Bodhidharma (Chin.,
P'u-t'i-ta-mo or
Tamo; Jap.,
Bodaidaruma or
Daruma,
c.5th cent. CE). The 28th successor (
hassu) in line from Śākyamuni Buddha, and the first Chinese patriarch of Ch'an/Zen Buddhism. According to the traditional accounts, he engaged in motionless
zazen for nine years (hence the name of this period,
menpeki-kunen, nine years facing the wall). Hui-k'o joined him as a pupil, and became the second patriarch. The forms of meditation taught by Bodhidharma were based on the
Mahāyāna sūtras, with especial emphasis on
Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra. It produced
Dhyāna Buddhism, with dhyāna (meditation) understood in a broad sense: it was this which fused with Taoism to produce the distinctive form of Ch'an.
Tradition also attributes six treatises to Bodhidharma, of which one,
The Two Ways of Entrance, is translated by D. T. Suzuki,
Essays in Zen Buddhism, iii (1970). But this, and the whole tradition about Bodhidharma is extremely uncertain.
Bodhidharma is usually portrayed with an appearance of fierce concentration, and Daruma-dolls are given in Japan to those who have attained a goal through perseverance.
