Bodhidharma's wall

Bodhidharma, who is regarded as the First Patriarch of Ch'an or the Zen tradition, is sometimes called the wall-contemplating or wall-gazing Brahmin. He is mostly decorated as sitting in the cave gazing during the cave's wall which he did, supposedly, for 9 years! Most expected this is the fictional comment devised by after Zennists to fill in the gap left by the fugitive tenure "wall-gazing" which in Chinese is biguan/pi-kuan. Heinrich Dumoulin gives us the better bargain of Bodhidharma's wall-contemplation.

"In an ancient content ascribed to Bodhidharma, his way of meditation is characterized by the Chinese word pi-kuan, literally wall-gazing or wall-contemplation. Except for the word pi-kuan, the same passage is found in the Mahayana sutra; it reads: "When one, abandoning the fake as well as embracing the true, in morality of suspicion abides in pi-kuan, the single finds which there is conjunction individuality nor otherness, which typical group (prthagjana) as well as saints (arya) have been of the single essence." The sutra speaks of the "vision of enlightenment [cheh-kuan]" during this pointan expression which also occurs in Zen literature. Whatever the case may be, with the insertion of the word pi-kuan in this content (most expected taken from the sutra), the expression pi-kuan as well as the total content indicated the demeanour of meditation which after generations typified as "Bodhidharma Zen" (Zen Enlightenment, p. 38).

Pi-kuan is positively the special kind of prophesy or insight which is not this worldly. Jeffrey Broughton provides us with an additional angle upon pi-kuana Tibetan perspectiveone which is positively more esoteric.

"Various Ch'an content were translated in to Tibetan, the single of the many important being the Bodhidharma Anthology, which in Tibetan is customarily referr! ed to as the Great Chinese Injunctions (Rgya lung chen po). The not long ago detected ninth-century Tibetan dissertation Dhyna of the Enlightened Eye (Bsam gtan mig sgron) contains translations of the little of [Bodhidharma's] the Two Entrances, the little element from Record I, as well as the total of Record III. Early upon the Dhyna of the Enlightened Eye gives summaries of 4 teachings well known in early Tibet: the gradualist gate; the all-at-once embankment (Chinese Ch'an); Mahayoga; as well as Atiyoga (Rdzog-chen).

The summary of Ch'an ends with the series of quotations from Ch'an masters, the first of whom is Bodhidharmatra, the version of the name which is encountered in Tibetan sources: "From the sayings of the Great Master Bodhidharmatara [Bo-dhe-dar-mo-ta-ra]: 'If the single reverts to the real, rejects discrimination, as well as abides in brightness, afterwards there is conjunction self nor other. The usual man as well as virtuoso have been equal. If but shifting we abide in firmness, after which we will not follow after the created teaching. This is the still of the element of the real. It is nondiscriminative, quiescent, as well as inactive. It is entrance in to principle" (The Bodhidharma Anthology, p. 67). (Italics mine.)

The Tibetan lhan me is rendered, in the above, as "abides in brightness" but could simply be rendered "abides in luminosity" which pertains to the resplendence of Mind. Abides in liughtness serves to give Bodhidharma's difference the profoundly devout ring which they merit in light of the context of this oration as well as others. Following this, here is Red Pine's interpretation which is rounded off the same as Broughtons interpretation except for the problem with the wall!

"Those who turn from misinterpretation behind to reality, who meditate upon walls, the deficiency of self as well as other, the totality of mortal as well as sage, as well as who sojourn indifferent even by scriptures have been i! n finish as well as tacit agreement with reason" (The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, p. 3). (Italics mine.)

Reason should tell us meditating upon walls will get us no where in the devout intrigue of things, but abiding in liughtness or the resplendence of Mind positively will. We can think of this wall as being the radiant wall. It alone represents loyal reality. The walls nature is purely universal as well as dynamic from which all phenomena movement as well as return. It is also thoroughly signless as well as emptyyet not dull of loyal reality. It is only dull of the non-real or the same, dull of illusory phenomena.

On the somewhat opposite note, Japanese Soto Zen took Bodhidharmas wall-gazing utterly literally. This explains why Soto Zennists, to this day, still sit confronting the wall when you do zazen. In the Bendowa, Dogen firmly believes Bodhidharma sat 9 years in zazen during the Shaolin monastery upon Mount Sung confronting the wall. What Dogen is apparently not aware of is the tenure zazen doesnt appear in the passage which contains pi-kuan. Bodhidharma never sat in the cave, confronting the wall you do zazen, in alternative words.