Dhyana in the Buddhist Literature
by Truong Thi Thuy La | 2011 | 66,163 words
This page relates ‘(a): Bodhidharma and Hui K’o (3rd–4th century CE)’ of the study on Dhyana (‘meditation’ or ‘concentration’), according to Buddhism. Dhyana or Jhana represents a state of deep meditative absorption which is achieved by focusing the mind on a single object. Meditation practices constitute the very core of the Buddhist approach to life, having as its ultimate aim Enlightenment (the state of Nirvana).
3.4 (a): Bodhidharma and Hui K’o (3rd–4th century CE)
[Full title: 3.4: The Six Chinese Patriarchs (a): Bodhidharma and Hui K’o (3rd–4th century CE)]
According to Ch’an and Zen legend, Boddhidharma is the Indian monk and missionary who brought Ch’an to China. Legend portrays him as a south Indian prince who left the household life and, upon attaining enlightenment (bodhi), became the 28th in a series of patriarchs through which the Buddha’s original enlightenment experience had been transmitted directly without the mediation of ‘words and scriptures.’ Upon bringing Ch’an to China, he became the first the first Chinese patriarch, and all subsequent Chinese Ch’an and Japanese Zen masters trace their master disciple lineages back to him.[1]
According to the Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (of the Dharma),[2] Bodhidharma was the third son of the King Sugandha of South India. He was generally thought to be a native of Conjeevaram. He became a Buddhist monk and studied Buddhism under Prajñātara for some years. After the death of his teacher, he sailed for China. The journey, in slow stages, took him about three years or so.
According to A Continuation of Memoirs of Eminent Priests, Bodhidharma first reached the Chinese territory in the Sung (Liu) dynasty (420–478 A.D.).
Later he went to the territory of Northern Wei dynasty and preached his Dhyāna doctrine at Sung mountain. Bodhidharma’s purpose and technique of teachings may be summarized as follow:
A special transmission outside the Scriptures;
No dependence upon words and letters;
Direct pointing to the soul of man; and
Seeing into one’s own nature. [3]
In brief, a direct transmission of the Dharma lamp without depending on words and the direct seeing into one’s nature.
Bodhidharma, as it might be well surmised, was very much hated and abused by those who followed Buddhist Vinaya and Sūtras. There were only two young Buddhists named Tao-yu and Hui-K’o (486–598 A.D.) who sincerely and truly followed Bodhidharma for new doctrine. Bodhidharma taught Hui-k’o his main two-fold thesis, comprising of ‘Faith’ and ‘Practice.’
By ‘Faith’ Bodhidharma implied: “I believe firmly that ‘all living beings possess the same Truth. As they are obstructed by external objects, I now ask them to give up falsehood and return to reality. They should concentrate their minds by facing the wall and thinking that there is no existence of ‘self’ and ‘Others,’ and that the enlightened and profane are equal.
He divided his thesis on ‘Practice’ into four sections: (a) A practitioner should endure all hardships and think that owing to his previous Karma, he is suffering the consequences. (b) He should be content with his lot, be it sorrow or happiness, loss or gain. (c) He should not hanker after anything, and (d) he should act in accordance with the Dharma that is Svabhava (natural truth) and is therefore pure. [4]
This school has no faith in any text except the Laṅkāvatāra sūtra which Bodhidharma handed over to Hui-k’o and said: “As I observe that there are no Sūtras in China; this you take for your guidance and you will naturally save the world.” The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra was thus introduced by Bodhidharma in China and after that the study of this Sūtra went on steadily as is shown in the history of Chinese Buddhism.
Bodhidharma could not come to any understanding with the Emperor Wu and he left Nanking, the capital of Liang State and went to the State of Northern Wei, where he retired into the Shao-lin Monastery. It is aid, Bodhidharma spent most of his time, for about nine years, silently sitting in meditation, facing a wall and due to this habit he earned the title of “the wall-gazing Brahmin.”
Finally, there came to him a young scholar named Shen-kuang who decided to follow the Dhyāna doctrine. Bodhidharma did not pay any attention to the earnest supplication of this seeker of truth. It is said that Shen-kuang in the face of this cold reception stood in the snow at the same spot for seven days and nights. At last Bodhidharma asked him: “What is it you want that you are standing in the snow for, such a long time?” Shen-kuang replied: “I pray you to open the door of the ambrosial truth and save the mankind.” “The wonderful truth will not be achieved by people whose virtue and wisdom is limited,” answered Bodhidharma. Shen-kuang heard it and quietly cut off one of his arms with the sword he was carrying in his belt, and presenting the severed arm to Bodhidharma, he said: “This is a token of my sincere desire to be instructed in your faith.”
Bodhidharma realized that Shen-kuang has got capacity to know the truth and gave him the Buddhist name Hui-k’o [5]
Hui-k’o said: “Can I know the seal of Buddha-truth?”
Bodhidharma answered: “Man cannot obtain the seal of Buddha-truth.”
Hui-k’o: “My mind has no peace and I pray to your reverence, to have my mind pacified.”
Bodhidharma: “Where is your mind? Bring it out before me, and I shall have it pacified.”
Hui-k’o: “The very reason of my trouble is that I am unable to find out the mind.” Whereupon Bodhidharma exclaimed: “I have pacified your mind.” And Hui-k’o at once attained the supreme enlightenment.
When Bodhidharma thought that the time had come for him to return to India, he told all his pupils: “The time of parting draws nearer, and why do you not tell me what each one of you has achieved?”
Tao-fu, one of the pupils, said: “According to my point of view, the Tao (the truth of Dhyāna) operates neither depending upon words nor separate from them, it is thus termed utilization of Tao.”
Bodhidharma remarked: “You have obtained my skin.”
Tsung-ch’ih, the nun, said: “According to my understanding, it is like Ananda’s seeing the land of Akshobhya Buddha: it is seen once and never seen twice.”
Bodhidharma said: “You have got my flesh.”
Tao-yu said: “The four great elements are from the ‘first empty’ and live Skandhas are non-existent. According to my insight, there is not one object which is said t be obtainable.”
Bodhidharma replied: “You have my bones.”
Finally Hui-k’o came, bowed and stood by Bodhidharma‘s side.
Thereupon Bodhidharma said: “You have my marrow now.” [6]
Bodhidharma handed over a copy of Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra in four fasciculi to Hui-k’o and in this is disclosed the;essential teachings of the Tathāgata concerning his doctrine. There is a Gāthā:
I have come from India to this land,
To transmit my doctrine to sure the people from delusion; [7]
With five petals of the flower,
Would be a complete one naturally. [8]
Thus Hui-k’o was the first man in China to receive the “Lamp of Dharma” from Bodhidharma and became the second Patriarch, of the Dhyāna School of China. Succeeding generations gave five outstanding teachers, from whose particular methods five Chinese Dhyāna Sects were evolved, continuing the teaching and spreading the Dharma.
Bodhidharma died in the first year of the King Ta Tung of Northern Wei dynasty (535 A.D.) and he was buried at Hsiung Er Mountains of Honan province. In 53 A.D., there was an envoy by name Sung-yun sent to Western Region (Central Asia) by the King of the Wei dynasty on a goodwill mission. He chanced to meet Bodhidharma at Ch’ung-lin or Onion Range–the Belaturgh Mountains in Turkistan. Sung-yun asked Bodhidharma, who was walking along with a single shoe in hand, “Where are you going, Sir?” Bodhidharma answered: “I am going back to the Western Heaven (India).” After Sung-yun came back to China, he reported the matter to the King of the Wei dynasty, and the latter immediately ordered to open Bodhidharma’s grave, where, amazingly, only one shoe was found.
Bodhidharma established the Dhyāna School in China and Hui-k’o was the second Patriarch. Hui-k’o was a native of Wo-lao during the Northern Wei dynasty. His original name was Shen-kuang. When Bodhidharma retired to the Shao-ling Monastery and spent nine years in meditation, Hui-k’o used to call on Bodhidharma for Dhyāna teachings. After Bodhidharma’s passing away, Hui-k’o again talked about Superior Universal Doctrine at the gate of K’uang-chou Temple in Wan Chen district and attracted many people around him. At that time there was a Dharma teacher named Pien-ho who was preaching the doctrine of Nirvāṇa at K’uang-chou Temple but many audiences came out from the temple and listened to Hui-k’o’s talks. Priest Pien-ho reported to the magistrate Che Ch’ung-k’an who wrongly put Hui-k’o to death when the latter was 107 years old in the year 593 A.D.
According to Records of the Transmission of the Lamp (of the Dharma) after Hui-k’o received the Lamp of Dharma, he went to Northern Chi state in the year 567 A.D. There was an Upasaka (May be identified with the Upasaka Hsiang mentioned in the Memoirs of Eminent Priests) whose age was more than forty or so.
He said to Hui-k’o:
I have been suffering from cold. I pray, Your reverence, to have my hindrance of sin removed.”
Hui-k’o said: “Where is your sin? Bring it out before me, I shall have it removed.”
Upasaka said: “The very reason of my trouble is that I am unable to find the sin.”
Whereupon Hui-k’o exclaimed: “There, I have removed your sin, and you should take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Saṅgha now.”
The Upasaka said: “I have seen you now, I under-stand what is called Saṅgha but I don’t know what is called Buddha and Dharma?”
Huik’o answered: “The mind is Buddha; the mind is Dharma; both of them are one, so it is Saṅgha.”
The Upasaka heard these words from Hui-k’o and suddenly got awakened and said: “Today I have come to know that sin neither stays inside nor outside nor in the centre; it is like a mind. There is no difference between Buddha and Dharma.”
Hui-k’o therefore accepted this Upasaka as his disciple and handed over to him the “Seal of Buddha-Heart. [9]
Footnotes and references:
[2]:
See Chou Hsiang-Kuang. Dhyana Buddhism in China: Its History and Teaching, Allahabab: Indo-Chinese Literature Publications, 1960, p. 20.
[3]:
This verse is first found as a fixed formula in the Sōtei jion (Chin., Tsu-t’ing shih yūan), dating from 1108. See Zen Dust, pp. 228-30; Essay in Zen Buddhism, I. p. 176.
[4]:
Chou Hsiang-Kuang 1960, p. 20.
[5]:
Ibid., pp. 21-2.
[6]:
[7]:
Bodhidharma foresaw the decadence in India of the Supreme Vehicle which had already degenerated into six different and contradictory philosophies. Seeing from afar the land of promise he went to China to transmit the Dharma.
[8]:
After Bodhidharma‘s arrival in China, the Dharma opened into a flower five petals, representing the five Chinese Patriarchs who continued the transmission and whose teaching has been handed down until now.
[9]:
See Chou Hsiang-Kuang. 1960, p. 25.