On 16th November, 1870, Mr. Shchapoff, a Russian squire, the narrator, came home from a visit to a country town, Iletski, and found his family in some disarray. There lived with him his mother and his wife's mother, ladies of about sixty-nine,... Read more of The Dancing Devil at Scary Stories.ca

Privacy

Samurai

The Betterment Of Life
Again, people nowadays seem to feel keenly the wound of the ...

The Introduction Of The So-to School Of Zen
[FN#75] This school was started by Tsing-Yuen (Sei-gen)...

The Progress And Hope Of Life
How many myriads of years have passed since the germs of life...

The Parable Of The Monk And The Stupid Woman
The confused or unenlightened may be compared with a monk and...

Decline Of Zen
The blooming prosperity of Zen was over towards the end of th...

Life Change And Hope
The doctrine of Transcience never drives us to the pessimisti...

Let Go Of Your Idle Thoughts
[FN#263] A famous Zenist, Mu-go-koku-shi, is said to ha...

Enlightened Consciousness Is Not An Intellectual Insight
Enlightened Consciousness is not a bare intellectual insight,...

The Social State Of Japan When Zen Was Established By Ei-sai And Do-gen
Now we have to observe the condition of the country when Zen ...

A Sutra Equal In Size To The Whole World
The holy writ that Zen masters admire is not one of parchment...

The Theory Of Buddha-nature Adequately Explains The Ethical States Of Man
This theory of Buddha-nature enables us to get an insight int...

Great Men And Nature
All great men, whether they be poets or scientists or religio...

Sutras Used By Zen Masters
Ten Dai failed to explain away the discrepancies and contradi...

Man Is Good-natured According To Mencius
Oriental scholars, especially the Chinese men of letters, se...

Zen In The Dark Age
The latter half of the Ashikaga period was the age of arms an...

The Irrationality Of The Belief Of Immortality
Occidental minds believe in a mysterious entity under the nam...

How To Worship Buddha
The author of Vimalakirtti-nirdeca-sutra well explains our at...

The Creative Force Of Nature And Humanity
The innate tendency of self-preservation, which manifests its...

Buddha Dwelling In The Individual Mind
Enlightened Consciousness in the individual mind acquires for...

Epicureanism And Life
There are a good many people always buoyant in spirit and mir...

Bodhidharma's Disciples And The Transmission Of The Law[fn#31]

[FN#31] For details, see Chwen Tang Luh and Den Ka Roku, by Kei Zan.
As for the life of Bodhidharma, Dr. B. Matsumoto's 'A Life of
Bodhidharma' may well be recommended to the reader.

Bodhidharma's labour of nine years in China resulted in the
initiation of a number of disciples, whom some time before his death
he addressed as follows: Now the time (of my departure from this
world) is at hand. Say, one and all, how do you understand the Law?
Tao Fu (Do-fuku) said in response to this: The Law does not lie in
the letters (of the Scriptures), according to my view, nor is it
separated from them, but it works. The Master said: Then you have
obtained my skin. Next Tsung Chi (So-ji), a nun, replied: As
Ananda[FN#32] saw the kingdom of Aksobhya[FN#33] only once but not
twice, so I understand the Law. The master said: Then you have
attained to my flesh. Then Tao Yuh (Do-iku) replied: The four
elements[FN#34] are unreal from the first, nor are the five
aggregates[FN#35] really existent. All is emptiness according to my
view. The master said: Then you have acquired my bone. Lastly,
Hwui Ko (E-ka), which was the Buddhist name given by Bodhidharma, to
Shang Kwang, made a polite bow to the teacher and stood in his place
without a word. You have attained to my marrow. So saying,
Bodhidharma handed over the sacred Kachaya, [FN#36] which he had
brought from India to Hwui Ko, as a symbol of the transmission of the
Law, and created him the Second Patriarch.

[FN#32] A favourite disciple of Shakya Muni, and the Third Patriarch
of Zen.

[FN#33] The: name means I Immovable,' and represents the firmness of
thought.

[FN#34] Earth, water, fire, and air.

[FN#35] (1) Rupa, or form; (2) Vedana, or perception; (3) Samjnya,
or consciousness; (4) Karman (or Samskara), or action; (5) Vijnyana,
or knowledge.

[FN#36] The clerical cloak, which is said to have been dark green.
It became an object of great veneration after the Sixth Patriarch,
who abolished the patriarchal system and did not hand the symbol over
to successors.

Next: The Second And The Third Patriarchs
Previous: Bodhidharma And His Successor The Second Patriarch

Report
Privacy

SHARE

BOOKMARK

Viewed 1109