Bodhidharma

[okamido]

Much like Christianity with Paul, Buddhism owes a great deal of success to the travels of the Daruma/ Bodhidharma, who took Buddhism to China, and some say Japan as well.

Even though Buddhism had been successful before Bodhidharma's travels, it had been waning in India for a very long time.

To what extant were his travels vital in the continued growth and expansion of that philosophy, and would it have eventually died out without him?

[Nick]

He was a strange fellow. His idea of achieving enlightenment was to stare at a wall for nine years until his legs dropped off

[Nick]

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/nn211/hetroclite/Self_Reps/Daruma02.gif

[NEW ARK?]

He was a strange fellow. His idea of achieving enlightenment was to stare at a wall for nine years until his legs dropped off


Before that happened he cut off his eyelids to prevent himself from falling asleep.

This guy down the street from me has a huge tattoo of Bodhidarma across his back.

[okamido]

He was a strange fellow. His idea of achieving enlightenment was to stare at a wall for nine years until his legs dropped off

Another version of the nine year meditation, there are several, states that he began his meditation in response of finding the monks of Shaolin-si Temple in an incredibly sickly state, and the meditation was needed to understand how to correct it. When he awoke, Bodhidharma wrote two books, one on meditation and breathing, the other on building external strength.

A third book written shortly after was based on his former experiance as a member of the Kshatriya class in India and resulted in the creation of the first choreographed defensive techniques, known in China as Kune, the beginnings of Chinese Wushu/ Kung Fu.