Happy New Year!
In the last issue we talked about the Dharma Tumbler for blessings, and today we talk about his prototype, the 28th Ancestor of Zen Buddhism, and Bodhidharma, who successfully listed Zen Buddhism in China.
Dharma Guru
Zen Source - Picking Flowers and Smiling
Before The Buddha Shakyamuni attained Nirvana, he gathered the masses at the Spirit Mountain to hold a final discourse. A great Brahma king presented a golden lotus flower to the Buddha and asked him to proclaim the unspoken Supreme Dharma. At this time, the Buddha held the lotus flower in his hand, faced the crowd, raised his eyebrows in an instant, and did not say a word, and the crowd did not know what it meant, so no one spoke. At this time, the Buddha's great disciple Mahakashya leaf broke his face and smiled, and the Buddha said, "I have the Dharma Eye Hidden, the Nirvana Mind, the Reality Without Phase, the Subtle Dharma, the Non-Writing, the Teachings of the Outside World, and the Instructions to the Mahakashya." "The Dafa that the Buddha said was actually in the heart, and it cannot be explained in words or words. At that time, only Mahakashyapa sensed the Buddha's wordless Dafa. Mahakayapa is revered as the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism.
Dharma Dongdu, the first anti-aurora
Dharma Guru was instructed to travel to Aurora (China) to preach Buddhism in Dongdu after his master's death sixty-seven years after his death. In the first year of Xiaoliang Datong, that is, in 527 AD, Dharma Guru came to china, and the first stop was Guangzhou, which was called "Xilai Chudi". Nowadays, in Guangzhou's Liwan District, there is an ancient stele "Xilai Ancient Shore" on Xilaizheng Street, Shangxiajiu Road, which records that Dharma landed here. Later Dharma also built the Xilai Temple, which is one of the four jungles of Buddhism in Guangzhou, Hualin Temple.
Heaven talk collapsed, goodbye you Wuli Liang Wu
In 527, during the Reign of Emperor Wu of Liang during the Southern Dynasty. Emperor Liangwu's greatest hobby was "renunciation", and then the ministers used the financial resources of the whole country to buy Emperor Liangwu back from the temple, and the ransom was as high as hundreds of millions of dollars, which showed how devout Emperor Liangwu was. Therefore, Emperor Wu of Liang heard that a high-ranking monk from the West had come and immediately arranged to meet, but this chat was collapsed, it was the donkey's head that was not on the horse's mouth, Emperor LiangWu was confused, and Dharma was collapsed, so let's go and continue north.
A reed crosses the river
Dharma met Emperor Wu of Liang at Jinling, and the first step north was to cross the Yangtze River. It is said that when Emperor Wu of Liang learned that the monk had collapsed and left, he sent someone to chase after him, and Dharma folded a reed by the river and placed it in the river, turning into a flat boat and floating across the river.
Nine years of wallface
Shaolin Temple Dharma Cave
In the third year of the Northern Wei Dynasty, Dharma came to the Shaolin Temple, and then began to face the wall in a natural stone cave in the upper part of the middle peak of Wuniu Peak in the western foothills of Song Mountain, which was nine years, and it is said that Dharma's limbs have degenerated as a result, so the Dharma tumbler we saw in the previous article has no limbs. In the end, Dharma realized the more adapted to the national conditions of Dongtu Zen Buddhism. But the real flourishing of Zen Buddhism in China has always been until the time of the sixth ancestor.
Erzu sought the Fa, and broke his arm to stand in the snow
Cheng Men Lixue Everyone knows, in fact, there is a story of Lixue in the Shaolin Temple. Shen guang wholeheartedly wanted to worship Dharma as his teacher in order to seek the Dharma, but Dharma saw that Shen Guang was full of pride, so he politely refused. It was a cold winter, Dharma was sitting in meditation in the pavilion, and the divine light knelt outside the pavilion, who knew that heavy snow fell in the sky, drowning the knees of the divine light. The next day, Dharma asked, "Why haven't you left yet?", the divine light replied, "Seek the Dharma", Dharma pondered for a moment and said, "Unless the sky falls red snow", the divine light was relieved, drew his sword and cut off his left arm, and the blood splashed, staining the snow in the sky red. Dharma felt the belief in the divine light, so he passed on the mantle and took the Dharma name "Huike", which is the second ancestor of Zen Buddhism.
Just go back to the west
Dharma is said to have been poisoned and buried on Bears Ears Mountain. Dharma's death is known to the world. However, the Eastern Wei envoy Song Yun was on a business trip to the Western Regions and did not know about Dharma's death. Two years after Dharma's death, Song Yun returned to Luoyang, and when he passed through the Onion Ridge (Pamir Plateau), he saw Dharma wearing a monk's robe, barefoot, and a hand shoe coming from east to west, and Song Yun asked, "Where does the master want to go?" Dharma said, "I'm going to the Western Heavens, and when you return to Beijing, don't say you'll see me." Song Yun returned to Luoyang, and when he reported his duties, he casually said that he had met Dharma, and the emperor was shocked, ordered the opening of Dharma's tomb, and found that only one shoe was left, which was the story of "only returning to the west".
We followed in Dharma's footsteps, from Guangzhou to Jinling, across the Yangtze River to Songshan Shaolin and Luoyang, but Dharma's story is much more than that. We'll see you next time.