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Bodhidharman

Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin kungfu. In Japan, he is known as Daruma.

Bodhidharma Names (details) Known in English: Bodhidharma Balinese: Darmo Burmese: ဗောဓိဓမ္မ Chinese abbreviation: 達摩 Hanyu Pinyin: Pútídámó Hindi: बोधिधर्म Hokkien: Tatmo Indonesian: Budhi Darma Japanese: 達磨 Daruma Kannada: ಬೋಧಿ ಧರ್ಮ Khmer: ពោធិធម្ម Pothi-thaom-meahk Korean: 달마 Dalma Malay: Dharuma Malayalam: ബോധിധർമ്മൻ Bodhidharman Odia: ବୋଦିଦର୍ମନ୍ Nepali: बोधि धर्म Persian: بودی‌دارما Sanskrit: बोधिधर्म Simplified Chinese: 菩提达摩 Sinhala: බෝධිධර්ම Tagalog: Dharāma Tamil: போதிதருமன் Bhodhidharman Telugu: బోధిధర్మా Thai: ตั๊กม๊อ Takmoh Tibetan: Dharmottāra Traditional Chinese: 菩提達摩 Vietnamese: Bồ-đề-đạt-ma Wade–Giles: P'u-t'i-ta-mo Bengali: বোধি ধর্ম BodhidharmaYoshitoshi1887.jpg Bodhidharma, Ukiyo-e woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi, 1887. Religion Buddhism School Chan Senior posting Title Chanshi 1st Chan Patriarch Successor Huike Religious career Students Huike Little contemporary biographical information on Bodhidharma is extant, and subsequent accounts became layered with legend and unreliable details.[1][note 1]

According to the principal Chinese sources, Bodhidharma came from the Western Regions,[4][5] which refers to Central Asia but may also include the Indian subcontinent, and was either a "Persian Central Asian"[4] or a "South Indian [...] the third son of a great Indian king."[5][note 2] Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as an ill-tempered, profusely-bearded, wide-eyed non-Chinese person. He is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (Chinese: 碧眼胡; pinyin: Bìyǎnhú) in Chan texts.[10]

Aside from the Chinese accounts, several popular traditions also exist regarding Bodhidharma's origins.[note 4]

The accounts also differ on the date of his arrival, with one early account claiming that he arrived during the Liu Song dynasty (420–479) and later accounts dating his arrival to the Liang dynasty (502–557). Bodhidharma was primarily active in the territory of the Northern Wei (386-634). Modern scholarship dates him to about the early 5th century.[15]

Bodhidharma's teachings and practice centered on meditation and the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra. 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 Gautama Buddha himself.[16]

Biography Principal sources

The Western Regions in the first century BCE. There are two known extant accounts written by contemporaries of Bodhidharma. According to these sources, Bodhidharma came from the Western Regions,[4][5] and was either a "Persian Central Asian"[4] or a "South Indian [...] the third son of a great Indian king."[5] Later sources draw on these two sources, adding additional details, including a change to being descendent from a Brahmin king,[7][8] which accords with the reign of the Pallavas, who "claim[ed] to belong to a brahmin lineage."[web 2][17]

The Western Regions was a historical name specified in the Chinese chronicles between the 3rd century BC to the 8th century AD[18] that referred to the regions west of Yumen Pass, most often Central Asia or sometimes more specifically the easternmost portion of it (e.g. Altishahr or the Tarim Basin in southern Xinjiang). Sometimes it was used more generally to refer to other regions to the west of China as well, such as the Indian subcontinent (as in the novel Journey to the West).

The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang

Blue-eyed Central Asian monk teaching an East Asian monk. A fresco from the Bezeklik, dated to the 9th or 10th century; although Albert von Le Coq (1913) assumed the red-haired monk was a Tocharian,[19] modern scholarship has identified similar Caucasian figures of the same cave temple (No. 9) as ethnic Sogdians,[20] an Eastern Iranian people who inhabited Turfan as an ethnic minority community during the phases of Tang Chinese (7th-8th century) and Uyghur rule (9th-13th century).[21] The earliest text mentioning Bodhidharma is The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Luoyang (Chinese: 洛陽伽藍記 Luòyáng Qiélánjì) which was compiled in 547 by Yáng Xuànzhī (楊衒之), a writer and translator of Mahayana sutras into Chinese. Yang gave the following account:

At that time there was a monk of the Western Region named Bodhidharma, a Persian Central Asian.[note 5] He traveled from the wild borderlands to China. Seeing the golden disks on the pole on top of Yǒngníng'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, he 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. Even the distant Buddha-realms lack this." He chanted homage and placed his palms together in salutation for days on end.[4]

Tánlín – preface to the Two Entrances and Four Acts

A Dehua ware porcelain statuette of Bodhidharma from the late Ming dynasty, 17th century The second account was written by Tánlín (曇林; 506–574). Tánlín's brief biography of the "Dharma Master" is found in his preface to the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices, a text traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma and the first text to identify him as South Indian:

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.[5]

Tánlín's account was the first to mention that Bodhidharma attracted disciples,[22] specifically mentioning Dàoyù (道育) and Dazu Huike (慧可), the latter of whom would later figure very prominently in the Bodhidharma literature. Although Tánlín has traditionally been considered a disciple of Bodhidharma, it is more likely that he was a student of Huìkě.[23]

"Chronicle of the Laṅkāvatāra Masters" Tanlin's preface has also been preserved in Jingjue's (683-750) Lengjie Shizi ji "Chronicle of the Laṅkāvatāra Masters", which dates from 713-716.[3]/ca. 715[6] He writes,

The teacher of the Dharma, who came from South India in the Western Regions, the third son of a great Brahman king."[7]

"Further Biographies of Eminent Monks"

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 (1685–1768) In the 7th-century historical work "Further Biographies of Eminent Monks" (續高僧傳 Xù gāosēng zhuàn), Daoxuan (道宣; 596-667) possibly drew on Tanlin's preface as a basic source, but made several significant additions:

Firstly, Daoxuan adds more detail concerning Bodhidharma's origins, writing that he was of "South Indian Brahman stock" (南天竺婆羅門種 nán tiānzhú póluómén zhŏng).[8]

Secondly, more detail is provided concerning Bodhidharma's journeys. Tanlin's original is imprecise about Bodhidharma's travels, saying only that he "crossed distant mountains and seas" before arriving in Wei. Daoxuan's account, however, implies "a specific itinerary":[24] "He first arrived at Nan-yüeh during the Sung period. From there he turned north and came to the Kingdom of Wei"[8] This implies that Bodhidharma had travelled to China by sea and that he had crossed over the Yangtze.

Thirdly, Daoxuan suggests a date for Bodhidharma's arrival in China. He writes that Bodhidharma makes landfall in the time of the Song, thus making his arrival no later than the time of the Song's fall to the Southern Qi in 479.[24]

Finally, Daoxuan provides information concerning Bodhidharma's death. Bodhidharma, he writes, died at the banks of the Luo River, where he was interred by his disciple Dazu Huike, possibly in a cave. According to Daoxuan's chronology, Bodhidharma's death must have occurred prior to 534, the date of the Northern Wei's fall, because Dazu Huike subsequently leaves Luoyang for Ye. Furthermore, citing the shore of the Luo River as the place of death might possibly suggest that Bodhidharma died in the mass executions at Heyin (河陰) in 528. Supporting this possibility is a report in the Chinese Buddhist canon stating that a Buddhist monk was among the victims at Héyīn.[25]

Later accounts

Bodhidharma, stone carving Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall In the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (祖堂集 Zǔtángjí) of 952, the elements of the traditional Bodhidharma story are in place. Bodhidharma is said to have been a disciple of Prajñātāra,[26] thus establishing the latter as the 27th patriarch in India. After a three-year journey, Bodhidharma reached China in 527,[26] during the Liang (as opposed to the Song in Daoxuan's text). The Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall includes Bodhidharma's encounter with Emperor Wu of Liang, which was first recorded around 758 in the appendix to a text by Shenhui (神會), a disciple of Huineng.[27]

Finally, as opposed to Daoxuan's figure of "over 180 years,"[3] the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall states that Bodhidharma died at the age of 150. He was then buried on Mount Xiong'er (熊耳山 Xióng'ĕr Shān) to the west of Luoyang. However, three years after the burial, in the Pamir Mountains, Sòngyún (宋雲)—an official of one of the later Wei kingdoms—encountered Bodhidharma, who claimed to be returning to India and was carrying a single sandal. Bodhidharma predicted the death of Songyun's ruler, a prediction which was borne out upon the latter's return. Bodhidharma's tomb was then opened, and only a single sandal was found inside.

According to the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall, Bodhidharma left the Liang court in 527 and relocated to Mount Song near Luoyang and the Shaolin Monastery, where he "faced a wall for nine years, not speaking for the entire time",[28] his date of death can have been no earlier than 536. Moreover, his encounter with the Wei official indicates a date of death no later than 554, three years before the fall of the Western Wei.

Dàoyuán – Transmission of the Lamp Subsequent to the Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall, the only dated addition to the biography of Bodhidharma is in the Jingde Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (景德傳燈錄 Jĭngdé chuándēng lù, published 1004 CE), by Dàoyuán (道原), in which it is stated that Bodhidharma's original name had been Bodhitāra but was changed by his master Prajñātāra.[29] The same account is given by the Japanese master Keizan's 13th-century work of the same title.[30]

Popular traditions Several contemporary popular traditions also exist regarding Bodhidharma's origins. An Indian tradition regards Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Pallava king from Kanchipuram.[11][note 3] This is consistent with the Southeast Asian traditions which also describe Bodhidharma as a former South Indian Tamil prince who had awakened his kundalini and renounced royal life to become a monk.[13] The Tibetan version similarly characterises him as a dark-skinned siddha from South India.[14] Conversely, the Japanese tradition generally regards Bodhidharma as Persian.[web 1]

Deva Maurya (talk) 04:41, 26 October 2018 (UTC)