Bodhidharma where is born

Therefore, he went to a nearby cave behind the temple where he meditated for nine years to find a way to strengthen them. There are many legends about Bodhidharma and his stay at the Temple and caves. One legend suggests that Bodhidharma developed Shaolin Kung Fu to help heal cramps from lengthy hours of meditation.

Another says that he developed it to protect himself wild beasts that crept close by the cave. Some say that while he was meditating, he faced problems with sleep, so he cut off his eye lids with a knife.

Another legend says that the sun burned his shadow onto the rock where he meditated because he sat there for many years that rock is currently displayed at the Shaolin Temple. When he returned to the Temple, he used Indian stretches such as yoga to strengthen the monks. Erling Hoh Zen and the art of combat: Shaolin temple, the birthplace of Zen Buddhism and kung fu, mixes meditating monks and bustling tourists :[National Edition].

He is said to have taught a series of external exercises called the Eighteen Arhat Hands and an internal practice called the Sinew Metamorphosis Classic. In addition, after his departure from the temple, two manuscripts by Bodhidharma were said to be discovered inside the temple: the Yijin Jing and the Xisui Jing. Copies and translations of the Yijin Jing survive to the modern day. The Xisui Jing has been lost.

In his travels through the region, Bodhidharma is said to have transmitted his knowledge of the Mahayana doctrine and the martial arts. Malay legend holds that he introduced forms to silat. Vajrayana tradition links Bodhidharma with the 11th-century south Indian monk Dampa Sangye who travelled extensively to Tibet and China spreading tantric teachings. When asked why he was holding his shoe, Bodhidharma answered "You will know when you reach Shaolin monastery.

Don't mention that you saw me or you will meet with disaster". At Shaolin Monastery, the monks informed them that Bodhidharma was dead and had been buried in a hill behind the temple.

The grave was exhumed and was found to contain a single shoe. The monks then said "Master has gone back home" and prostrated three times: "For nine years he had remained and nobody knew him; Carrying a shoe in hand he went home quietly, without ceremony. A special transmission outside the scriptures Not founded upon words and letters; By pointing directly to [one's] mind It lets one see into [one's own true] nature and [thus] attain Buddhahood.

In the Two Entrances and Four Acts , traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma, the term "wall-gazing" is given as follows:. Those who turn from delusion back to reality, who meditate on walls , the absence of self and other, the oneness of mortal and sage, and who remain unmoved even by scriptures are in complete and unspoken agreement with reason".

These are the first mentions in the historical record of what may be a type of meditation being ascribed to Bodhidharma. Exactly what sort of practice Bodhidharma's "wall-gazing" was remains uncertain.

The latter interpretation is particularly common among those working from a Chan standpoint. If you rely on it to practice, you will be able to cross over the world. Jingjue's account also makes explicit mention of "sitting meditation" or zazen:.

If, Mahamati, you say that because of the reality of words the objects are, this talk lacks in sense. Words are not known in all the Buddha-lands; words, Mahamati, are an artificial creation.

In some Buddha-lands ideas are indicated by looking steadily, in others by gestures, in still others by a frown, by the movement of the eyes, by laughing, by yawning, or by the clearing of the throat, or by recollection, or by trembling. The epitaph gives a line of descent identifying Bodhidharma as the first patriarch. In the 6th century biographies of famous monks were collected. From this genre the typical Chan lineage was developed:.

These famous biographies were non-sectarian. The Ch'an biographical works, however, aimed to establish Ch'an as a legitimate school of Buddhism traceable to its Indian origins, and at the same time championed a particular form of Ch'an.

Historical accuracy was of little concern to the compilers; old legends were repeated, new stories were invented and reiterated until they too became legends. Suzuki contends that Chan'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 Chan historians made Bodhidharma the 28th patriarch of Buddhism in response to such attacks.

The earliest lineages described the lineage from Bodhidharma into the 5th to 7th generation of patriarchs. Various records of different authors are known, which give a variation of transmission lines:.

Mahakashyapa was the first, leading the line of transmission; Twenty-eight Fathers followed him in the West; The Lamp was then brought over the sea to this country; And Bodhidharma became the First Father here His mantle, as we all know, passed over six Fathers, And by them many minds came to see the Light.

Bodhidharma has been the subject of critical scientific research, which has shed new light on the traditional stories about Bodhidharma. According to John McRae, Bodhidharma has been the subject of a hagiographic process which served the needs of Chan Buddhism. According to him it is not possible to write an accurate biography of Bodhidharma:. It is ultimately impossible to reconstruct any original or accurate biography of the man whose life serves as the original trace of his hagiography — where "trace" is a term from Jacques Derrida meaning the beginningless beginning of a phenomenon, the imagined but always intellectually unattainable origin.

Hence any such attempt by modern biographers to reconstruct a definitive account of Bodhidharma's life is both doomed to failure and potentially no different in intent from the hagiographical efforts of premodern writers. McRae's standpoint accords with Yanagida's standpoint: "Yanagida ascribes great historical value to the witness of the disciple T'an-lin, but at the same time acknowledges the presence of "many puzzles in the biography of Bodhidharma". Years later, after the passing of his mentor, Bodhidharma left the monastery and went to China to fulfill the last request of his master: spreading the real teachings of Buddha further into China.

Bodhidharma left his motherland of India and started his endeavor. Although the actual route of his journey to China is unknown, most scholars believe that he traveled from Madras to Guangzhou province of China through the sea, and then by land to Nanjing.

Some scholars also believe that he cross the Pamir Plateau walking, along the Yellow River to Luoyang. Luoyang was famous as an active center for Buddhism at that time. Once in China, Bodhidharma started to spread Buddhism but had to face skepticism and fierce opposition because of his teaching on real Buddhism. He professed that Buddhist scriptures were only a guide for achieving Enlightenment , and that enlightenment itself can only be attained by practicing Dhyana Zazen.

It is important to note that, at the time in China, Buddhist scriptures, and not meditation, were at the heart of Buddhism. Artwork by Sun Kehong Bodhidharma traveled to the monastery of Shaolinsi on Songshan mountain in northern China.

Legend holds that along the way, he crossed the Yangtze River on a reed, a scene frequently depicted in East Asian art. After arriving at the monastery, Bodhidharma sat in meditation for nine years. It is said that he sat facing a wall the entire time, letting his legs wither away. Some stories even say he ripped off his eyelids to avoid falling asleep. Some say that where his eyelids fell, there grew the first tea plants in China, so he also gets credit for tea. Three views of a Daruma doll.

Photo by Christopher Woodrich. Finally, Huike cut off his arm at the elbow and presented it to Bodhidharma as an offering. Impressed by his determination, Bodhidharma asked Huike what he sought from him. It is said that in his old age, Bodhidharma gathered four of his enlightened disciples and asked them to convey their understanding of the dharma.