The beginnings of Zen (禅) as a distinct sect of Buddhism can be traced to eighth century Chinese Zen authors who, in their need to legitimise their new tradition, furnished their school with a manufactured genealogy of Chinese and Indian patriarchs who could connect them back to the Buddha himself. They credited the introduction of Zen Buddhist practice in China to the mythological Indian Buddhist teacher Bodhidharma (Bodaidaruma 菩提達摩). This was a time when Chinese Buddhists showed more interest in debating philosophy and reading complex texts than in actual practice. To counter this trend, the new Zen school of Buddhism stressed the significance of meditation (Chan in Chinese, Dhyana in Sanskrit) and non-reliance on written texts.

The Chinese legends claim that Bodhidharma was the third son of King Simhavarman born around the year 440 in Kanchi in Southern India. Bodhidharma’s teacher was Prajnatara, the 27th patriarch of Indian Buddhism.

Following the instructions of his teacher to transmit Buddhism to China, Bodhidharma travelled east to Southern China in 526 C.E. When he arrived in Kwang Chou, he was ceremoniously welcomed and greatly honoured there by the local military official named Shao Yang.

The same year, he was invited to the Capitol, Nanjing, to meet Emperor Wu Di of the Liang dynasty. Because the communication between the Emperor and Bodhidharma was mutually unsatisfactory, Bodhidharma left the palace, crossed the Yangtze River, and continued north until he arrived at the Shaolin Temple at Mt. Song. Here Bodhidharma supposedly spent nine years in meditation practice and instruction. The Shaolin temple became an important centre of Zen practice under the auspices of eminent masters such as Faru (638-689) and Huian (?-709). These early Zen masters were probably responsible for connecting Bodhidharma to the Shaolin temple making the Shaolin temple the symbolic link between the Buddha and China.

Bodhidharma supposedly passed his teachings onto his disciple, Huik’o and named him successor after which he went to Chen Sung Temple to propagate the Buddha Dharma. Soon after arriving there it was claimed that Bodhidharma was poisoned by a jealous monk.

Later in the seventeenth century Bodhidharma was credited with introducing the ancient Indian forms of self-defence known in Chinese as quanfa (Way of the fist 拳法) and kempõ in Japanese (Vajramushti in Sanskrit) to the Buddhist monks at the Shaolin temple. Chinese apocryphal texts claim that these methods of self-defence were practised by the Shaolin Buddhist monks as a means to stay healthy and to protect them whilst journeying around the country side on pilgrimage. The martial techniques of the Shaolin temple were first attributed to Bodhidharma by Zongheng (Zi Ning Daoren) a monk from Mount Tien’tai in his “Sinews Transformation Classic” written about 1624. Zongheng’s martial manual formulated the legend that was eventually adopted by the Shaolin monks themselves, namely that their martial art of Shaolin quan was created by the mythical Bodhidharma.

The eleventh-century Taoist encylopedia “Seven Slips From A Cloudy Satchel” includes a treatise on resperation techniques that are ascribed to Bodhidharma, and the “Song History” lists two breathing and gymnastic manuals attributed to him.

Bodhidharma was later also credited with introducing tea into China from India.

Whatever the truth of the origin of Zen, it is a school of Buddhism which emphasises strict disciplined meditation practice and direct personal experience. It’s greatest emphasis is seated meditation (Zazen 坐禅) and regular physical exercise as the fundamental practice.

The essential standpoint of Zen is summed up in the famous verse attributed to Bodhidharma :

Zen continued to evolve and various forms of Zen practice can be found in China, Vietnam, Thailand, Korea and Japan. By the time Zen became fully established in Japan in the 13th century, there were twenty-four Zen schools. The mutual differences between them are due to the teacher’s differences in personality and educational backgrounds as well as in the method of teaching.

The mind is the Buddha. The Buddha is the path. The path is Zen.
Unless you see your nature, the path is not Zen.”
- Bloodstream sermon, Bodhidharma