Editing Bodhidharma (section)

== Practice and teaching ==
[[File:National Museum of Vietnamese History, September 2017. 38.jpg|thumb|Bodhidharma statue, 19th century, Vietnam]]

=== Two Entrances and Four Practices ===
Bodhidharma is traditionally seen as introducing a [[Mahayana]] Buddhist practice of [[Dhyana in Buddhism|dhyana]] (meditation) in [[China]]. According to modern scholars, like the Japanese scholar of Chan Yanagida Seizan, generally hold that the [[Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices|''Two Entrances and Four Practices'']] ''[https://book.bfnn.org/books/0847.htm (]''[https://book.bfnn.org/books/0847.htm 二入四行論'')''] is the only extant work that can be attributed to Bodhidharma and as such, this is the main source for our knowledge of his teaching.<ref name=":1" />

According to this text, Bodhidharma taught two "entrances" to the Dharma. The first is a subitist teaching that directly apprehends the ultimate principle, that is, the true nature or [[buddha-nature]]. The second entrance deals with four practices: (1) accepting all our sufferings as the fruit of past karma, (2) accept our circumstances with equanimity, (3) to be without craving, and (4) to let go of wrong thoughts and practice the six perfections.{{sfn|McRae|2004|pp=29-32}}

According to Yanagida Seizan, the first "entrance of principle", was a [[Subitism|subitist]] teaching which derives from the sudden enlightenment thought of [[Daosheng|Tao-sheng]]; while the four practices are a reworking of the "[[Satipatthana|four foundations of mindfulness]]", which were popular in the late [[Six Dynasties]] period Buddhist meditation circles.<ref name=":1" />

=== Wall-gazing ===
[[File:Bodhidharma, Porcelain, Ming Dynasty (cropped).JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|A [[Blanc de Chine|Dehua ware]] porcelain statuette of Bodhidharma from the late [[Ming dynasty]], 17th century]]
Tanlin, in the preface to ''Two Entrances and Four Practices'', and [[Daoxuan]], in the ''Further Biographies of Eminent Monks'', mentions a practice of Bodhidharma's termed "wall-gazing" (壁觀 ''bìguān''). Both Tanlin{{refn|group=note|{{sfn|Broughton|1999|pp=9, 66}} translates 壁觀 as "wall-examining".}} and Daoxuan<ref group="web">{{cite web |title=''Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō'', Vol. 50, No. 2060, p. 551c 06(02) |url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T50/2060_016.htm |url-status=live |archive-date=2008-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605003344/http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T50/2060_016.htm}}</ref> associate this "wall-gazing" with "quieting [the] mind"{{sfn|Broughton|1999|p=9}} ({{zh|c=安心|p=ānxīn}}).

In the ''Two Entrances and Four Practices'', the term "wall-gazing" is given as follows:

{{blockquote|Those who turn from delusion back to reality, who ''meditate on walls'', the absence of self and other, the oneness of mortal and sage, and who remain unmoved even by scriptures are in complete and unspoken agreement with reason.{{sfn|Pine|1989|p=3, emphasis added}}{{refn|group=note|{{sfn|Broughton|1999|p=9}} offers a more literal rendering of the key phrase 凝住壁觀 (''níngzhù bìguān'') as "[who] in a coagulated state abides in wall-examining".}}}}

Daoxuan states, "the merits of Mahāyāna wall-gazing are the highest".{{sfn|Dumoulin|Heisig|Knitter|2005|p=96}} These are the first mentions in the historical record of what may be a type of [[Buddhist meditation|meditation]] being ascribed to Bodhidharma. Exactly what sort of practice Bodhidharma's "wall-gazing" was remains uncertain. Nearly all accounts have treated it either as an undefined variety of meditation, as Daoxuan and Dumoulin,{{sfn|Dumoulin|Heisig|Knitter|2005|p=96}} or as a variety of seated meditation akin to the [[zazen]] ({{zh|c=坐禪|p=zuòchán}}) that later became a defining characteristic of Chan. The latter interpretation is particularly common among those working from a Chan standpoint.<ref group="web">{{cite web |author=Keizan Jokin |translator1=Anzan Hoshin |translator2=Joshu Dainen |title=Denkoroku: Record of the Transmission of Luminosity |publisher=White Wind Zen Community |url=http://www.wwzc.org/translations/denkoroku.htm |archive-date=2006-09-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060901213528/http://www.wwzc.org/translations/denkoroku.htm}}</ref><ref group="web">{{cite web |author=Simon Child |title=In The Spirit of Chan |url=http://www.westernchanfellowship.org/in-the-spirit-of-chan.html |work=Western Chan Fellowship |date=October 2000 |access-date=2007-04-03 |url-status=live |archive-date=2007-01-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070102052620/http://www.westernchanfellowship.org/in-the-spirit-of-chan.html}}</ref>

There have also, however, been interpretations of "wall-gazing" as a non-meditative phenomenon.{{refn|group=note|''viz.'',{{Sfn|Broughton|1999|p=67–68}} where a [[Tibetan Buddhism|Tibetan Buddhist]] interpretation of "wall-gazing" as being akin to [[Dzogchen]] is offered.}} Jeffrey Broughton points out that where Bodhidharma's teachings appear in Tibetan translation among the [[Dunhuang manuscripts]], the Chinese phrase "in a coagulated state abides in wall-examining" (ning chu pi-kuan) is replaced in Tibetan with "rejects discrimination and ''abides in brightness''" (rtogs pa spangs te | lham mer gnas na).<ref>Jeffrey Broughton, The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, page 67, University of California Press, 1999</ref>{{refn|group=note|Stein Tibetan 710, which is a Tibetan translation of the ''Lengqie shizi ji,'' is an exception to this. It has: "remains in purity and gazes at the wall-surface."<ref>Jeffrey Broughton. Early Ch'an Schools in Tibet, in Studies in Ch'an and Hua-yen, page 59, note 47, University of Hawaii Press, 1983</ref>}} Broughton sees this as a curious divergence, as Tibetan translations of Chinese Chan texts are usually quite literal. He concludes that in early Tibet, "wall examining" did not refer to a literal practice of sitting cross-legged facing a wall.<ref>Jeffrey Broughton, The Bodhidharma Anthology: The Earliest Records of Zen, pages 67-68, University of California Press, 1999</ref>
=== The ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' ===
[[File:Daruma-Bodhidharma.jpg|thumb|Bodhidharma ([[Chinese characters|Chinese]]: 達磨; [[Hiragana]]: だるま; [[Romanization of Japanese|Romaji]]: ''Daruma''), painted by [[Miyamoto Musashi]], swordsman, artist and philosopher who was close to [[Takuan Sōhō|Takuan Soho]], a monk of the [[Rinzai school|Rinzai sect]], who was linked to the [[Samurai|samurai caste]]]]
There are early texts which explicitly associate Bodhidharma with the ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra''. Daoxuan, for example, in a late recension of his biography of Bodhidharma's successor [[Dazu Huike|Huike]], has the sūtra as a basic and important element of the teachings passed down by Bodhidharma:

{{blockquote|In the beginning, Dhyana Master Bodhidharma took the four-roll ''Laṅkā Sūtra'', handed it over to Huike, and said: "When I examine the land of China, it is clear that there is only this sutra. If you rely on it to practice, you will be able to cross over the world."{{sfn|Broughton|1999|p=62}}}}

Another early text, the "[[Lengqie shizi ji|''Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'']]" ({{zh|t=楞伽師資記|p=Léngqié Shīzī Jì}}) of Jingjue (淨覺; 683–750), also mentions Bodhidharma in relation to this text. Jingjue's account also makes explicit mention of "sitting meditation" or zazen:<ref group="web">{{cite web |title=''Taishō Shinshū Daizōkyō'', Vol. 85, No. 2837, p. 1285b 17(05) |url=http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T85/2837_001.htm |url-status=live |archive-date=2008-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080605003404/http://www.cbeta.org/result/normal/T85/2837_001.htm}}</ref>

{{blockquote|For all those who sat in meditation, Master Bodhi[dharma] also offered expositions of the main portions of the ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'', which are collected in a volume of twelve or thirteen pages […] bearing the title of "Teaching of [Bodhi-]Dharma".{{sfn|Dumoulin|Heisig|Knitter|2005|p=89}}}}

In other early texts, the school that would later become known as Chan Buddhism is sometimes referred to as the "Laṅkāvatāra school" (楞伽宗 ''Léngqié zōng'').{{sfn|Dumoulin|Heisig|Knitter|2005|p=52}}

The ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'', one of the [[Mahayana sutras]], is a highly "difficult and obscure" text{{sfn|Suzuki|1932|loc=[http://lirs.ru/do/lanka_eng/lanka-intro.htm#preface Preface]}} whose basic thrust is to emphasize "the inner [[Bodhi|enlightenment]] that does away with all duality and is raised above all distinctions".{{sfn|Kohn|1991|p=125}} It is among the first and most important texts for [[East Asian Yogācāra]].{{sfn|Sutton|1991|p=1}}

According to Suzuki, one of the recurrent emphases in the ''Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra'' is a lack of reliance on words to effectively express reality:

{{blockquote|If, Mahamati, you say that because of the reality of words the objects are, this talk lacks in sense. Words are not known in all the Buddha-lands; words, Mahamati, are an artificial creation. In some Buddha-lands ideas are indicated by looking steadily, in others by gestures, in still others by a frown, by the movement of the eyes, by laughing, by yawning, or by the clearing of the throat, or by recollection, or by trembling.{{sfn|Suzuki|1932|loc=XLII}}}}

In contrast to the ineffectiveness of words, the sūtra instead stresses the importance of the "self-realization" that is "attained by noble wisdom"{{sfn|Suzuki|1932|loc=XI(a)}} and, according to Suzuki, occurs "when one has an insight into reality as it is":{{sfn|Suzuki|1932|loc=XVI}} "The truth is the state of self-realization and is beyond categories of discrimination".{{sfn|Suzuki|1932|loc=IX}} According to Suzuki, reflecting his own emphasis on [[kensho]], the sūtra goes on to outline the ultimate effects of an experience of self-realization:

{{blockquote|[The [[bodhisattva]]] will become thoroughly conversant with the noble truth of self-realization, will become a perfect master of his own mind, will conduct himself without effort, will be like a gem reflecting a variety of colours, will be able to assume the body of transformation, will be able to enter into the subtle minds of all beings, and, because of his firm belief in the truth of Mind-only, will, by gradually ascending the stages, become established in Buddhahood.{{sfn|Suzuki|1932|loc=VIII}}}}