[image: Inline image 2] Bodhidharma
It's all about wall gazing, mental activity cessation, and rounding. Like a Bodhidarma (Jap. Daruma) of old MMY brought TM-Sidhis to the West, as did the Daruma who took Dhyan pu-kuan to China. One brown-eyed, the other blue, both bearded, sitting quietly facing a wall. Legend has it that the Bodhidharma was invited to China by the Emperor Wu who inquired: "Given all that I have done for Buddhism in China, what merit have I earned?" Bodhidharma answered, "None whatsoever." The emperor was stunned but pressed on, "What is the most important principle of Buddhism?" This second question Bodhidharma reportedly answered by saying, "Vast emptiness. Nothing holy." According to this legend, Bodhidharma then crossed the Yangtze River and went to the Shao-lin Temple on Mt. Sung, where the Bodhidharma sat in deep meditation, facing a wall, for nine years, thereby inventing what is called pu-kuan, or "wall gazing" thus becoming the founder of the Zen sect of Buddhism, and the first patriarch of the Dhyana school in China. In addition, the Bodhidharma, apparently in his spare time, invented Kung Fu, in order to provide adequate physical exercise via rounding. According to the 'Records of the Transmission of the Lamp', a student once asked Bodhidharma, "Master, I have not found peace of mind." Bodhidharma replied, "Bring me your mind and I will pacify it for you." The student was silent. "There," said Bodhidharma, "I have pacified it for you." This story illustrates the concept of the mind as a perceiver, a witness, something that cannot be itself subject to analysis. The mind cannot examine itself, and since the mind cannot become an object of its own perception, its existence can only be understood intuitively through the practice of introspection. Says Bodhidharma: "A special transmission outside the sutras; no reliance upon words and letters; direct pointing to the very mind of man; seeing into one's own nature." Works cited: 'Records of the Transmission of the Lamp' Translated by D.T. Suzuki 'Essays in Zen Buddhism' Grove Press, 1961 Other titles of interest: 'The Zen Experience' by Thomas Hoover 'A History of Zen Buddhism' by Heinrich Dumoulin
