Customer Reviews

The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

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I first began researching Zen in the secondary sources: inspiring and thoughtful and informative authors like D.T. Suzuki who cited the patriarchs. At some point one realized that it's going to be essential to read the primary sources themselves. This is one of them. Here is a first rate translation of the First Patriarch of Zen. Red Pine gives a nine page introduction to Bodhidharma, facts separated from lore, providing the reader a concise introduction to what one should know about the First Patriarch of Zen, who arrived in China from India about 2000 years ago. The divisions of the book are four teachings traditionally attributed to Bodhidharma:
Outline of Practice
Bloodstream Sermon
Wake-up Sermon
Breakthrough Sermon

As usual, Mr. Pine offers you the original Chinese text throughout, and provides extensive and very helpful explanatory notes, this time offered as endnotes to keep the texts of the four teachings unencumbered.

This book is a little jewel. Every time I open it I am impressed anew with its clarity and immediacy. This is due,I think, not only to the timelessness of the teachings themselves, but to Red Pine's intelligence & sensitivity. Many thanks, Red Pine.

A fifth-century Buddhist Indian mystic, Bodhidharma proves to be one of Buddhism's most enigmatic masters. Acknowledged as the father of Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma's teachings represent the every essence of Zen itself. Deep and pithy, he sermons guide the reader to the very summit of Buddha mind, urging the reader to look within beyond the veil of appearance. Not an ordinary book that will be read only once then tucked away on a bookshelf, Red Pine's translation of Bodhidharma's teachings will be a constant companion for many years. I highly recommend this book for both the beginner and the seasoned practitioner of Zen

Red Pine (aka Bill Porter, author of ROAD TO HEAVEN and a celebrated translator of Buddhist poetry and scripture) gives us a spirited translation of four talks attributed to Bodhidharma even though debates over authorship, and even the existence of Bodhidharma as more than a legend, have not rested.

Bodhidharma's "Outline of Practice" outlines the dharma as this Brahman-born monk taught it in China after being sent there by his teacher, Prajnatara. A confusing distinction made in these talks, especially the "Outline," has to do with what Bodhidharma calls "reason" (again, in this translation) and meditation practice. They are presented as two avenues to "zen," but the definitions make it hard to distinguish them. Throughout, there is an inside/outside (or mind/body) kind of thinking which may be expedient thinking for the sake of his students, or his own enduring mind-habit.

Otherwise, his teaching is very clear: attain your true self, attain what the Heart Sutra is talking about; and at that point, what is there to do? Realizing the paramitas without a trace of actor or action, the student can use form with a clear mind and help others.

In the "Bloodstream Sermon," there are questions and answers, as Bodhidharma teaches and occasionally spars with monks in China (at a time when Buddhism in China was heavily philosophical). Bodhidharma has mastered the philosophy enough to turn it on its ear and make it point these sleepy students to "just doing it." If you do not find your true self, he says, all invocations, offerings and precepts are useless. "The thousands of sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind."

With the "Breakthrough Sermon," the conceptualizing gets pretty convoluted. Dharma speeches are like acupuncture needles, and what may have pointed directly 1,500 years ago becomes mysterious. This talk refers to the Nirvana Sutra and the Sutra of the Ten Stages, which were revolutionizing Buddhism in China.

It is interesting to watch how Bodhidharma intercepts questions which are often reverently Buddhist and spin them around to the three poisons (anger, greed, delusion) and their need to practice just now. And yet one might wonder that even as he criticizes external devotions, he seems to be making something special about "inner" work and enlightenment. Is there such thing as practice without inside and outside?

I have read this book maybe twenty-five times now and I keep returning to it because what is contained is about as bare bones a relation of perspective as can be given. I admire directness and a concise approach as much as I admire Zen itself. Bodhidharma "tells it like it is" and then closes his mouth. Red Pine is a treasure to the English speaking world.

If you haven't noticed by now, truth is not exempt from change. This wonderful traslation of some of the core teachings of the credited founder of Zen, Bodhidharma, makes this very clear to me. Everytime I read this tremedously important work new insight comes forward, making clear how the "way" is never locked in place. Not to mention this is one of very few books out there in English which gives an account of some of this famous master's teachings.

If you read this book with a sincere effort to realize this life, it will no doubt give you what you came for. As for a book of mere entertainment, this is not that. It is thought provoking, the meanings of every page are not spoonfed to us. We are left to search for their meanings within on our own, Red Pine simply tries to present us with the original sayings. Commentary can often confuse someone into believing that the observation an uthor makes is one and the same with what was originally said. I like how Red Pine does not do this. I believe the best translator's try their best to present us with the closest accounts as possible of what the original work was about. I believe Red Pine has certainly done this.

Enjoy this book:)

"Using the mind to look for reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation." Although I do not understand this teaching, it provokes me to meditation.

There's a fair amount of Buddhist mythology here, and cosmology charts (six of these and four of those and ten of the other), but this book has a light worth seeing at its center. The apparent paradox of using language to transcend words is not lost on me, but paradox is just another word trap, and I am no longer content with clever resolutions that can impress but not satisfy.

One may find many insights from this book! I've read and heard many words, but none more straight forward than this. I am just happy to know dialogues of this magnitude took place long ago. I think you will fall in love with it.

The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma, Red Pine San Francisco, CA: North Point Press, 1989

Bodhidharma is recognized as the Founder of Zen in China by all schools of Zen Buddhism. As the First Ancestor of Zen in China, his is the very manifestation of the archetypal Zen master.

"Seeing your nature is zen." Says Bodhidharma, in his straightforward, no nonsense style, "Unless you see your nature, it's not zen."

Red Pine has collected and translated the four most important records attributed to the undisputed Father of Zen in this excellent volume. Each meticulous English translation is accompanied, page by page, with the original Chinese characters. These records include:

Outline of Practice

Bloodstream Sermon

Wake-up Sermon

Breakthrough Sermon

Every Zen student, (and teacher for that matter) would do well to familiarize themselves with these most time-tested, straight talks on the authentic teachings of Zen. Bodhidharma insisted that the truth of Zen could be realized by anyone, "People who see that their mind is the buddha don't need to shave their head. Laymen are buddhas too... once you see your nature, you're a buddha even if you work as a butcher."

Bodhidharma's teaching revealed the truth of Zen, shaking up the entire Buddhist establishment, which had fallen into the sterile doldrums of imitation and pious self-righteousness. Bodhidharma came to China from India with a mission; to bring Buddhism back to the heart of the Buddhas message--that all beings are inherently Buddha and need only see their true nature to realize the fact.

The Father of Zen balked at institutions and individuals that claimed exclusive teachings or demanded specific spiritual practices.

As Red Pine translates, "To find a buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings--but no buddha."

You can't find any Zen more authentic than that of Bodhidharma. Red Pine has done us all a great service by bringing the Founder of Zen to life for English readers, and allowing him to remind us of the simple truth. Zen has nothing to do with enlightened "roshis" "Dharma-certificates" or sectarian purity. Zen is not about escaping the world, does not demand renunciation, or sitting in particular postures for long periods.

Bodhidharma gives us the straight scoop, "Seeing your nature is zen. Unless you see your nature, it's not zen." Period.

The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

This is a very worthwhile contribution to the literature of "enlightenment". The book covers 4 items: Outline of Practice; Bloodstream Sermon; Wake-up Sermon & Breakthrough Sermon. By far the most interesting are the Bloodstream & Wake-up Sermons. The 4th item is of marginal interest since it simply presents a more or less standard view of the Mahayana Dharma in relation to mind and form. The wake-up sermon provides many clues for use by the "somnambulant" designed to make them aware of their status and the Bloodstream contains useful viewpoints concerning states of mind.
Perhaps the most striking thing about these two chapters (shorn of Buddhist terminology) is the extent to which the material parallels comments made by Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj. There is the same sense of spontaneity and freedom about the statements and it makes one wonder why the last chapter of the book is so different from the others. It is almost as it the last chapter represents the tendering of Bodhidharma's dues to the Mahayana group with which he was associated and, in turn perhaps he was permitted to teach a Dharma based almost exclusively on his own insights. Who is to know?
Highly recommended, 5 stars.
The Journey To Enlightenment