Two Entrances and Four Acts, which Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki found in 1935 by going through the Dunhuang collection of the Chinese National Library.[9]

Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks (645) by Daoxuan

Writing in the mid-7th century, Daoxuan may well have drawn on Tanlin's preface as a primary source[10] and added the following:

Caste background
Daoxuan writes that Bodhidharma was "of South Indian Brahman stock."[11] Broughton notes that Bodhidharma's royal pedigree implies that he was of the warrior, or Kshatriya, caste.[12]
Age
Daoxuan takes his figure for Bodhidharma's age from the Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang.[13]
The duration of Daoyu and Huike's service to Bodhidharma
Tanlin's original says "several" years. Daoxuan gives a figure of "four or five".
The route of Bodhidharma's journey
Tanlin's original says only that Bodhidharma "crossed distant mountains and seas" on the way to his ultimate destination, the northern Chinese kingdom of Wei. In Daoxuan's account, Bodhidharma travels by sea to southern China and then makes his way north, eventually crossing the Yangtze River "on a reed," though Stephen Addiss argues that the Chinese character for "reed" also meant "reed boat," but lost that meaning over time, inspiring the idea that Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze on a reed rather than a reed boat.
The date of Bodhidharma's journey
Daoxuan says that Bodhidharma makes landfall in the southern Chinese kingdom of Song, making his arrival in China no later than that kingdom's fall to Southern Qi in 479.[14]
Bodhidharma's death
Bodhidharma dies at Luo River Beach. His interment by Huike on a bank of the river, possibly in a cave, is unusual because masters of Bodhidharma's reputation typically receive elaborate funerals. According to Daoxuan's chronology, Bodhidharma must have died before 534, when the Northern Wei falls, because Huike leaves Luoyang for Ye at that point. The use of the Luo River Beach as an execution grounds suggests that Bodhidharma may have died in the mass executions at Heyin in 528. A report in the Taishō shinshū daizōkyō states that a Buddhist monk was among the victims.[15]
This Japanese scroll calligraphy of Bodhidharma reads “Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become Buddha”. It was created by Hakuin Ekaku (1685 to 1768)

Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952)

The version of the Bodhidharma legend found in the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall follows Daoxuan but is distinguished by the following:

  • Bodhidharma's master Prajnatara, 27th Patriach[16]
  • Bodhidharma makes landfall not during the Song period of southern China but in 527[17] during the Liang Dynasty. According to the Anthology, Bodhidharma's voyage from India to China took three years.
  • Before crossing the Yangtze River en route to Wei, Bodhidharma visits the Liang court in present-day Nanjing, but leaves soon after his uncompromising doctrines end up offending Emperor Wu.
  • Bodhidharma dies at the age of 150 and is buried on Mount Xiong'er to the west of Luoyang. Three years later in the Pamir Mountains, Songyun, an envoy of one of the later Wei kingdoms, encounters Bodhidharma, who is on his way back West. Bodhidharma, carrying a single sandal, predicts that Songyun's ruler has died, which is borne out upon Songyun's return. Bodhidharma's tomb is opened and only a single sandal is found inside. The nine years of meditation after his departure from the Liang court in 527 mean that Bodhidharma's death can take place no earlier than 536, but his encounter with the Wei diplomat mean that his death can take place no later than 554, three years before the fall of the last Wei kingdom.

Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (1004) by Daoyuan

This account of Bodhidharma's life is identical to that found in the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall but adds that Bodhidharma was born Bodhitara and was renamed by his master Prajnatara.

Bodhidharma eventually goes to a cave on Mount Song, where he “faces a wall for nine years, not speaking for the entire time”.[18]

Spiritual approach

Blue-eyed Central Asian Buddhist monk, possibly Bodhidharma, forming the "Vitarka" mudra (Symbol of teaching/ discussion of the dharma), in the direction of a disciple East-Asian monk. Eastern Tarim Basin, China, 9th-10th century.

Tradition holds that Bodhidharma's chosen sutra was the Lankavatara Sutra, a development of the Yogacara or "Mind-only" school of Buddhism established by the Gandharan half-brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu. He is described as a "master of the Lankavatara Sutra", and an early history of Zen in China is titled "Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankavatara Sutra" (Chin. Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi). It is also sometimes said that Bodhidharma himself was the one who brought the Lankavatara to Chinese Buddhism.

Bodhidharma's approach tended to reject devotional rituals, doctrinal debates and verbal formalizations, in favour of an intuitive grasp of the "Buddha mind" within everyone, through meditation. In contrast with other Buddhist schools such as Pure Land, Bodhidarma emphasized personal enlightenment, rather than the promise of heaven.

Legend also associates Bodhidharma with the use of tea to maintain wakefulness in meditation (the origin of Chado), and favoured paradoxes, conundrums and provocation as a way to break intellectual rigidity (a method which led to the development of koan).

Bodhidharma and martial arts?

Bodhidharma is associated with the idea that spiritual, intellectual and physical excellence are an indivisible whole necessary for enlightenment. Such an approach to enlightenment ultimately proved highly attractive to the Samurai class in Japan, who made Zen their way of life, following their encounter with the martial-arts-oriented Zen Rinzai School introduced to Japan by Eisai in the 12th century. Yet in some versions of his legend, Bodhidharma's focus was so single-minded during his nine years of meditation that his legs atrophied.[19]

The Yi Jin Jing credits Shaolin Kung Fu to Bodhidharma, which would make him an important influence on the martial arts of East Asia in general. However, both the attribution of Shaolin Kung Fu to Bodhidharma and the authenticity of the Yi Jin Jing itself have been discredited by historians including Tang Hao, Xu Zhen and Matsuda Ryuchi. This argument is summarized by modern historian Lin Boyuan in his Zhongguo wushu shi as follows:

As for the “Yi Jin Jing” (Muscle Change Classic), a spurious text attributed to Bodhidharma and included in the legend of his transmitting martial arts at the temple, it was written in the Ming dynasty, in 1624 CE, by the Daoist priest Zining of Mt. Tiantai, and falsely attributed to Bodhidharma. Forged prefaces, attributed to the Tang general Li Jing and the Southern Song general Niu Gao were written. They say that, after Bodhidharma faced the wall for nine years at Shaolin temple, he left behind an iron chest; when the monks opened this chest they found the two books “Xi Sui Jing” (Marrow Washing Classic) and “Yi Jin Jing” within. The first book was taken by his disciple Huike, and disappeared; as for the second, “the monks selfishly coveted it, practicing the skills therein, falling into heterodox ways, and losing the correct purpose of cultivating the Real. The Shaolin monks have made some fame for themselves through their fighting skill; this is all due to having obtained this manuscript.” Based on this, Bodhidharma was claimed to be the ancestor of Shaolin martial arts. This manuscript is full of errors, absurdities and fantastic claims; it cannot be taken as a legitimate source.[20]

While Daoxuan associates Bodhidharma with Mount Song—where the Shaolin Monastery is located—as early as 645 in his Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, the first explicit association between Bodhidharma and the monastery itself is not made until 1004 by Daoyuan in the Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, and even he makes no reference to Bodhidharma teaching martial arts to the monks.[21] Matsuda can trace the Yi Jin Jing back no further than 1827[22] and Lin Boyuan dates the text to 1624.[23] Even then, the association of Bodhidharma with martial arts only becomes widespread as a result of the 1904–1907 serialization of the novel The Travels of Lao Ts'an in Illustrated Fiction Magazine.[24]

Shaolin monastery records state that two of its very first monks, Huiguang and Sengchou, were expert in the martial arts years before the arrival of Bodhidharma.[25] The Taishō Tripiṭaka documents Sengchou's skill with the tin staff.

Portrayals of Bodhidharma

Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He is described as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" 藍眼睛的野人 (lán yǎnjīngde yěrén) in Chinese texts.Soothill, William Edward (1995) [1937]. A Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms. London: RoutledgeCurzon. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

The Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) identifies Bodhidharma as the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism in an uninterrupted line that extends all the way back to the Buddha himself. D.T. Suzuki contends that Zen's growth in popularity during the 7th and 8th centuries attracted criticism that it had "no authorized records of its direct transmission from the founder of Buddhism" and that Zen historians made Bodhidharma the 28th patriarch of Buddhism in response to such attacks.[26]

Legends

Encounter with Emperor Liang

According to the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall, in 527 during the Liang Dynasty, Bodhidharma, the first Patriarch of Zen, visited the Emperor Wu, a fervent patron of Buddhism.

The emperor asks Bodhidharma, "What is the highest meaning of noble truth?" Bodhidharma answered, "There is no noble truth."

The emperor then asked Bodhidharma, "Who is standing before me?" Bodhidharma answered, "I don't know."

The emperor then asked Bodhidharma, "How much karmic merit have I earned by ordaining Buddhist monks, building monasteries, having sutras copied, and commissioning Buddha images?"

Bodhidharma answered, "None."[27]

Receiving Retribution

From then on, the emperor refused to listen to whatever Bodhidharma had to say. Although Bodhidharma came from India to China to become the first patriarch of China, the emperor refused to recognize him. Since he refused to believe in what Bodhidharma told him, he practically missed his chance to come face to face with someone who was important to Buddhism. Bodhidharma knew that he would face difficulty in the near future, but had the emperor been able to leave the throne and yield it to someone else, he could have avoided his fate of starving to death.

According to the teaching, Emperor Wu's past life was as a bhikshu. While he cultivated in the mountains, a monkey would always steal and eat the things he planted for food, as well as the fruit in the trees. One day, he was able to trap the monkey in a cave and blocked the entrance of the cave with rocks, hoping to teach the monkey a lesson. However, after two days, the bhikshu found that the monkey had died of starvation.

Supposedly, that monkey was reincarnated into Hou Jing of the Northern Wei Dynasty, who led his soldiers to attack Nanjing. After Nanjing was taken, the emperor was held in captivity in the palace and was not provided with any food, and was left to starve to death. Though Bodhidharma wanted to save him and brought forth a compassionate mind toward him, the emperor failed to recognize him, so there was nothing Bodhidharma could do. Thus, Bodhidharma had no choice but to leave Emperor Wu to die and went into meditation in a cave for nine years.

Nine years of gazing at a wall

Bodhidharma traveled to the northern Chinese kingdom of Wei, to a cave near the Shaolin Monastery, where he “faced a wall for nine years, not speaking for the entire time”.[28]

In the one version of the story, after the nine years, Bodhidharma “passed away, seated upright”.[29]

In another version of the story, Bodhidharma disappears, leaving behind the Yi Jin Jing.[30]

Daruma dolls

Main article: Daruma doll

In yet another version of the legend, Bodhidharma's legs atrophied after nine years of sitting,[31] which is why Japanese Bodhidharma dolls have no legs.

Tea

Seven years into his nine years of wall-gazing, Bodhidharma fell asleep.
Angry with himself, he cut off his eyelids to prevent it from happening again.
Where his eyelids fell, tea plants grew.

The lineage of Bodhidharma and his disciples

In the Two Entrances and Four Acts and the Continued Biographies of Eminent Monks, Daoyu and Huike are the only explicitly identified disciples of Bodhidharma. The Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp gives Bodhidharma four disciples who, in increasing order of understanding, are Daofu, who attains Bodhidharma's skin; the nun Dharani,[32] who attains Bodhidharma's flesh; Daoyu, who attains Bodhidharma's bone; and Huike, who attains Bodhidharma's marrow.

Works attributed to Bodhidharma

  • The Bloodstream Sermon
  • The Breakthrough Sermon
  • The Outline of Practice
  • Two Entrances
  • The Wake-Up Sermon

Notes

  1. ^ Dumoulin, Heinrich (2005). Zen Buddhism: A History, India and China. Translated by James W. Heisig and Paul Knitter. Bloomington: World Wisdom. p. 85. ISBN 0-941532-89-5. it is legend we are dealing with here, not only because of the total lack of reliable historical data but also because of the very evident motives that lie behind the story.
  2. ^ Broughton, Jeffrey L. (1999). The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 138. ISBN 0-520-21972-4.
  3. ^ Broughton 1999:54–55
  4. ^ Broughton 1999:55
  5. ^ Reid, Howard (1983). The Fighting Arts. p. 26. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  6. ^ Dumoulin 2005:88
  7. ^ Broughton 1999:8
  8. ^ Broughton 1999:8
  9. ^ Broughton 1999:5
  10. ^ Dumoulin 2005:88
  11. ^ Dumoulin 2005:87
  12. ^ Broughton 1999:2
  13. ^ Broughton 1999:8
  14. ^ Broughton 1999:56
  15. ^ Broughton 1999:139
  16. ^ Broughton 1999:2
  17. ^ Broughton 1999:2
  18. ^ Lin 1996:182
  19. ^ Dumoulin 2005:86
  20. ^ Lin, Boyuan (1996). Zhōngguó wǔshù shǐ 中國武術史 (in Chinese). Taipei 臺北: Wǔzhōu chūbǎnshè 五洲出版社. p. 183.
  21. ^ Lin 1996:182–183
  22. ^ Matsuda Ryuchi 松田隆智 (1986). Zhōngguó wǔshù shǐlüè 中國武術史略 (in Chinese). Taipei 臺北: Danqing tushu.
  23. ^ Lin 1996:183
  24. ^ Henning, Stanley (1994). "Ignorance, Legend and Taijiquan" (PDF). Journal of the Chenstyle Taijiquan Research Association of Hawaii. 2 (3): 1–7. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  25. ^ Canzonieri, Salvatore (1998). "History of Chinese Martial Arts: Jin Dynasty to the Period of Disunity". Han Wei Wushu. 3 (9). {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro. Essays in Zen Buddhism. New York: Grove Press. p. 168. ISBN 0-8021-5118-3.
  27. ^ Broughton 1999:2–3
  28. ^ Lin 1996:182
  29. ^ Lin 1996:182
  30. ^ Lin 1996:183
  31. ^ Dumoulin 2005:86
  32. ^ In the Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, Dharani repeats the words said by the nun Yuanji in the Two Entrances and Four Acts, possibly identifying the two with each other.

References

  • Tom Lowenstein, The Vision of the Buddha. Duncan Baird Publishers, London. ISBN 1-903296-91-9
  • Red Pine, translator; The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma. North Point Press, New York. (1987)
  • Alan Watts, The Way of Zen. ISBN 0-375-70510-4
  • Paul Williams, Mahayana Buddhism: The Doctrinal Foundations. ISBN 0-415-02537-0
  • Andy Ferguson, Zen's Chinese Heritage. ISBN 0-86171-163-7 contains a translation of The Outline of Practice

See also


Preceded by Buddhist Patriach Succeeded by
Title Extinct
Preceded by
New Creation
 Chinese Ch'an Patriarch Succeeded by

Template:Buddhism2

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