The Arrival of Buddhism in China
A Mahayana teaching with a strong Taoist infusion, Ch’an or Zen cast off the dead weight of priestly ritual and mindless chanting of the sutras or scriptures—the records of the Buddha’s teachings—and returned to the simple zazen way of Shakyamuni. In a statement attributed to the First Chinese Patriarch, Bodhidharma, an old monk from India who is loosely associated with the birth of Zen, the new teaching was described as ‘a special transmission outside the scriptures, not founded upon words or letters. By pointing directly to man’s own mind, it lets him see into his own true nature and thus attain Buddhahood.’
The illustrious teacher from India was soon summoned to an audience with the Emperor Wu, a devout Buddhist and teacher of the sutras who built temples and supported monks, and was therefore honored as the ‘Buddha-Mind Emperor.’ (One meaning of the Chinese character wu signifies ‘absolute being’; another denotes ‘awakening’ or enlightenment.) Relating all he had studied and accomplished, Wu asked modestly, ‘What merit will there be?’
Bodhidharma said, ‘No merit.’
In answering in this abrupt sharp way, the old Indian teacher points directly at the absolute, in which there is no merit to be given, and neither giver nor receiver. From the relative point of view, there is no merit either, so long as Wu clings to the concept of merit: true merit derives from seeing into one’s own true nature or Buddha-nature, manifesting one’s own free meritless nature, moment after moment, like a fish or bird—just Wu, just bird.
Doubtless taken aback, the Emperor demands, ‘If all that has no merit, then what is the primary meaning of the holy truth?’ Presumably the Emperor refers to the non-duality of universal and everyday truth, the fundamental identity of relative and absolute that underlies Mahayana Buddhist doctrine. And perhaps he is challenging the old villain to present the essence of this teaching. But Bodhidharma, correctly interpreting this sutra teacher’s degree of spiritual attainment, recognizes a purely doctrinal question inviting exposition on the Dharma, and so, once more, he points directly at the realm of the Absolute or Universal.
‘No holiness,’ says he. ‘Vast emptiness.’
- Peter Matthiessen, in ‘Nine-headed Dragon River.’
The illustrious teacher from India was soon summoned to an audience with the Emperor Wu, a devout Buddhist and teacher of the sutras who built temples and supported monks, and was therefore honored as the ‘Buddha-Mind Emperor.’ (One meaning of the Chinese character wu signifies ‘absolute being’; another denotes ‘awakening’ or enlightenment.) Relating all he had studied and accomplished, Wu asked modestly, ‘What merit will there be?’
Bodhidharma said, ‘No merit.’
In answering in this abrupt sharp way, the old Indian teacher points directly at the absolute, in which there is no merit to be given, and neither giver nor receiver. From the relative point of view, there is no merit either, so long as Wu clings to the concept of merit: true merit derives from seeing into one’s own true nature or Buddha-nature, manifesting one’s own free meritless nature, moment after moment, like a fish or bird—just Wu, just bird.
Doubtless taken aback, the Emperor demands, ‘If all that has no merit, then what is the primary meaning of the holy truth?’ Presumably the Emperor refers to the non-duality of universal and everyday truth, the fundamental identity of relative and absolute that underlies Mahayana Buddhist doctrine. And perhaps he is challenging the old villain to present the essence of this teaching. But Bodhidharma, correctly interpreting this sutra teacher’s degree of spiritual attainment, recognizes a purely doctrinal question inviting exposition on the Dharma, and so, once more, he points directly at the realm of the Absolute or Universal.
‘No holiness,’ says he. ‘Vast emptiness.’
- Peter Matthiessen, in ‘Nine-headed Dragon River.’