Legend of dharma

(? -536, say 528)

Bodhidharma (commonly known as Dharma) is the ancestor of Zen in China. He was born in South India, Brahmin, and fell in love with Mahayana Buddhism after becoming a monk. In the middle of Liang Pingnian (520-526), he sailed from India to Guangzhou, and from here he traveled north to Wei, where he taught people with Zen everywhere. It is said that he saw the exquisite architecture of Yongning Temple Pagoda in Luoyang. He said that he was 150 years old and had never seen him in any other country, so he "sang together in the south for several days" (Galand, Luoyang, Volume I).

When Dharma arrived in Wei, he visited Songshan Shaolin Temple and practiced meditation alone. At that time, he was called the Brahmin on the wall. Yudao and Hui Ke saw the Dharma and supported it for four or five years. Dharma thought they were sincere and taught them how to dress. He also gave Huike four volumes of Shurangama Sutra, saying: I think the roots of China people are the most suitable in this Sutra. If you can follow this, you can leave this world.

With the development of Zen in China, Dharma gradually became a legend. First of all, it is said that Dharma had a question and answer session with Liang Wudi when he arrived in Jinling (now Nanjing). Liang Wudi is an emperor who believes in Buddhism. After he ascended the throne, he built many temples, wrote scriptures, taught monks and built statues. He proudly asked Dharma, "How many merits have I done?" Buddhism says, "There is no merit". Emperor Wu asked again, "Why is there no merit? Buddhism said, "This is a promising thing, not a real merit. Emperor Wu could not understand that Dharma crossed the river into Wei. The oldest documents to record this legend are the nameless magic weapon unearthed in Dunhuang (written in 774) and the second volume of Jue Yuan Jing Da Shu Chao written by Tang Zongmi. Later, the famous Blue Rock Record of Zen Buddhism spread it as the first ode to the ancients. Later, it became a well-known case-solving of Zen.

The deeds of Buddhism in his later years are not clearly recorded in all biographies. Later generations said that he died of poison and was buried in Xiong 'er Mountain (now Yiyang County, Henan Province), but some people said that Song Yun returned from the Western Regions and met Dharma in the jungle. Dharma died alone and at a loss. Therefore, there is also a legend of "only returning to the West".

From the data unearthed in Dunhuang, it seems that among many ancient works circulated as Buddhist theory, only the theory of "two advances and four lines" is the real Buddhist thought. There are four lines of Mahayana Daoism in the biography of Dharma by teacher Lengga of Tang Jingjue, which was recorded by disciple Lin Tan of Dharma. According to Lin Tan's preface, he integrated Dharma's words and deeds into a volume called "On Dharma"; Dharma is a volume of Linga Essentials, also known as On Dharma, for meditation audience. These two volumes of papers were logical and neat, and they were very popular at that time.

At present, The Collection of Six Doors in Shao Shi has two volumes, namely: Ode to the Heart Sutra, Theory of Deformity (Theory of Mind Observation), Two Introductions, Practice with Peace of Mind, Theory of Enlightenment and Theory of Blood. There are also some papers on Buddhism, such as the absolute view of Dharma monk unearthed in Dunhuang, the interpretation of Dharma's unintentional view, and the view of Dharma of Buddhist master in Nantianzhu (Mahayana), as well as two volumes of Zen Notes carved by Beomeosa Temple in North Korea and the papers collected in Suzuki Teitaro Daisetz's school magazine "A Book of Shao Shi". The contents of these words are roughly the same.

Dharma's meditation method of "two enters and four lines" is centered on the "wall view" method. The second volume of Tang Zongmi's preface to the collection of Zen sources says: "Buddhism teaches people to look at peace of mind with a wall, stop at the outer edge, have no breathing, feel like a wall, and enter the Tao." Isn't this the way to meditate? The so-called "double entry" means "cause entry" and "action entry". Reason belongs to the theoretical thinking of teaching, and practice belongs to practice, that is, the theory of combining Zen theory with practice.

The names of Li Jin and Xing can be found in the fifth edition of A Record of Samadha in King Kong translated by Beiliang. But the Samadha Sutra of King Kong refers to "awareness view" and "wall view" is a unique Zen method from Buddhism. Tao Xuan's evaluation of Dharma Zen, Volume 20, "Xi Zen Continued Biography of Monks" said: "Mahayana has the highest achievement, learning from the world and returning to the city." 」

The characteristic of the wall-watching Zen method lies in "teaching Ming Sect by teaching", that is, the standard of not leaving the holy religion when stimulating faith, which constitutes that teaching people after faith is "not following culture and education", that is, not relying on words and examples. In the second step, reason is the main factor and action is the help.

Later Buddhists took "foreigners at home and abroad don't write" as the symbol of Dharma Zen, and also called it "Buddhism Sect" because it took understanding the Buddha's heart as the ultimate goal of meditation. Some people call it "Lunga School" because Dharma specially teaches Lunga Sutra as a proof of meditation.

There is no examination of the study of Buddhism, and later generations have various opinions about tracing back to tradition. According to the Record of the Master of Lenga, Bodhisattva is the first ancestor, bodhidharma is the second, and Shen Xiu is the seventh. God insists on the orthodoxy of the Southern Sect, affirms that Buddhism is the ancestor of Zen in China, and claims that the six generations of Buddhism-Hui Ke-monk woman-Taoist heart-forbearance-wisdom can come down in one continuous line. There is another saying about the lineage of the Western Heaven, such as Ji Jia Ye He's translation of Fu Zhuan. The Biography of Lin Bao by Tang Zhiju (completed in 80 1 year) is the 24th generation, followed by the 28th generation, that is, Hinduism spread from Ye Jia to the lion monk, followed by Bodhisattva, Mi Duo and Prajna Paramita to Dharma. Zutang Collection (completed in 952), Yongming Yanshou Record (completed in 957), Dengchuan Record of Jingdezhen (completed in 1004) and Authentic Records of Sichuan Law (completed in 65438+ years) inherited this theory.

Disciples of Buddhism include Hui Ke, Yudao, Vice Monk (one is called "Tao") and Lin Tan. See the feature article about "Hui Ke" in this book.

Yudao is a wise educator. Together with Hui Ke, he became the founder and disciple of Dharma and worked in Dharma for four or five years. He learned Zen from Buddhism and paid attention to personal inner practice rather than telling others. His deeds are unknown, except for the third-class legend in Jingde Lu, which tells the story of Dharma's dying moment, that is, he told himself: you get the marrow, the bone, the flesh, and the skin, and the degree of Zen can be imagined.

Deputy monk, the common surname is Wang, a native of Qixian County, Taiyuan, and a disciple of Dharma. Nanqi Jianwu (494-497) lived in Dinglinxia Temple in Zhongshan (now Nanjing). He enjoyed the beautiful scenery of Mount Emei in Ling Min. When Xiao Yuanzao left Sichuan (now Sichuan), he followed him into Sichuan, thus making Zen popular in Sichuan. Later, he returned to Jinling (now Nanjing) and died in the Kaichan Temple in Jinling for five years (524) at the age of 6 1 year.

Lin Tan claimed to be a disciple of Dharma, and recorded Dharma's "24 th Line Theory". In the Biography of Hui Ke, he was called Master Lin. From the first year of Yongping in the Northern Wei Dynasty to the first year of Wuding in the Eastern Wei Dynasty (508-543), he participated in the translation of ancient books in Luoyang, Ye and other places, and was an important figure in the translation of ancient books at that time. He is knowledgeable and good at speaking, and he often talks about victory classics in Wild Capital. During the period of Wu Zhou's demise, he and Hui Ke jointly protected the classics, and their arms were cut off, so they were called "armless forest". Although Lin Tan was close to Buddhism in his early years, he paid equal attention to Zen and righteousness. Therefore, later generations did not mention that Mo printed epithelium, flesh, bone and marrow on his disciples when he died. The four lines (views) of Mahayana entering the Tao recorded in Lin Tan's Chuan Fa Chan left an immortal legacy in the history of Zen in China.