Traveling the Bodhisattva’s World

Any Japanese person knows the venerable priest Bodhidharma, that little toy doll sitting covered with a red mantle. From a very young age, I always liked the Daruma doll. When I was young, my mother would take me to see the head priest at a temple in Kawasaki in Kanagawa Prefecture, just south of Tokyo. Each time, she bought me a little Daruma doll. At that time, I really liked the red color and the friendly rotund body without arms and legs. Later, after becoming a Zen priest, I became a descendant of Bodhidharma. When I began doing zazen, it occurred to me that this was a queer fate. Now I feel completely grateful for this fate, not because I like the red mantle and round body of the Daruma doll, but because I like the focus of this life of mine. Well, actually like is not the right word. Even if my life at this moment is strange and miserable, I still think that I can be saved. All I need to do is to resolve to step firmly in the footsteps of this venerable teacher, Bodhidharma, and learn to live as he did. 

It is commonly thought that Bodhidharma was a South Indian prince. It is said that he was ordained by Prajnatara and after receiving the precepts and studying the Dharma he traveled by ship, skirting the Indian coast and the Malay peninsula for three years before arriving in China to spread true zazen practice. Stories of the time have him arriving in China during either the Liu Song dynasty (420–479) or Liang dynasty (502–557). 

Legend has it that Emperor Wu heard that an eminent monk had arrived from India and he wanted to meet him. From Bodhidharma’s perspective, if the emperor truly accepted his Buddhist teachings, then he could use the PR value of this relationship to effectively spread zazen practice in China. In any case, both parties agreed to meet. However, unfortunately both sides seem to have been disappointed with the encounter. The emperor favored the traditional Buddhism that had proliferated in China, and he was a patron of select foreign-born Buddhist monks. But this unkempt monk Bodhidharma didn’t fawn over the emperor, and the emperor decided that this kind of person could not be a real monk. As for Bodhidharma, knowing that Buddhism had reached China many years before and that this emperor had appointed many monks to teaching positions, he had a sliver of hope that the emperor might have a good understanding of Buddhism. Instead, the emperor turned out to be a snob who wouldn’t assist Bodhidharma’s project of spreading zazen in China. For both men, their meeting did not meet their expectations. 

So Bodhidharma must have thought, “Well, that’s how it is.” It had been quite a while since his departure from India and since things hadn’t been going at all as he had planned, he completely gave up hope for his plans to establish a link with the emperor. Instead, he crossed the Yangtze River, going north to the country of Wei. He chose not to meet the emperor of Wei but went to Shaolin Temple on Mount Song, where he rented a small room in the eastern corridor of the temple and at last started sitting zazen. Though he sat zazen in the corridor, he did not try to recruit others to sit with him. Sitting by himself, this monk from sweltering southern India must have felt cold in northern China, so he covered himself with a red cloak and just sat zazen. 

As a matter of fact, Bodhidharma was not challenging the existing Buddhism in China but was simply sitting zazen. If he had sat in the corridor wearing a white headband we would quickly understand that he was looking to call attention to his practice, but since he was just sitting in the temple corridor covering himself with a red cloak, people would wonder why he was sitting there, but no one would know why. In the end, people would just look at him and think that this weird Indian monk was doing a strange thing. 

In that case, did Bodhidharma’s practice lack direction? No. His practice was focused, and he didn’t need to base it on others. Compared to Bodhidharma, people’s practice these days depends on being face-to-face with others and depending on them. I believe that is completely the opposite of Bodhidharma. Practitioners today struggle, not understanding the direction of their practice after all. 

What does it mean that Bodhidharma had neither doubts nor fears? It means that he assumed the self that is the self of the entire universe and just plunked himself down and sat zazen, living his life boldly and with vitality.

So then, what was the reason for Bodhidharma’s practice? It was to transmit the Buddhadharma and, in his great mercy and compassion, to save all sentient beings from delusion and suffering. Because he possessed this great mercy and compassion, he traveled for three years from India to China. What is this great mercy and compassion? Why did he desire to save all sentient beings from ignorance and suffering? Was it because he wanted to make a name for himself or get glory or obtain some rank? Or was he perhaps ambitious and wanted to start his own business venture? Of course not. The reason why he felt compelled to spread the Buddhadharma and save all sentient beings was because all sentient beings were residing within his self. Bodhidharma’s self was itself the entire limitless universe. In other words, the entire universe, this whole ten-direction world, was transparent. 

Therefore, precisely because his direction was to save all deluded sentient beings living in this self that is the entire universe by transmitting true zazen practice, this was his life. To be sure, Bodhidharma followed this direction and burned with devotion his entire life, but he did not depend on others to transmit the Dharma to all living things. Even if the great compassion he displayed by sincerely transmitting the Dharma to deluded beings had had no result, this effort had no small effect on the self of Bodhidharma. No matter what kind of birth Bodhidharma wanted, he was the king of the entire universe of the self, because his practice hall was itself the entire universe of the self. 

Though he met the emperor, Bodhidharma understood that the true foundation of the blossoming of Buddhadharma in China had not yet been laid. Although he was undoubtedly disappointed with his meeting with the emperor, Bodhidharma was not disappointed with the self of the entire universe. One absolutely can’t be disappointed with the self of the entire universe. If we look at this from the point of view of human nature, Bodhidharma made an arduous journey from India to China, a feat we can’t even imagine today. However, he did not give in to feelings of despair. Looking at his travails from our own perspective we would be worried but judging by Bodhidharma’s facial expression in images of him, he took all these difficulties in stride. He went to Shaolin, put on that mantle, and just did zazen. Dogen Zenji was inspired by this image of Bodhidharma, and wrote the following beautiful sentences in Shobogenzo Gyoji (“Continuous Practice”):

The First Ancestor in China came from the West as directed by his teacher, the Venerable Master Prajnatara. His three-year voyage over the raging waves of the ocean and through the seasons of frost, flowers, winds, and snows must have been more than miserable. Yet, despite these innumerable hardships, he managed to arrive in a country unknown to him. Ordinary people who hold their lives dear can’t even imagine doing such a thing. This way of protecting and maintaining practice stemmed from his great compassion and his vow to transmit the Dharma and save deluded living beings. He was able to do it because he himself was the self of transmitting Dharma, and [he was living in] the world of transmitting Dharma. He could live in such a way because the entire ten-direction-world is itself the true Way; the entire ten-direction-world is nothing but his self; and that the entire ten-direction world is no other than the entire ten-direction world. Wherever you are living is a palace; there is no palace that is not an appropriate place to practice the Way. This is why [Bodhidharma] came from the West in the way he did. He had neither doubt nor fear because he was the self of saving-deluded-sentient-beings. He had neither doubt nor fear because he was living in the world of saving deluded living beings [the world of vow].

These sentences by Dogen Zenji are beautiful. He has made transparent the inexhaustible supply of Bodhidharma’s lifestyle of the ten-direction world of the self. I would like to recommend that you read Dogen’s words aloud over again and again. 

Bodhidharma stayed at Shaolin practicing zazen while silently facing a wall. He came all the way from India to China and, abandoned by everyone, just sat zazen. However, his zazen resonated, and someone appeared to whom he transmitted the Dharma, and eventually this person succeeded him. That was the second ancestor, Huike. However, thanks to Huike receiving the Dharma from Bodhidharma, his zazen practice also resonated, but he had to spend the rest of his days sitting zazen in anonymity. However, because his zazen also had resonance, a successor appeared. That was the Third Ancestor, Sengcan. In the same way came the Fourth Ancestor, Daoxin; the Fifth Ancestor, Hongren; and the Sixth Ancestor, Huineng. The Dharma was transmitted from each master to the next, and by a thin thread they somehow managed to get to the Sixth Ancestor. However, two other monks, Qingyuan Xingsi and Nanyue Huairang, along with many others gathered before Huineng like a cluster of heroes and spread Bodhidharma’s zazen in China and further to Korea and Japan. These days, if we speak about Eastern culture, there is nothing that has not been influenced by Zen; the influence that spread from this root is huge. 

Having said this, when Bodhidharma sat facing the wall for nine years at Shaolin, what would have happened if his only disciple, Huike, hadn’t succeeded him? Well, without a doubt, the thin thread that connected the founder Bodhidharma to the Sixth Ancestor would have been cut and today there would be no culture of Zen and we wouldn’t know anything about Bodhidharma. All traces of the man who took the trouble to travel from India to China and sat facing the wall for nine years would be gone. Also, the Second, Third, Fourth, and so on ancestors would be unknown to us, and their existences would be buried in obscurity. If we think about this, I can’t help feeling that but for a coincidence of history, this could have happened. 

And so, since Bodhidharma through this succession of six ancestors was able to open five petals from one flower—that is, the five schools of Zen in China—his life was adorned with this achievement. Therefore, do you think that he was first able to obtain his life because of this coincidence of history? Absolutely not! It is clear that Bodhidharma did not rely on this historical coincidence to sit facing the wall for nine years. Rather, he sat for nine years in order to practice the self that is the self of the entire universe. By focusing his life on transmitting the Dharma and saving deluded sentient beings, he was able to completely conclude his life’s work. Can we say that his work of transmitting the Dharma and saving deluded sentient beings would bear fruit at some point? About this, Bodhidharma himself was unwavering and had neither the slightest doubt nor fear. What does it mean that Bodhidharma had neither doubts nor fears? It means that he assumed the self that is the self of the entire universe and just plunked himself down and sat zazen, living his life boldly and with vitality. 

When we compare the life of Bodhidharma to the so-called great heroes of the world, Alexander the Great, Caesar, Napoleon, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Tokogawa Ieyasu, or more recently the villains, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, or Tojo, we are compelled to remember the kind of lives they lived. Those people who are called heroes or villains, as we understand when we read their biographies, all lacked direction, and they pushed away and crushed opponents. In their terrible haste to crush their opponents, they overlooked their humanity. However, once they stumbled, they were unable to take stock of themselves and their actions and, in the end, they were weak and helpless people. It seems strange to me that these people were able to stir up so much trouble. We can see the suffering that resulted from their chance appearance in the world. At the same time, we can’t ignore the foolishly vain and mistaken belief of these so-called heroes and villains that it was their own power and ability, instead of historical coincidence, that caused their rise to power. 

However, Bodhidharma, while also living within the coincidences of history, entrusted himself to the power of the life of the self. Surely the direction that he took for his life was to transmit the Dharma to all sentient beings and save them from suffering and delusion. However, his effectiveness was entirely due to circumstances and coincidences beyond his control. But these coincidences for certain had nothing to do with his relying on others. Rather, for Bodhidharma all living beings were nothing other than inhabitants of the entire ten-direction universe, and the direction he chose for his life was to transmit the Buddhadharma, practicing as the self of the ten-direction universe to save all sentient beings from delusion and suffering. Bodhidharma survived living the life of the straightforward self of the entire universe. What a powerful and reliable sitting practice! What a daring and fearless way of life, this life treading on this great earth! 

We can compare Bodhidharma’s way of life not only to the so-called heroes and villains of history but also to typical Buddhist priests these days. Many priests are busy pushing others aside and taking down others right before our eyes. They strive for fame, position, and money. They lack direction in their life, and in the end they stir up confusion in the world. Stumbling, beaten up by others, when they must return to their own self, they expose their small selves, hopeless and weak. 

…Right now, here in the twentieth century, the person I revere most is Bodhidharma. His example gives me the power to live truthfully. I feel joy because he shows me a true direction in life. Truly, Buddhadharma must be based on the study of one’s true self. 

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© 2025 by Howard Lazzarini, The Sound that Perceives the World: Calling Out to the Bodhisattva. Reprinted by arrangement with Wisdom Publications.