The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

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Unknown to all but a few disciples during his lifetime, Bodhidharma is the patriarch of millions of Zen Buddhists and students of kung-fu. He is the subject of many legends as well. Along with zen and kung-fu, Bodhidharma reportedly also brought tea to China. To keep from falling asleep while meditating, he cut off his eyelids, and where they fell, tea bushes grew.

Faithful to this tradition, artists invariably depict Bodhidharma with ==bulging, lidless eyes.==

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

It was to 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 Sutra. In the sermons translated here, though, Bodhidharma quotes mostly from the Nirvana, Avatamsaka, and Vimilakirti sutras and uses none of the terminology characteristic of the Lankavatara. Perhaps it was Huik’ o, not Bodhidharma, who thought so highly of this sutra

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 a hollow reed floating across the Yangtze, to a single sandal. Bodhidharma’s zen was Mahayana Zen, not Hinayana Zen—the sword of wisdom, not the meditation cushion

To enter by practice refers to four all-inclusive practices:3 suffering injustice, adapting to conditions, seeking nothing, and practicing the Dharma::0

The sutras say, “When you meet with adversity don’t be upset, because it makes sense.”

People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something—always, in a word, seeking. But the wise wake up. They choose reason over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons. ==All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth desiring.==

To dwell in the three realms is to dwell in a burning house. To have a body is to suffer. Does anyone with a body know peace? Those who understand this detach themselves from all that exists and stop imagining or seeking anything. The sutras say, “To seek is to suffer.
To seek nothing is bliss

The sutras say, “The Dharma includes no being because it’s free from the impurity of being, and the Dharma includes no self because it’s free from the impurity of self.”

But if they don’t define it, what do they mean by mind?
You ask. That’s your mind. I answer. That’s my mind. If I had no mind, how could I answer? If you had no mind, how could you ask? That which asks is your mind

without beginning, whatever you do, wherever you are, that’s your real mind, that’s your real buddha. This mind is the buddha12 says the same thing. Beyond this mind you’ll never find another buddha. To search for enlightenment13 or nirvana14 beyond this mind is impossible. The reality of your own self-nature,15 the absence of cause and effect, is what’s meant by mind. ==Your mind is nirvana. You might think you can find a buddha or enlightenment somewhere beyond the mind, but such a place doesn’t exist==

If you don’t believe me, deceiving yourself won’t help. It’s not the buddha’s fault. People, though, are deluded. They’re unaware that their own mind is the buddha. Otherwise they wouldn’t look for a buddha outside the mind.

To find a buddha, you have to see your nature.19 Whoever sees his nature is a buddha. If you don’t see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings—but no buddha.

Long ago, the monk Good Star23 was able to recite the entire Canon. But he didn’t escape the Wheel, because he didn’t see his nature.

To find a buddha all you have to do is see your nature. Your nature is the buddha. And the buddha is the person who’s free

A buddha doesn’t observe precepts. A buddha doesn’t do good or evil. A buddha isn’t energetic or lazy. A buddha is someone who does nothing, someone who can’t even focus his mind on a buddha. A buddha isn’t a buddha. Don’t think about buddhas. If you don’t see what I’m talking about, you’ll never know your own mind

A material body is subject to birth and death. But the real body exists without existing, because a tathagata’s real body never changes.

The sutras say, “Everything that has form is an illusion.” They also say, “Wherever you are, there’s a buddha.” Your mind is the buddha. ==Don’t use a buddha to worship a buddha.==

If you envision a buddha, a dharma, or a bodhisattva35 and conceive respect for them, you relegate yourself to the realm of mortals

Seeing your nature is zen. Unless you see your nature, it’s not zen::0

The true Way is sublime. It can’t be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can’t read a word.::0

Wherever you find delight, you find bondage.::0

A buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad. Such is his power that karma can’t hold him. No matter what kind of karma, a buddha transforms it.

All day long they invoke buddhas and read sutras. But they remain blind to their own divine nature, and they don’t escape the Wheel

Unless you see your nature, you shouldn’t go around criticizing the goodness of others. There’s no advantage in deceiving yourself. Good and bad are distinct. Cause and effect are clear. Heaven and hell are right before your eyes::0

I only talk about seeing your nature. I don’t talk about sex simply because you don’t see your nature. Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial. It ends along with your delight in it. Even if some habits remain, they can’t harm you, because your nature is essentially pure

Your real body is basically pure. It can’t be corrupted. Your real body has no sensation, no hunger or thirst, no warmth or cold, no sickness, no love or attachment, no pleasure or pain, no good or bad, no shortness or length, no weakness or strength. Actually, there’s nothing here. It’s only because you cling to this material body that things like hunger and thirst, warmth and cold, and sickness appear.

Once you stop clinging and let things be, you’ll be free, even of birth and death. You’ll transform everything. You’ll possess spiritual powers48 that can’t be obstructed. And you’ll be at peace wherever you are.

According to the sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings. Angry people go to hell and happy people go to heaven. But once you know that the nature of anger and joy is empty and you let them go, you free yourself from karma.

The sutras say, “Detachment is enlightenment because it negates appearances.” Buddhahood means awareness.

To leave the three realms means to go from greed, anger, and delusion back to morality, meditation, and wisdom

It’s like stripping bark from a tree. This karmic body undergoes constant change. It has no fixed reality. Practice according to your thoughts. Don’t hate life and death or love life and death. Keep your every thought free of delusion, and in life you’ll witness the beginning of nirvana,65 and in death you’ll experience the assurance of no rebirth.

When delusions are absent, the mind is the land of buddhas. When delusions are present, the mind is hell.

If you don’t use your mind to create mind, every state of mind is empty and every thought is still. You go from one buddha-land67 to another.

IF someone is determined to reach enlightenment, what is the most essential method he can practice?
The most essential method, which includes all other methods, is beholding the mind

The three poisons are present in our six sense organs79 as six kinds of consciousness,80 or thieves. They’re called thieves because they pass in and out of the gates of the senses, covet limitless possessions, engage in evil, and mask their true identity. And because mortals are misled in body and mind by these poisons or thieves, they become lost in life and death, wander through the six states of existence,81 and suffer countless afflictions.

Once your real self becomes obscured by the three poisons, how can you be called liberated until you overcome their countless evil thoughts?

Practicing moral prohibitions to counter the poison of greed, he vowed to put an end to all evils. Practicing meditation to counter the poison of anger, he vowed to cultivate all virtues. And practicing wisdom to counter the poison of delusion, he vowed to liberate all beings.

Throughout the sutras the Buddha tells mortals they can achieve enlightenment by performing such meritorious works as building monasteries, casting statues, burning incense, scattering flowers, lighting eternal lamps, practicing all six periods91 of the day and night, walking around stupas,92 observing fasts, and worshipping.

When the Buddha was in the world, he told his disciples to light such precious incense with the fire of awareness as an offering to the buddhas of the ten directions. But people today don’t understand the Tathagata’s real meaning. They use an ordinary flame to light material incense of sandalwood or frankincense and pray for some future blessing that never comes

For scattering flowers the same holds true. This refers to speaking the Dharma, scattering flowers of virtue, in order to benefit others and glorify the real self. These flowers of virtue are those praised by the Buddha. They last forever and never fade. And whoever scatters such flowers reaps infinite blessings. If you think the Tathagata meant for people to harm plants by cutting off their flowers, you’re wrong.

The same holds true for observing a fast. It’s useless unless you understand what this really means. To fast means to regulate, to regulate your body and mind so that they’re not distracted or disturbed. And to observe means to uphold, to uphold the rules of discipline according to the Dharma. Fasting means guarding against the six attractions96 on the outside and the three poisons on the inside and striving through contemplation to purify your body and mind.

to invoke means to call to mind, to call constantly to mind the rules of discipline and to follow them with all your might. This is what’s meant by invoking. Invoking has to do with thought and not with language. If you use a trap to catch fish, once you succeed you can forget the trap. And if you use language to find meaning, once you find it you can forget language

Chanting and invoking are worlds apart. Chanting is done with the mouth. Invoking is done with the mind

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’ll 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

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