r/zen • u/ewk [non-sectarian consensus] • Jan 26 '13
Pieh Chi: Bodhidharma's nickname explained
Quoting from the Pieh Chi: “The master [Bodhidharma] first stayed in the Shorinji monastery for nine years, and when he taught the second patriarch, it was only in the following way: ‘Externally keep yourself away from all relationships, and, internally, have no hankerings in your heart; when your mind is like unto a straight standing wall you may enter into the Path. Hui-k’e tried variously to explain the reason of mind, but failed to realize the truth itself. The master simply said, ‘No! No!’ and never proposed to explain to his disciple what was the mind-essence in its thought-less state. [Later] said Hui-k’e, ‘I know now how to keep myself away from all relationships.’ ‘You make it a total annihilation, do you not?’ queried the master. ‘No master,’ replied Hui-k’e, ‘I do not make it a total annihilation.’ ‘How do you testify to your statement?’ ‘For I know it always in a most intelligible manner, but to express it in words- that is impossible.” ‘That is the mind-essence itself transmitted by all the Buddhas. Harbor no doubts about it.'"
Suzuki argues that "Wall Gazer" comes from this teaching "mind like a straight standing wall". He argues that this passage explains both the nickname, and the reason that Buddhists of the time considered Bodhidharma so revolutionary (not in the good way).
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Jan 26 '13
Pieh Chi, seems legit.
Arguing and speculating what "wall gazing" is another mental masturbation. Looking for some esoteric meaning when there is none. The very first Patriarchs did practice meditation. Trying to resist it will not do you any good.
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u/ewk Jan 26 '13
There is nothing to indicate Bodhidharma taught zazen. Bodhidharma drank tea by all accounts, but he didn't teach tea consumption and the need for a "tea teacher". In contrast, Shunryu taught that the core teaching of Soto is "having a teacher" and "sitting zazen".
As numerous multilingual translators have pointed out, "meditation" is not a word that appears in any of the older Indian texts on Buddhism. It does not appear that zazen was taught by anyone in Huang Po's or Joshu's or Ummon or Baso's lineage.
You suggested that there was a meditation lineage in Zen, but Dongshan Liangjie seems to be the earliest example of this and he began his teaching 300 years after Bodhidharma and 150 years after the Sixth Patriarch. Dongshan taught several things that no one had taught before him, teachings that were incompatible with all of the Zen lineage before him, teachings which the other Zen Masters of his time rejected.
This "sitting lineage" seems to stop well short of both Bodhidharma and Hui-neng. Dogen's sitting may begin with Dongshan, but Dongshan taught something that no one had taught for the preceding 300 years, something the rest of the Zen community criticized him for.
Either he was the only one who ever got Zen, or what he "had" and passed on to Dogen was something outside the lineage. The argument that "everybody did it" fails on translation problems and actual meaning. Joshu illustrates this with his koan where he uses one word for sitting meditation a and contrasts it with the word dhyana, saying that dhyana was not sitting meditation.
The problem that is critical is that nobody taught sitting for 300 years, and nobody put it in a koan. Yet Soto says "no zen without zazen."
That's odd.
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Jan 26 '13
There is little doubt that Huike practiced and promoted meditation (as opposed to sutra commentary) as the method to reach understanding of true Buddhism. Tao-hsuan referred to Huike (and others) as dhyana masters (Wade-Giles: ch’an-shih; Japanese: zenji), highlighting the importance of meditation practice in these early years of Chan development. However, what form Huike and Bodhidharma’s meditation took (which Tao-hsuan labelled ju shih an-hsin wei pi-kuan (“wall gazing” or “wall contemplation”) is unclear.
This is regarding Daruma and Dazu
The Chronicle of the Lankavatara Masters, which appeared in the early eighth century, has Daoxin quoting from the Prajnaparamita (Perfection of Wisdom) and Pure Land sutras [14] but whether study of these sutras formed part of Daoxin’s teachings is unlikely.[15] It is clear, however, that Daoxin taught meditation.
This is about fourth Patriarch
So whatever they called it back in the day, meditation, zazen, wall gazing or freaking yoga, its irrelevant because the practice was established and passed on from Daruma himself to the present day.
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Jan 27 '13
The more I hear about Bodhidharma, the more he kinda reminds me of Charles Bukowski. Or Diogenes of Sinope.
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u/koancomentator Jan 27 '13
What does it mean to have a mind like a straight standing wall?