There were already many sects in China, the chief of which were:
(1) _The Amidists._
This was the form of Buddhism which appealed to the uneducated.
It taught that a Buddha named Amida presides over the Western
Paradise, where he will receive the souls of those that worship
him. The conception of this Paradise closely resembles the
Christian idea of Heaven and may have been derived from it.
(2) The _Tendai_ Sect, founded at the end of the sixth century.
Its teaching was based on a scripture of enormous length called
the _Saddharma Pundarīka Sūtra_, which is translated by Kern in
the Sacred Books of the East. It was perhaps the broadest and most
representative sect. It laid great stress on the ethical side of
Buddhism.
We now come to _Zen_.
In the year 520 A.D. there arrived at Canton a missionary from
Southern India. His name was Bodhidharma and he appears to have been
the younger son of an Indian Prince.
The reigning Emperor of China was a munificent patron of Buddhism. He
had built monasteries, given alms, distributed scriptures, defended
the faith. Hearing that a Buddhist prince had arrived from India he
summoned him at once to his Capital. The following conversation took
place in the Palace at Nanking:
_Emperor_: You will be interested to hear that I have built many
monasteries, distributed scriptures, given alms, and upheld the
Faith. Have I not indeed acquired merit?
_Bodhidharma_: None at all.
_Emperor_: In what then does true merit consist?
_Bodhidharma_: In the obliteration of Matter through Absolute
Knowledge, not by external acts.
_Emperor_: Which is the Divine and Primal Aspect of Reality?
_Bodhidharma_: Reality has no aspect that is divine.
_Emperor_: What are you, who have come before my Throne?
_Bodhidharma_: I do not know.
The Emperor could make nothing of him. Monasticism, a huge vested
interest, decried him, and after a short stay in Nanking he started
northward, towards the Capital of the Wei Tartars, who then ruled over
a large part of China. The Wei Emperor, like his Chinese confrère, was
also a great patron of Buddhism, and he, too, desired an interview with
the Indian priest. But Bodhidharma had done with Emperors, and settled
in a small country temple, where he lived till his death nine years
later. Some say that he tried to visit the Capital of the Weis, but was
prevented by the intrigues of the monks there.
He left behind him a few short tractates, the substance of which is as
follows:
There is no such person as Buddha. Buddha is simply a Sanskrit
word meaning “initiate.” The Absolute is immanent in every man’s
heart. This “treasure of the heart” is the only Buddha that exists.
It is no use seeking Buddha outside your own nature. Prayer,
scripture-reading, fasting, the observance of monastic rules--all
are useless. Those who seek Buddha do not find him. You may know
by heart all the Sūtras of the twelve divisions, and yet be unable
to escape from the Wheel of Life and Death. One thing alone
avails--to discover the unreality of the World by contemplating the
Absolute which is at the root of one’s own nature.
Some one asked him: “Why may we not worship the Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas?” He answered:
“Ogres and hobgoblins can at will assume the outward form of
Bodhisattvas; such are heretical and not of the true Buddha. There
is no Buddha but your own thoughts. Buddha is the Way. The Way is
Zen. This word Zen cannot be understood even of the wise. Zen means
‘for a man to behold his fundamental nature.’”[2]
[2] Zen (_Sanskrit: dhyāna_) means literally “contemplation.”
* * * * *
The highest truths cannot be written down or taught by speech. A
man who cannot write a word, can yet contemplate his own heart and
become wise. Knowledge of 1,000 Sūtras and 10,000 Shāstras cannot
help him to realise the Absolute within him.
He was asked: “Can a layman with wife and children, one given over to
the lusts of the flesh, achieve Buddhahood?” He answered:
“Provided he contemplate his own inner-nature, he will achieve
Buddhahood. It does not matter about his lusts. Even a butcher can
achieve Buddhahood, if he searches in his own heart.”
“What,” cried his listeners, “a butcher, who lives by taking life, and
_he_ achieve Buddhahood?” The master replied:
“It is not a question of the man’s trade. If he has learnt to know
his own nature he will be saved.
“I have come from India only to teach you that Buddha is Thought.
I care nothing for monastic rules or ascetic practices. As for
walking on water or through fire, climbing sword-wheels, fasting,
sitting upright for hours without rest--all such practices are
heretical; they belong to the World of Being.
“Thought, Thought, Thought! It is hard to seek. Expanding, it
covers the whole world; shrinking, it is too small to lodge a pin.
“I seek the heart; I do not seek Buddha. For I have learnt to know
that the outer world is empty and untenanted.”
Such was the teaching of Bodhidharma. It was Vedantic[3] rather than
Buddhist. The terms “thought,” “Buddha,” etc., used by Bodhidharma
correspond exactly to the _brahman_ of the Upanishads. Mystic
contemplation or _yoga_ had been used by the Brahmins and was not
unknown to the early Buddhists. But Bodhidharma was the first to insist
upon it as the sole means of salvation.
[3] Dr. McGovern tells me that Zen would seem to be more immediately
derived from the Nihilistic School of Nāgārjuna (1st century
A.D.).
Yet though his whole teaching turned on this “meditation” or “Zen,”
he left behind him no exact directions for the practice of it. Having
shown the end, he left it to each individual to find his own means.
Rules, dogmas and definitions were precisely what he set out to destroy.
Less than a hundred years after his death another Indian, Buddhapriya,
came to China and there defined with exactitude and blunt materiality
the various forms of meditation.
The transition from the spirituality of Bodhidharma to the grossness of
his follower is, however, typical of religious history. The poetry of
Christ turns into the theology of Paul; the hovel of Saint Francis into
the mansion of Brother Elias.