Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma was a semi-legendary Indian monk who lived from
approximately 440 CE - 528 CE. Bodhidharma is traditionally held to be the
founder of the Ch'an (known in Japan and the West as Zen) school of
Buddhism, and the Shaolin school of kung fu.

Bodhidharma was born in what is now southern India around 440. He travelled
to teach in China in about 475, where he found would-be Buddhists
preoccupied with scholasticism and attempting to earn favorable karma
through good works.

Bodhidharma travelled to various Chinese monasteries, teaching and giving
sermons. According to tradition, he was invited to an audience with Emperor
Wu Di of the Liang dynasty in 520. When the Emperor asked him how much merit
he had accumulated through building temples and endowing monasteries,
Bodhidharma replied, "None at all." Perplexed, the Emperor then asked,
"Well, what is the fundamental teaching of Buddhism?" "Vast emptiness," was
the bewildering reply. "Listen," said the Emperor, now losing all patience,
"just who do you think you are?" "I have no idea," Bodhidharma replied.

With this, Bodhidharma was banished from the Court, and is said to have sat
in meditation for the next seven years "listening to the ants scream."

Another story credits Bodhidharma with bringing tea to China. Supposedly, he
cut off his eyelids while meditating, to keep from falling asleep. Tea
bushes sprung from the spot where his eyelids hit the ground.

Bodhidharma traveled to the recently constructed Shaolin temple in the south
of China, where the monks refused him admission. Bodhidharma sat meditating
facing a wall for the next 9 years, supposedly burning holes into the wall
by staring at it. Only then did the monks of the Shaolin Temple respect
Bodhidharma and allow him inside. There, he found the monks so out of shape
from a life of study spent copying scrolls that he introduced a regimen of
martial excercises, which became the foundation of many later schools of
kung fu.

Famous Works Attributed to Bodhidharma

   * The Outline of Practice
   * The Bloodstream Sermon
   * The Wake-Up Sermon
   * The Breakthrough Sermon

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