Zen · Chan · 5th–6th century
Bodhidharma
First patriarch of Chan · Outline of Practice · Sermon on Awakening
The one who came from the West and kept silent at the wall for nine years. The root of the whole Zen lineage.
The essence of the teaching: Buddha-nature is your own mind, empty and pure from the very beginning. It is not attained or brought in from outside: it is recognized when you stop clutching at outer images. To sit facing a wall is to return to mind, bypassing the scriptures.
Transmission
Bodhidharma came to China and met the emperor, who boasted of the temples he had built and asked how great his merit was. "No merit at all," the monk answered, and went off into the mountains. There he sat facing a wall and kept silent for nine years. He taught two entrances. Through reason – to see directly that all beings share one nature, hidden only by delusion. And through practice – to accept every misfortune as the ripening of past deeds, to want nothing, to see the three worlds as a burning house. To seek the Buddha outside the mind is delusion itself. To see the emptiness of mind itself is to see the Buddha.
The full transmission — for members of the School. Here is its essence and its taste.
The tradition
Zen · Chan
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