“To find a buddha, you have to see your own nature. Whoever sees his own nature is a buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddha is useless. Reciting sutras, making offerings and keeping precepts are all useless. Cause and effect is nonsense and Buddhas don't practice nonsense.As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha."

--Bodhidharma (Ch’an master)

No matter where you live in the world, you have heard about Zen Buddhism, but most people don’t know it was derived from Chinese Ch’an Buddhism of the 6th century AD. The Chinese version, in turn, came from India. In fact, the words “Zen” and “Ch'an” are both corruptions of the Sanskrit Dhiyan, meaning “focus” or “concentration.”

The first Chinese Ch'an master, Bodhidharma, arrived from South India with the major Buddhist teaching of his homeland -- the Lankavatara Sutra. He became the first of a series of leaders who each taught its basic message of consciousness through self-realization. Bodhidharma also stressed the master - disciple relationship as the path to enlightenment, which kept the movement under strict control. However, after about a hundred years the religion eventually weakened and Taoist influences started to mingle in.

Ironically, this process let survive the religious persecution of the 9th century while most forms of Buddhism died out. In fact, it became the dominant Chinese philosophy. We are lucky to be able to listen to the words of the master himself. You can learn much from his message; it is simple and direct but inspired an entire nation.

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