A Favorite of 0,
Read by 6,
Owned by 8,
Reviewed by
1,
Quotes
19
A fifth-century Indian Buddhist monk, Bodhidharma is credited with bringing Zen to China. Although the tradition that traces its ancestry back to him did not flourish until nearly two hundred years after his death, today millions of Zen Buddhists and
...(more) students of kung fu claim him as their spiritual father. While others viewed Zen practice as a purification of the mind or a stage on the way to perfect enlightenment, Bodhidharma equated Zen with buddhahood and believed that it had a place in everyday life. 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.This bilingual edition, the only volume of the great teacher's work currently available in English, presents four teachings in their entirety. "Outline of Practice" describes the four all-inclusive habits that lead to enlightenment, the "Bloodstream Sermon" exhorts students to seek the Buddha by seeing their own nature, the "Wake-up Sermon" defends his premise that the most essential method for reaching enlightenment is beholding the mind. The original Chinese test, presented on facing pages, is taken from a Ch'ing dynasty woodblock edition.(less)
About This Book
Help
Sign In
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Red Pine San Francisco, CA: North Point Press, 1989
Bodhidharma gives us the straight scoop, “Seeing your nature is zen. Unless you see your nature, it's not zen.” Period.
Bodhidharma is recognized as the Founder of Zen in China by all schools of Zen Buddhism. As the First Ancestor of Zen in China, his is the very manifestation of the archetypal Zen master.
Bodhidharma came to China from India with a mission; to bring Buddhism back to the heart of the Buddhas message-that all beings are inherently Buddha and need only see their true nature to realize the fact.
“Seeing your nature is zen.” Says Bodhidharma, in his straightforward, no nonsense style, “Unless you see your nature, it's not zen.”
Red Pine has collected and translated the four most important records attributed to the undisputed Father of Zen in this excellent volume. Each meticulous English translation is accompanied, page by page, with the original Chinese characters. These records include:
Outline of Practice
Bloodstream Sermon
Wake-up Sermon
Breakthrough Sermon
Every Zen student, (and teacher for that matter) would do well to familiarize themselves with these most time-tested, straight talks on the authentic teachings of Zen.
Bodhidharma insisted that the truth of Zen could be realized by anyone, “People who see that their mind is the buddha don't need to shave their head. Laymen are buddhas too… once you see your nature, you're a buddha even if you work as a butcher.”
Bodhidharma's teaching revealed the truth of Zen, shaking up the entire Buddhist establishment, which had fallen into the sterile doldrums of imitation and pious self-righteousness.
The Father of Zen balked at institutions and individuals that claimed exclusive teachings or demanded specific spiritual practices.
As Red Pine translates, “To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. 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.”
You can't find any Zen more authentic than that of Bodhidharma. Red Pine has done us all a great service by bringing the Founder of Zen to life for English readers, and allowing him to remind us of the simple truth. Zen has nothing to do with enlightened “roshis” “Dharma-certificates” or sectarian purity. Zen is not about escaping the world, does not demand renunciation, or sitting in particular postures for long periods.
by Ted Biringer