Bodhidharma and the Dance of death

Bodhidharma and the Dance of death

 

          Sooner or later when you study Zen your teachers will tell you the story of Bodhidharma.  How much of the story is history and how much of it is legend is unknown.  In all the stories Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the fifth or sixth century CE. The first remark I would like to make is that there are records of Buddhism having been practiced in China as far back as 213 BC.  It is important to realize that Buddhism had been in China for probably five or 600 years when the monk Bodhidharma crossed from India into China. So there were Buddhist temples and Buddhist monasteries of various schools of Buddhism well established in China when Bodhidharma arrived.

The most common story tells that he originally traveled to China in order to meet the Emperor Wu.  This Emperor was a pious man and a Buddhist.  The Buddhist teachers of his day had taught him about merit which is a sort of karmic bank account to which one can add by good deeds and even by sponsoring the good deeds of others. It is said that the Emperor Wu, on the advice of his Buddhist teachers had sponsored the building of many Buddhist temples and sponsored scriptorium’s were Buddhist monks labored to translate Buddhist documents from Sanskrit into the Chinese written language. 

          The Emperor like most emperors had by necessity accumulated a lot of negative karma in his lifetime.  It was his hope that by building the temples and sponsoring the transcription of the Dharma he would gain merit which would offset his past evil deeds. So when this new monk came into his kingdom from India he invited him to the Imperial Palace.  There he showed Bodhidharma the temples he had built and the other good works he was sponsoring to help spread the Dharma in China.  When he had shown Bodhidharma all these things he looked toward him and asked how much positive merit Bodhidharma believed he had accumulated through these good works. It is said that Bodhidharma told him that he had accumulated nothing.  I am not sure if the point was the Emperor had only done these things to gain merit and therefore his intent was wrong, or if the monk simply didn't believe in the concept of merit but he basiclly told the Emperor he could not buy his way into heaven. Needless to say the Emperor was not too happy with  Bodhidharma and that very wisely the monk from India took his leave and went farther into China.

The next thing we know  Bodhidharma is at the gates of the Shaolin monastery in Henan China.  The story goes that the monks had heard of his disagreement with the Emperor and had refused to allow him entry to the monastery.  The story of Bodhidharma at this point begins to take upon itself the aspects of mythology and legend.  One story says that he just sat in front of the gates and meditated and the intensity of his gaze burned holes into the side of the monastery.   In any case he was eventually allowed to enter the monastery and start his practice of meditation there.  Most of the histories agree that the primary practice at the Shaolin Temple at this time was the transcription of Buddhist writings.  What Bodhidharma found was that the monks spent all their time hunched over tables transcribing Buddhist sutras from Sanskrit to Chinese.

It would seem that Bodhidharma proved himself to his fellow monks by his dedication and that he spent much of his time in meditation.  It’s clear that Bodhidharma was from a different school of Buddhism than the one the Shaolin monks praticed so he began to teach them his philosophy of Buddhism which was to become known as Ch’an in China and later as Zen in Japan. There are many myths associated with Bodhidharma’s stay at the Shaolin Temple. One story says that he sat in meditation so long that his legs fell off. Another story says that he introduced the drinking of tea to Chinese Zen and used his own eyebrows to make tea for the other monks.

But the  important part of the legend we shall address here is that he found the monks out of shape and overweight.  The monks spent all their time sitting at tables and got very little exercise.  So he developed an exercise routine for the monks to practice.  The exercises that he taught the monks were said to be derived from the hatha and raja yoga practices from his native India.  At the time China was not unfamiliar with martial arts. And it was suggested that many of the monks had probably already had training in different forms of martial arts.  In any case over time the monks took the movements and forms that were taught to them by Bodhidharma and evolved them into a form of martial arts that we now call kung fu.

The stories about Bodhidharma while persistent have never really been shown to be anything but legend.  But what is certainly true is that the Buddhist monks at the Shaolin monastery developed a form of martial arts that was both defensive, offensive and sometimes lethal.  The excuse that is given for this persistent training in a lethal martial art is that the monks would have had to defend themselves from robbers thieves and even wild animals. But this story brings into focus a paradox that is persistent in Buddhism to this day.   How could the Buddhist monks of the Shaolin monastery or any other buddhist monastery reconcile their hours of training in martial arts with the teachings of the Buddha.

The legends of course let Bodhidharma off the hook by saying he merely taught some out of shape over weight monks how to do some yoga exercises in order to stay in shape and preserve their health.  This does not however prevent many a statue or  painting of Bodhidharma in a kung fu stance his prayer beads in one hand he being  balanced on the balls of his feet and having a fierce look on his face, he stands  ready to strike.

So this dedicated Buddhist monk has become known as the father of Chan or in Japan Zen Buddhism and at the same time become known as the father of what is often called Temple boxing, or just simply as the father of kung fu.  And this brings forth the paradox of reconciling violence with the teachings of the Buddha.

I’d like to comment that martial arts were not unknown in India in the century in which Bodhidharma is said to have lived.  There was already a well-established connection between the teachings of yoga and their use in martial arts when Bodhidharma crossed into China.   There is at least one section  found in the Vedas (1700 BCE - 1100 BCE) which contains references to martial arts.    Because yoga, much like Tai Chi Chuan, has been promoted in the West as a health exercise, when most people think of yoga, they think of a series of beneficial physical postures.  But yoga has been integrated into various forms of martial arts and fighting forms in India for centuries. Many of the stories in the Vedas have sections including unarmed combat or combat using only a knife or a sword.  So it is not entirely unbelievable that the yoga exercises taught to the monks at Shaolin were in fact already designed to be part of a martial arts system like tai chi is today.  So it may be very possible that those statues showing Bodhidharma in a combat stance are in fact accurate.

     The teachings in Buddhism against violence are in the very earliest known written text of Buddhism.  Ahimsa, is a Buddhist term meaning 'not to injure', and is a primary virtue in Buddhism.

          Every school of Buddhism teaches the four noble truths and the eight fold path.  This eightfold path is composed of eight parts or areas of pratice that work together to teach the student how to manifest the Dharma. Right action is the fourth aspect of the path.  Called samyak-karmanta in Sanskrit, right action is a fundamental part of the ethical conduct portion of the path along with right livelihood and right speech.  It is said that the practitioner should train oneself to be morally upright in one's activities, not acting in ways that would be corrupt or bring harm to oneself or to others. One Sutta simply says:

 

^]” And what is right action?  Abstaining from taking life, stealing and illicit sex, This is called right action.”

                                         — Saccavibhanga Sutta

       In Buddhism, to take refuge in the Dharma - one of the Three Jewels- one vows to not harm other sentient beings.  There can be absolutely no doubt that from the very beginning Buddhism taught nonviolence as a fundamental part of its teaching. This aspect of Buddhism is literally found throughout Buddhist literature from beginning to end. The Buddha is quoted in the Dhammapada as saying, "All are afraid of the stick, all hold their lives dear. Putting oneself in another's place, one should not beat or kill others".   The Nirvana Sutra says, "By taking refuge in the precious Dharma, One's mind should be free from hurting or harming others".  One of the Five Precepts of Buddhist ethics or śīla states, "I undertake the training rule to abstain from killing”

       Many forms of martial arts have resolved themselves into dance execises, this can be seen in tai chi and in certain forms of yoga. speed up the dance and it transforms into a dance of death.  Whether one is learning a dance or learning a way to bring devastating harm to another person may have nothing to do with the substance of what is learned and have everything to do with intent.  The fact is Bodhidharma came from a society with many forms of yoga and many forms of dancing and many forms of martial combat training. The legends we hear tend to preserve Bodhidharma’s character by saying that he only taught them as exercises and that later the monks who by the way were also Buddhists evolve these movements into fighting forms. The one truth we know for certain is that these dances of death became bound up with buddhism over the years.

          The Chan Buddhism that Bodhidharma brought to China eventually found its way to Japan, and Korea and other Eastern countries. In many of these countries the buddhist teachers brought the combat teachings with them as well.  In Japan there was a warrior class known as the samurai that used the focus and concentration taught by their Zen monks to make themselves superior warriors. The pratice of Zen augmented the samurai's combat skills.  

   The   “Sohei”  were Buddhist warrior monks of both medieval and feudal Japan.   These Buddhist warrior monks first appeared during the Heian period ^]when bitter political feuds began between different temples, different subsects of Buddhism over imperial appointments to the top temple positions (abbot, or zasu). Much of the fighting over the next four centuries was over these sorts of political feuds, and centered around the temples of Kyoto, Nara and Ōmi namely the Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji Enryaku-ji and Mii-dera, the four largest temples in the country. Historically entire Buddhist organizations developed a culture of violence. 

          Several monasteries in East Asia, specifically in China, Korea, and Japan, employed warriors, many of them highly trained, for protection and to exercise what they considered to be their rightful political and economic rights in the premodern period, mainly before 1600. In many cases, these warriors had monastic names, though they rarely had extensive religious training. These warriors were not truly warrior monks they were basically mercenaries hired by the monasteries to defend what they saw as their rights in a corrupt political system. These warriors were not interested in religious doctrine they were being paid to defend a monastery and had no religious convictions concerning why they were there and what they were supposed to do. Nonetheless their employers were Buddhist monks and as such these monks were bound by the teachings of the Dharma, But the temptations of the material world corrupted them. Buddhist were as susceptible to this kind of corruption as the Catholic Church was.

          It can be argued that these monasteries existed in violent times and were simply trying to survive, but nowhere in the teachings of the Buddha is there a get out of jail free pass if you live in hard times.  There have been many political wars in the past that have disguised themselves as religious wars . That is in fact  what is happening today in many parts of the world. The fact is most of the religious terrorists today are seeking power, make that political power, they are not trying to fulfill the requirements of their religion. they simply seek political power over others.

          Today political pressures are pushing people in and out of countries and across cultural as well as national lines,  upsetting  the cultural and religious balance in these countries. There are political propagandist in the West as well as in the East that are working 24 hours a day ; trying to represent Buddhism as a religion of violence.  In fact there are journalists that are making an entire career out of trying to convince people that Buddhism is the violent religion in the world today and religions like Islam and Christianity and Judaism are the peaceful religions. While this is a pretty hard job still they’re working at it diligently and have been able to convince many people in the West that it is Buddhism that is causing the problems and the violence in places like Burma and Bangladesh.

          I have written this piece to show that from the turn of the first century A.D. there has been a strain of violence woven into the teachings of Buddhism. But unlike in many religions this teaching of violence is not a fundamental part of the Buddhist teaching. In fact it is very alien to the Buddhist teaching. That has not prevented the rise of the warrior monk in medieval Japan. It has not prevented certain Tibetan monks taking up arms against the Chinese when they invaded their country.  And undoubtedly there are people who practice Buddhism that are committing violence in our modern world. But what I would like everyone to realize that this is something that has been brought into Buddhism and is not part of it or its teachings.

         Whenever anyone sets out to demonize one particular group whether it’s Buddhist or Muslims or Christians or Jews the first thing they do is stop appealing to the people they  are talking to's rational brain and start appealing to their fundamental emotional makeup. When a propagandist can get you to start thinking simply with your glands and your hormones and to stop thinking with your brain they have found the path directly into your hate center and that is where your fear lies and fear is what drives people to commit violence in the name of religion. 
 

           One of the more endearing teachings, probably better described as an approach to teaching , in  Buddhism is to ask the students to think  critically and to demand evidence. The teachings of Buddha recognize that the human mind is composed of both an emotional component and a rational logical component and that the two need to be observed and balanced.  Whatever paradox is created by Bodhidharma being a patriarch of Buddhism and a patriarch of the martial arts can be dealt with by critical thinking and looking for the evidence.  The Buddha never taught violence and while he may have rejected other religious he never ordered that those who praticed these other religiouns be harmed. Buddhism has never taught that the heteric be slain or the unbeliever be killed. Over  the centurys deluded  and power hungery people have used the excuse of Buddhism to do these things, but that is not Buddhism


 
History has shown that organized Buddhism has been used as a political tool by governments in Japan and other countries   to control and  oppress  their subjects. A good example is the The danka system (danka seido), also known as jidan system (, jidan seido)  was  a system of voluntary and long-term affiliation between Buddhist temples and households in use in Japan since the Heian period. ^. In it, households (the danka) financially support a Buddhist temple which, in exchange, provides for their spiritual needs. Although its existence long predates the Edo period. (1603–1868), the system is best known for its repressive use made at that time by the Tokugawa, who made the affiliation with a Buddhist temple compulsory to all citizens.
           During the Tokugawa shogunate, the system was turned into a citizen registration network; supposedly intended to stop the diffusion of Christianity and help detect hidden Christians.  it soon became a government-mandated and Buddhist temple-run system to monitor and control the population as a whole.  For this reason, it survived intact long after Christianity in Japan had been eradicated. The system as it existed in Tokugawa times is sometimes called terauke system (, terauke seido) because of the certification (or terauke, because the tera, or temple would issue an uke, or certificate)  a document   issued by a Buddhist temple that a citizen was not a Christian. The now mandatory danka system was officially abolished after World War II, but continues nonetheless to exists as a voluntary association between the two sides, it constitutes a major part of the income of most temples and defines as before the relationship between households and temples.  This system lead to a hereditary priesthood with thousands of   small    family run Temples spread across Japan. Fathers would teach and certify their children to be priests in the family temple. The temple  beacame a source of family income.

      As demographics have changed this system is now in the process of collapse. Over the next 25 years, 27,000 of the country’s 77,000 temples are expected to close, in one of the biggest existential crises facing Japanese Buddhism  since it  was  first  introduced from Korea in the sixth century. Its decline mirrors that of hundreds of small communities that have traditionally helped finance their local temple. In a report released last year, the Japan Policy Council warned that if the exodus, particularly among young women, from rural areas to the cities  continues at the current rate, almost half of Japan’s municipalities will disappear by 2040, along with their places of religious worship. In the past centuries Buddhist temples have turned their temples into funeral parlors. The Japanese priest has become a specialist in the funeral ceremony business.  But modern Japanese have found that these priests and temples have priced themselves out of business.
     In truth none of these certificates and ceremonies have anything to do with the Teachings of the Buddha. The danka system (danka seido) is not a buddhist system, it was and is a political system. I can think of nothing more unbuddhist than a system like the Danka system used to cull out Christias and Buddhist heretics. A system  created as a means of social  control   and    turned   into a means of extotion and blackmail. It was and is a form of  social violence.      
     


 

     This is not to say that over the years organized Buddhism has not been ued as a political tool by governments in Japan and other countries   to control and  opress  their subjects. A good example is the The danka system (danka seido), also known as jidan system (, jidan seido) this was  a system of voluntary and long-term affiliation between Buddhist temples and households in use in Japan since the Heian period. ^. In it, households (the danka) financially support a Buddhist temple which, in exchange, provides for their spiritual needs. Although its existence long predates the Edo period. (1603–1868), the system is best known for its repressive use made at that time by the Tokugawa,  who made the affiliation with a Buddhist temple compulsory to all citizens.
           During the Tokugawa shogunate, the system was turned into a citizen registration network; supposedly intended to stop the diffusion of Christianity and help detect hidden Christians.  it soon became a government-mandated and Buddhist temple-run system to monitor and control the population as a whole.  For this reason, it survived intact long after Christianity in Japan had been eradicated. The system as it existed in Tokugawa times is sometimes called terauke system (寺請制度, terauke seido) because of the certification (or terauke, because the tera, or temple would issue an uke, or certificate) issued by a Buddhist temple that a citizen was not a Christian. The now mandatory danka system was officially abolished after World War II, but continues nonetheless to exists as a voluntary association between the two sides,    It stitutes a major part of the income of most temples and defines as before the relationship between households and temples.  This system lead to a hereditary priesthood with thousands of   small    family run Temples spread across Japan.
      As demographics have changed this system is in the process of collapase. Over the next 25 years, 27,000 of the country’s 77,000 temples are expected to close, in one of the biggest existential crises facing Japanese Buddism  since it  was  first  introduced from Korea in the sixth century. Its decline mirrors that of hundreds of small communities that have traditionally helped finance their local temple. In a report released last year, the Japan Policy Council warned that if the exodus, particularly among young women, from rural areas continues at the current rate, almost half of Japan’s municipalities will disappear by 2040, along with their places of religious worship.In the past centuries Buddhist temples have turned their temples into funeral palors. But modern japanese have found that these preists and temples have priced themseles out of business.

         

         

 

Buddhism is not the renunciation of beauty and joy.

Please do not mistake renunciation of samsara as renunciation of the world. Lord Buddha said we all walk in delusion, projecting our own desires and cravings upon the phenomena of the world. Your suffering is caused by how you see things, how you react to them.  Your job is not to reject the world but to see it as it is.

Whatever there is in the world, pleasant and beautiful, we are attached to them, and we develop a dislike towards their opposites.

But a Buddhist knows that beauty carries pain and suffering just as its opposite’s do. In samsara the so called good and bad things of life are all bound up together. But this suffering is not truly caused by them but rather in our own projections and cravings concerning them.
You may have a loving caring relationship, but you must know it will change and end, No one loved the Buddha more than Ananda, and as he lay dying Ananda wept, and Buddha scolding him saying did I not tell you everything must pass.   

 Knowing this the Buddhist recognizes beauty where the senses can perceive it.  But  in  beauty  he  also  sees its  own  change  and  destruction.  He remembers   what  the  Buddha said with regard  to  all  component things,  that  they  come  into  being,  undergo  change  and  are destroyed.  Therefore the wise man acquires a greater depth of vision.

Believe me, Buddhism is not meant to suck all the beauty and joy from your life. It is the philosophy of change and continuity. And in it, don’t fail to see beauty which can ever be to man an unending source of inspiring joy.