This whole story is suspect, being first found In the Ch'uan fa-pao chi
of Tu Fei (ca. 700 10), but not in the earlier biography, the Hsu kao-
seng chuan (Further Biographies of Eminent Priests I, compiled by Tao-
hsuan around 645, There is, incidentally, another competing story of a
monk named Bodhidharma in China, He was described as a Persian and was
reported in Yang I Isuan-chih's Buddhist Monasteries In Loyang (Lo-yang
Ch'leh-lan-chi), written In 547, to have been associated with the Yung-
ning monastery, which would have been possible only between the years
516 and 528. This Persian figure apparently claimed to be 150 years in
age, and he most probably came to China via the trading port of Canton
used by Persians. This fact has been used by some to cast doubt on the
more accepted story of a South Indian monk named Bodhidharma arriving
at Canton between 520 and 525. Perhaps a legendary Persian was
transformed into a legendary Indian by the _Dhyana_ school, or perhaps
it was a different individual.
4. This is the conclusion of the leading Zen scholar today, Philip
Yampolsky, in The Platform Sutra of The Sixth Patriarch (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1967), p. 10.
5. English translations of various versions of this essay may be found
In Cat's Yawn by the First Zen Institute of America; In I). T, Suzuki,
Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series; and in John C. H. Wu, The Golden
Age of Zen (Taipei: United Publishing Center, 1907). Concerning this
essay, Philip Yampolsky (private communication) has noted, "Whereas a
version exists In The Transmission of the Lamp, various texts have been
found in the Tun-huang documents and elsewhere, so that a more complete
version is available. It is considered authentic,"
6. Suzuki, Essays in Ann Buddhism, First Series, p. 180.
7. Ibid., pp. 180-81.
8. This point is enlarged considerably in an essay attributed to
Bodhidharma but most likely apocryphal, which Is translated In D. T,
Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, Third Series (New York: Samuel Weiser,
Inc., 1971) pp. 24-30,
9. Suzuki, Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series, p. 181.
10. Suzuki, Ibid.
11. Wu, Golden Age of Zen, pp. 40 50.
12. Ibid., p. 50.
13. Ibid., p. 50.
14. Suzuki translates the passage from the Vajrasamadhi Sutra in
Essays in Zen Buddhism, First Series, pp. 183-84. Portions are as
follows: "Said the Buddha: The two entrances are 'Entrance by Reason'
and 'Entrance by Conduct,' 'Entrance by Reason' means to have a deep
faith in that all sentient beings are identical in essence with the
true nature which is neither unity nor multiplicity; only it is
beclouded by external objects, The nature in itself neither departs nor
comes. When a man in singleness of thought abides in chueh-kuan, he
will clearly see into the Buddha-nature, of which we cannot say whether
it exists or exists not, and in which there is neither selfhood nor
otherness. . . ." Suzuki translates the term chueh-kuan as being
"awakened" or "enlightened,"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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