Bodhidharma, a Buddhist monk from South Asia (possibly India or Persia) is credited with bringing Ch'an Buddhism to China, which would later become adopted in Japan as Zen.
Bodhidharma is recorded as having met with Emperor Wu in 527.
Emperor Wu: "What is the highest meaning of noble truth?"
Bodhidharma: "There is no noble truth."
Emperor Wu: "Who is standing before me?"
Bodhidharma: "I don't know."
Emperor Wu: "How much karmic merit have I earned by ordaining Buddhist monks, building monasteries, having sutras copied, and commissioning Buddha images?"
Bodhidharma: "None."
3 comments:
ha ha! i love that last answer.
"none".
sort of reminds me of the parable (in the book you gave to julie singh, sky, waaaay back when, and which was my intro to zen long before i knew you except as a rock star) of the rich guy who donates a bunch of money to a monk, and the monk says nothing, and later the rich man, who is angry about this, says: "you never thanked me."
and the monk says: "you should thank ME. i gave you the chance to practice charity."
also reminds me of the scene in Dharma Bums when Kerouac and all the lads are at a chinese resto, and he goes and asks the chinese cook, who they think looks like a zen master: "Why did Bodhidharma come from the West?"
and the cook says: "I don't care."
and they all think that's just the perfect zen answer and so they go off and get drunk.
Zen answers are so great because you can take them to mean anything you want...
...and you're always wrong!
And wow, I had completely forgotten about giving a book to Julie! Do you ever talk to her anymore?
i do, yep.
we email a few times a month, usually.
i'll say hi for you.
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