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BODHIDHARMA OUTSIDE CHAN LITERATURE: IMMORTAL, INNER ALCHEMIST, AND EMISSARY FROM THE ETERNAL REALM

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Bodhidharma Outside Chan Literature: Immortal,Inner Alchemist, and Emissary from the Eternal Realm

Stephen Eskildsen


In Daozang texts, sectarian hagiographies, and late imperial inner alchemy (neidan 内丹) writings, the life and teachings of Bodhidharma were reconceived in interesting ways, often by drawing upon and magnifying the Chan Buddhist motifs. From Daozang texts it is apparent that certain parties regarded him as a master of the immortality technique of Embryonic Breathing, or as having transmitted teachings on how to anticipate death and safely navigate through the dying process. His reputation as a master of immortality methods (i.e., inneralchemy) and death-anticipation/navigation methods is perpetuated and further magnified in sectarian hagiographies and the inner alchemical writings of Wu Shouyang 伍守陽 and Liu Huayang 柳華陽. The sectarian hagiographies, while retaining key Chan hagiographical motifs, recast Bodhidharma as a messenger from the realm of the Eternal True Parents, thus integrating him into the scheme of sectarian mythology and soteriology.

KEYWORDS: Bodhidharma, embryonic breathing (taixi 胎息), returning to emptiness (guikong 歸空), Wu Shouyang, Liu Huayang, hagiography, sects, Shenguang


1. INTRODUCTION

Bodhidharma (Damo 達摩/達磨), born the son of a king in southern India, was 28th in a line of Patriarchs who had received and become enlightened to the wordless true Dharma originating from Śākyamuni Buddha. He came by sea to southern China around 520 or 527. He met Liang Emperor Wu 梁武帝 (r. 502–549), the great patron of Buddhism, but found him lacking in aptitude for enlightenment. He then crossed the Yangzi River to go north to the Wei 魏 kingdom, where he lived at the Shaolin Temple 少林寺. There for nine years he sat silently facing a wall. His top disciple was Shenguang 神光, who showed his resolve for enlightenment by cutting off his own arm; Bodhidharma ultimately bestowed the Patriarch’s robe upon him and renamed him Huike 慧可. (Thus, Bodhidharma and Huike are regarded respectively as the first and second Patriarchs of the wordless true Dharma in China.) Unfortunately, Bodhidharma provoked jealousy among certain parties that repeatedly attempted to poison him. On the sixth attempt he succumbed to the poison—or so it seemed. Bodhidharma, who claimed to have been over 150 years old, was buried at Mt. Xiong’er 熊耳山. However, a royal emissary encountered Bodhidharma in the Pamir Mountains in Central Asia; Bodhidharma was carrying a single sandal in his hands. When Bodhidharma’s grave was exhumed, no body was found—just a single sandal!2

Such, roughly, is the legend of Bodhidharma—as narrated in influential Chan Buddhist hagiographies such as Jingde chuandeng lu 景德傳燈錄 and Chuanfa zhengzong ji 傳法正宗記. Our essay examines how Bodhidharma and his teachings are portrayed in the Daozang 道藏 (Ming dynasty Daoist Canon; 1445), sectarian hagiographies, and the late imperial inner alchemy (neidan 内丹) writings of Wu Shouyang 伍守陽 (1574–1644) and Liu Huayang 柳華陽 (fl. 1794). As we shall see, in these texts outside the Buddhist Canon, the life and teachings of Bodhidharma are reconceived in interesting ways, often by drawing upon and magnifying the Chan Buddhist motifs. Yet, they also convey facets of Bodhidharma’s persona and legacy that are not present in standard Chan literature, and we are left to speculate as to the identity and affiliation of the parties who conceived of these notions.

Almost all of the Daozang materials related to Bodhidharma pertain to the longevity/immortality technique of “Embryonic Breathing” (taixi 胎息); these are discussed in Section 2.1. However, there is also one text, Lingbao guikong jue 靈寳歸空訣 (Numinous Treasure Lesson on Returning to Emptiness; discussed in Section 2.2),5 which is a manual on what we shall refer to as “death practices”— methods for anticipating the moment of death and navigating successfully through the intermediate state between death and rebirth. Although these materials appear in the Daozang, they are not necessarily of Daoist provenance, and it is unclear as to how instrumental Daoists were—compared to Buddhists and others —in refashioning Bodhidharma into a master of immortality techniques and death practices.

Whatever the case, these perceptions of Bodhidharma are perpetuated in hagiographies composed and circulated by various popular sects that emerged from roughly the sixteenth century onward. In Section 3 we discuss three such hagiographies that appear to have issued from three different sects (Huangtianjiao 黃天教, Yuandunjiao 圓頓教, and Xiantiandao 先天道 [or perhaps Yiguandao 一貫道]). While portraying Bodhidharma as a master of longevity techniques (esp. inner alchemy [[[neidan]] 內丹]) and death practices, these texts also integrate him into the 2 See Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism: A History, vol. 1 (India and China) (New York: Macmillan, 1994), 85–94; Kenneth Ch’en, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964), 351–353; Sekiguchi Shindai 關口真大, Daruma no kenkyū 達磨の研究 (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1967), and Daruma daishi no kenkyū 達摩大師の研究 (Tokyo: Shunjūsha, 1969); John McRae, Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003), 22–28.

framework of sectarian mythology by portraying him as a salvific emissary from the realm from the Eternal True Parents. The inner alchemical works of Wu Shouyang (discussed in Section 4.1) and Liu Huayang (discussed in Section 4.2) have enjoyed great popularity and influence among inner alchemy practitioners (clerical and lay) during the late imperial and modern periods, and are widely regarded as representative of the Northern Faction (beipai 北派), or the Quanzhen Longmen 全真龍門 tradition. This came to be so in spite of the fact that Wu Shouyang himself was not connected to any Daoist monastery or temple, and Liu Huayang identified himself as a Buddhist. As we shall see, Wu Shouyang viewed Bodhidharma as a great inner alchemist, and was familiar with his teachings on Embryonic Breathing and death practices, as well as with key narrative motifs found in the sectarian hagiographies. Liu Huayang exalted Bodhidharma as one of the few individuals who had mastered the authentic inner alchemy of Śākyamuni Buddha and had attained the “golden body” 金身.

In sum, we will see a significant degree of continuity between the different types of sources examined in Sections 2, 3, and 4 in terms of the ways in which they reimagine and magnify the persona and legacy of Bodhidharma beyond what was established in Chan hagiography. While the parties who authored the texts may have selfidentified variously as “Buddhist,” “Daoist,” “sect member,” or “none of the above,” their ideas persisted and cross-fertilized to form an alternative Bodhidharma lore that has stood beside that formed by the canonical Chan sources.


2. BODHIDHARMA IN THE DAOZANG

2.1. EMBRYONIC BREATHING


Since the Chan Buddhist hagiographies suggest that Bodhidharma lived over 150 years and merely feigned his death, it is perhaps not surprising that he would be attributed with knowledge and mastery of an immortality method. The immortality method he first came to be frequently associated with was Embryonic Breathing. It is unclear whether proponents of Embryonic Breathing methods attributed to Bodhidharma typically considered themselves Daoist, Buddhist, or neither. Of course, Embryonic Breathing has Chinese origins predating Bodhidharma. The term “Embryonic Breathing” was in use since at least the early centuries of the Common Era (as evidenced notably in Baopuzi neipian 抱朴子内篇 and Houhan shu 後漢書), and a considerable variety of methods named as such are found in the Daozang. Those ascribed to Bodhidharma are primarily described in texts or anthologies of the Northern Song period (960–1127), which would suggest that Bodhidharma had begun to be associated with Embryonic Breathing not too long before then. As noted recently by Joshua Capitanio, several titles of works describing some version of Bodhidharma’s Embryonic Breathing method appear in Song bibliographies. Most notably, Chao Gongwu’s 晁公武 Junzhai dushu zhi 郡齋讀書志 (1151) describes a certain Taixi bijue 胎息秘訣 as a text on Bodhidharma’s Embryonic Breathing method written by “Tang monk Zunhua 唐僧遵化” during the Tianyou 天祐 period (904–907). In this instance the proponent of the method was apparently Buddhist.

However, in Tongzhi 通志 (by Zheng Qiao 鄭樵; 1161; 67.25b), within a list of titles pertaining to Embryonic Breathing, is found a Liuzu-Damo zhenjue 六祖達磨真訣 (True Lessons of the Six Patriarch [[[Huineng]]] and Bodhidharma) by Wang Yuanzheng 王元正. One wonders whether this is the same Wang Yuanzheng (sobriquet, Qingxuzi 清虛子) of Mt. Taibai 太白山人, active during the Zhenyuan 貞元 era (785–805) of the Tang, whose discourse Taibai huandan pian 太白還丹篇 is found in the twelfth century Daoist anthology, Daoshu 道樞 (27.4a–13a). Incidentally, this Daoist inner alchemical discourse recommends adepts prematurely facing death to undertake measures to select a desirable womb for their next rebirth, and describes what appears to be a variety of visions that one encounters while dying —similar to what is described in Lingbao guikong jue.

It appears that Embryonic Breathing methods ascribed to Bodhidharma originated from various parties, be they Buddhist, Daoist, or something else. Their incorporation into the Daozang owes most likely to the fact that Embryonic Breathing is a longevity/immortality technique—something that one typically associates with Daoism. However, this is not at all to say that professedly mainstream Buddhists were necessarily averse to practicing longevity/immortality techniques. For instance, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, the presence of parties propounding a “Bodhidharma’s Embryonic Breathing Method,” as well as other longevity/immortality techniques, drew the ire of Buddhist monk Pudu 普度 of Mt. Lu 廬山

(Jiangxi), who lamented or feared that their teachings were infiltrating the ranks of his own orthodox BuddhistLotus Tradition”12 (Lianzong 蓮宗; or “White Lotus Tradition” [Bailian zong 白蓮宗]) or getting confused with its teachings. We shall now overview some of the Bodhidharma Embryonic Breathing techniques found in the Daozang. In the 59th juan of the massive early eleventh century Daoist compendium, Yunji qiqian 雲笈七籤, there is a text entitled Damo dashi zhushi liuxing neizhen miaoyong jue 達磨大師住世留形内真妙用訣

(Grand Master Bodhidharma’s Inner Authenticity Marvelous Functions Lesson for Staying in the World and Maintaining the Body; from here on, Damo miaoyong jue). It contains a discourse on Embryonic Breathing that in its main gist and much of its phrasing matches with four other Embryonic Breathing discourses found in the Daozang, three of which are not attributed to Bodhidharma, and do not allude to him or to Buddhism.16 Damo miaoyong jue begins with Bodhidharma reminiscing on how he had, before embarking on his journey to China from the “western land,” implored a certain teacher named Baoguan 寳冠 to teach him a method by which he could avoid disease and death. Bodhidharma already had mastered his own “Secret Dharma of the Mind’s Ground” 心地密法, but knew that this alone conferred only spiritual enlightenment. Thus, in or der for Bodhidharma to become an Immortal, he needed to have some sort of physical method by which to supplement it (14b–15a). The remainder of Damo miaoyong jue consists of Baoguan’s discourse on Embryonic Breathing. Baoguan starts out by emphasizing the importance of understanding the condition at the time of conception and gestation, when the fetus is utterly innocent and full of vitality, living off the qi that the mother breathes. Not long after birth the baby begins to smile and engage the outer world, and this initiates the loss of innocence and vitality. The mother is delighted at giving birth, but is sadly oblivious to the fact that she has lost an immense amount of vitality. Baoguan thus points out that when one considers this great sacrifice made by one’s mother, one ought to understand why “our Śākyamuni Buddha” commanded people to love and respect their parents, and gratefully repay their debt to them (15b). This enjoinder toward filial piety citing the authority of the Buddha is not found in any of the four aforementioned cognate Embryonic Breathing discourses in the

with the cultivation methods of the school of the Dao” 將道門修養法冐濫蓮宗. Thus he criticizes proponents of physiological cultivation (including sexual) methods involving the retention and circulation of qi and essence. Further on in the text he criticizes those parties who, based on the story that Bodhidharma “returned to the west with a single sandal” 隻履西歸, claimed that this was because his “technique had efficacy” 術有驗 and therefore he became “marvelous in both body and spirit” 形神俱妙 (i.e., immortal in spirit and body; 350a). He further on mentions that “there also are those of the sort who propagate the Embryonic Breathing of Bodhidharma under false pretexts” 復有一種假托達磨胎息 (350b). See ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History, 96–111. Daozang. By having Baoguan refer to the Buddha as “our Śākyamuni Buddha,” the author implies that Baoguan is himself a Buddhist; one might also take this as a clue that the author considered himself a follower of the Buddha. Whatever the case, it also bears mentioning here that a similar enjoinder is uttered by Bodhidharma in a sectarian hagiography, as we shall see in Section 3.

The Embryonic Breathing method that Baoguan goes on to describe primarily involves calming the mind and focusing on the Sea of Qi (qihai 氣海) beneath the navel, so as to make spirit and qi merge harmoniously there. With sustained practice one can make the conjoined spirit and qi circulate and illuminate the body and its internal organs. One eventually can enter into a condition of “True Embryonic Breathing” (zhen taixi 真胎息) where breath no longer exits from the nose. An alternate version of Baoguan’s Embryonic Breathing discourse delivered to Bodhidharma is found in the 14th juan (8b–13a) of Daoshu. It is entitled Taixi pian 胎息篇 (Chapter on Embryonic Breathing), and the title bears a note by Daoshu editor Zeng Zao 曾慥 (1091–1155) that reads, “‘Softly and subtly as if it were there’— in this manner circulate the primal qi. If you gaze at the wall for nine years, this matter will become clear” 綿綿若存,以運元氣。壁觀九年,乃明茲事. Zeng Zao, who was a government official and a prolific lay Daoist adept and author, seems thus to imply that Bodhidharma was practicing Embryonic Breathing while engaging in his famous “wall-gazing.” Taixi pian starts out describing Bodhidharma’s encounter with Baoguan in India (Shendu 身毒). It describes Baoguan as somebody whose body had never aged or declined, thanks to his mastery of Embryonic Breathing. This is followed by Baoguan’s discussion on gestation and birth, and his description of the actual Embryonic Breathing Method, which is essentially the same as that in Damo miaoyong jue. However, Baoguan goes on to describe a few additional visualization techniques.

Taixi pian concludes with Baoguan describing the culminating effects of his methods. Most notably he states, “Hereby, your blood will turn into milk, and your bones will turn into jasper” 於是血化爲乳,骨化為瓊. Here Taixi pian replicates a motif that occurs twice in the Chan Buddhist hagiography Lidao fabao ji 曆代法寶記 (ca. 774).19 There the feat of bleeding milk is attributed to Huike when he cuts off his arm, as well as to the 24th Patriarch Siṃha bhiksu (Shizụ Biqiu 師子比丘) when he is executed by an evil king in Kashmir who was being deluded by infidels named Momanni 末曼尼 (Mani) and Mishihe 彌師訶 (Messiah; viz., Jesus).20 While the author of Taixi pian may or may not have considered himself Daoist, the motif of bleeding milk as a sign of sanctity or high attainment does seem to have left some impact on Daoism, as evidenced in the writings of Bai Yuchan 白玉蟾 (1194–1229), the famous Southern Song period virtuoso of inner alchemy and Daoist ritual.

In the Daozang there is one more, very short Embryonic Breathing discourse attributed to Bodhidharma. This is Damo chanshi taixi jue 達磨禪師胎息訣 (Chan Master Bodhidharma’s Embryonic Breathing Lesson; from here on, Damo taixi jue). It is included (5b–6a) in a collection called Zhuzhen shengtai shenyong jue 諸真聖胎神用訣 (ca. twelfth century).22 Damo taixi jue is spoken in the voice of Bodhidharma, and does not mention Baoguan. The method is described briefly as follows: 常息於心輪,則不著萬物。炁若不定,禪亦空也。炁若定,則色身無病,禪道雙安。修行之人,因不守心,元炁失了不收。道怎成矣。 Always breathe (or repose?) at the wheel (cakra?) of the heart (or mind?) and thereby be unattached to the myriad things. If your qi is not stable, your meditation (chan; Sanskrit, dhyāna) is in vain. If your qi is stable, your body of form will be without illness, and chan (meditation; Chan Buddhism) and the Dao will both be secure. Practitioners, because they do not guard their hearts (or minds), lose their primal qi and do not gather it. How, then, can the Dao be accomplished? (Damo taixi jue 5b–6a)

From this description the exact technique is not clear. Ambiguities arise because the character xi has several possible meanings, and could be interpreted equally plausibly as meaning “to breathe” or to “take repose.” “Qi” 炁 can mean the air that one breathes, or it could mean the more subtle qi of vitality (“primal qi”) that is squandered when the mind is unstable. Also, is xin to be understood as meaning the mind or the heart? The first sentence describing the xin as a “wheel” (a physical object), may well be referring the “heart cakra” in the chest that figures within the physiological theories of Tantric yoga.23 The idea is perhaps that one is supposed 20 See Wendi L. Adamek, The Mystique of Transmission: On an Early Chan History and Its Contents (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), 309, 313–313. Siṃ ha bhiksu loses hiṣ life, but the king repents after witnessing the miracle, and orders the execution of Mani and Jesus (who bleed ordinary red blood). to focus inward toward the heart while breathing in a calm, controlled manner, thereby facilitating the calming of the mind, which in turn facilitates the retention of life-sustaining primal qi. But does the “stabilization” (ding ) of qi perhaps also mean that breathing becomes suspended—something similar to the condition of True Embryonic Breathing described in Damo miaoyong jue and Taixi pian? In any case, it can be said that the method of Damo taixi jue differs from that of Damo miaoyong jue and Taixi pian, where the locus of concentration was the Sea of Qi under the navel. The condition attained where proper meditative concentration and control of qi occur in a mutually complementary manner, resulting in both meditative trance and physical health, is referred to as one where “chan and the Dao” are “both secure.” The sense conveyed is that mental concentration and trance are the domains of Chan Buddhism while qi and physical health are the domains of Daoism; thus Embryonic Breathing is the method that combines and satisfies the agendas of both traditions by bringing optimal, salubrious calm to both mind and body.

Damo taixi jue goes on to state: 古人云:「炁定心定。氣凝心靜。是大道之要,又名還丹。」道人無諸掛念,日日如斯。則名真定禪觀。故三世賢聖,修行皆在此。訣名為禪定雙修也。

A man of old has said, “When qi is stable, the mind is stable. When the qi congeals, the mind is still. This is the essence of the Great Way, and is also known as ‘the Recycled Elixir.’” A person of the Way should not encumber the mind with anything, and should be like this day after day. This is what is called the Meditative (Chan; dhyāna) Observation of True Absorption (samādhi). All virtuous sages of past, present and future cultivate based on this. This lesson is called “the Dual Cultivation of Meditative Absorption” (or perhaps, “the Dual Cultivation of Meditation and Absorption”) (Damo chanshi taixi jue 6a) Here we see Bodhidharma equating his Embryonic Breathing to inner alchemy by referring to it as the “recycled elixir.” The usage of the term “dual cultivation” may also be meant to imply the same thing. Typically, Daoist inner alchemical literature touts inner alchemical meditation as being a dual cultivation of both innate nature (xing ) and vitality (ming 命), and is critical of Buddhism for its lopsided emphasis on mental cultivation. Here, the Chan Buddhist master Bodhidharma is perhaps proclaiming that his Embryonic Breathing method is the true Chan meditation that does in fact cultivate both innate nature and vitality, and that it is inner

仏教辞典, second edition [[[Tokyo]]: Iwanami, 2002], 703–704.) An anonymous referee of this article has kindly pointed out that a usage of the compound xinlun 心輪 (heart-wheel) that clearly denotes the chest and draws inspiration from Buddhism theory is found in the late thirteenth century Daoist text, Xuanzong zhizhi wanfa tonggui 玄宗直指萬法同歸 (DZ 1066), in a section entitled “Foshi wanzi xinlun tushuo” 佛氏卐字心輪圖説 (Illustrated Explanation of the Swastika Heart Cakra of the Buddhists; 1.13a–b)

alchemy. It is to be noted that the equation of EmbryonicBreathing to inner alchemy had already been made in certain Tang period Daoist Embryonic Breathing texts. In addition to Damo miaoyong jue, Taixi pian and D amo taixi jue, we can find instances in Daozang materials where some other text or method of “Embryonic Breathing” attributed to Bodhidharma is cited or described. In the large anthology Xiuzhen shishu 修真十書 (compiled ca. 1340), we find an undated poem entitled Weisheng ge 衛生歌 (Song on the Guarding of Life; by a certain Master of the Western Mountain 西山先生), and the commentary attached to this poem quotes a certain Damo taixi lun 達磨胎息論 (Bodhidharma’s Treatise on Embryonic Breathing). The passage quoted describes a method to be carried out after midnight, in which one—while either sitting or lying down—first expels through the mouth the “old qi”舊氣 from the belly. One then slowly inhales fresh air through the nose while allowing saliva to well up through the two apertures under the tongue (said to be connected to the two kidneys). Once the saliva has filled the mouth, one slowly swallows it to make it irrigate the five viscera (liver, heart, spleen, lungs, and kidneys) and return to the Elixir Field (dantian 丹田) in the belly. This, then, is a saliva-swallowing method intended for the maintenanceofphysical health specifically.

Xishan qunxian huizhen ji 西山群仙會真記 (ca. 11th c.), one of the principal texts of what scholars refer to as the “Zhong-Lü school” of inner alchemy, discusses and cites a treatise that was known as Damo taixi zhili 達磨胎息至理 (Bodhidharma’s Ultimate Principles of Embryonic Breathing). It states that Damo taixi zhili is “the intermediate method for augmenting the qi” 補氣之中法, whereas Tianhuang shengtai biyong shenjue 天皇聖胎祕用神訣 (Celestial Emperor’s Divine Lesson on the Secret Functioning of the Holy Embryo) is “the superior method for augmenting the qi” 補氣之上法. The lower methods for qi-augmentation are those of Bian Que’s Lingshu 扁鵲靈樞 and “Ge Hong’s commentary on Embryonic Breathing” 葛洪注胎息. Any methods other than these superior, intermediate, and lower methods, are “wrong methods” 非法 (3.6b). It would appear that the Daoist author of Xishan qunxian huizhen ji regarded Bodhidharma’s method highly. While he did not consider it the best method, he considered it legitimate, and even held it in higher esteem than the methods of the indigenous luminaries Bian Que (the physician) and Ge Hong (the alchemist).

Xishan qunxian huizhen ji goes on to describe the method of Damo taixi zhili as one in which one inwardly observes the worlds that exist within one’s own body, wanders about within one’s own heavenly palaces, and rises up to “the marvelous realm of the pure void” 清虛妙境. The purpose of this inner journeying is to prevent any leakage of qi. In the optimal condition attained thereby, one “has no outflowing” (wulou 無漏)29 and the “True Sages” 真聖 appear. If one can “face the wall for nine years without the slightest leakage of qi, “the Yin spirit will naturally exit” 陰靈自外 (4.10a-b).

While sending the spirit out of the body may seem like an extraordinary feat, the fact that this spirit is of a yin nature implies a certain inferiority in Bodhidharma’s method. According to Xishan qunxian huizhen ji and other texts of the Zhong-Lü corpus, great Daoist Immortals such as Zhongli Quan 鍾離權, Lü Dongbin, and Liu Haichan 劉海蟾 were able to refine their spirits into a powerful Yang Spirit (yangshen 陽神). Once the Yang Spirit has taken shape and is able to exit the body, one is advised initially not to let it stay out for long or wander very far, but rather make it return quickly inside the body. Subsequently one should send it out repeatedly, gradually increasing the duration and distance of its excursions as it becomes more mature.

However, according to Xishan qunxian huizhen ji, such an ideal scenario did not play out for Bodhidharma, nor for Śākyamuni Buddha or Sixth Patriarch Huineng 慧能 (638–713). The text further on (5.9b) states that all three of them were able to make “the Yin Spirit exit its husk” 陰神出殻. Śākyamuni’s spirit exited to the sounds of divine chimes. Bodhidharma and Huineng experienced sublime inner journeys wherein they reached the Palaces of the Heaven of the Thirty-three31 and the Nirmāṇarati Heaven.32 However, in the end they all “exited but could not enter” 出而不能入. The implication would seem to be that such is the nature of the supreme attainment to be had from Buddhism, which is, alas, inferior to Daoism. If the exited spirit is merely yin in nature and cannot re-enter, spirit and body cannot be re-united—meaning immediate death for the latter. Also, a Yin Spirit cannot manifest itself before ordinary mortals or take on any other corporeal traits, and cannot leave the world to dwell in an Immortalsparadise. Although the Yin Spirit is not bound to the laws of karma in the same way as other 29 In its standard Buddhist usage this means to have no ignorant thoughts or attachments, and such is certainly at least in part what it means here. However, here it could simultaneously refer to how qi does not flow out of the body; such a physiological usage of the term is not uncommon in Daoist literature. See Eskildsen, The Teachings and Practices of the Early Quanzhen Taoist Masters (Albany: SUNY Press, 2004), 70–71; and Eskildsen (Su Depu 蘇德樸), “Wu Shouyang, Wu Zhenyang he Liu Huayang de fojing jieshi yu fojiao jieshi 伍守陽,伍真陽和柳華陽的佛經解釋與佛教批評,” in Quanzhen dao yanjiu: Di er ji 全真道研究:第二輯, ed. Zhao Weidong 趙衛東

(Ji’nan 濟南: Qilu shushe 齊魯書社, 2011), 120–143 (esp., pp. 124–127). disembodied ghosts—it does have some limited control over its own destiny—it eventually must choose and take on another physical body, either by entering a womb to be reborn from (this is called “throwing oneself into a womb” [toutai 投胎]), or by taking over a body that is or recently was occupied by somebody else (this is called “taking up a dwelling” [jiushe 就舍]).

As has been discussed recently by Capitanio, a similar assessment of the methods and attainments of Bodhidharma (and Buddhists more generally) can be found in another, somewhat earlier, Daoist inner alchemical source—Huandan neixiang jinyaoshi 還丹内象金鑰匙 by Peng Xiao 彭曉 (sobriquet, Zhenyizi 真一子; d. 955). There Peng Xiao mentions a certain “qi Lesson of Master Bodhidharma” 達摩師氣訣, which he characterizes as a meditative trance method by which one attains “yin perfection” 陰真 and ends up becoming “a ghostly spirit that is pure, empty, good, and vigorous within the yin realm under the earth” 下土陰中清虛善爽之鬼神. Thus, different Daoist Canon materials provide different assessments as to what the attainments of Bodhidharma were, and how his methods compared or related to Daoist ones. In Damo miaoyong jue and Taixi pian, Bodhidharma is portrayed as having attained physical immortality by practicing Embryonic Breathing, with the former source explaining that he had learned it so as to complement his “mind method.” In Damo taixi jue, Bodhidharma’s Embryonic Breathing method is presented as one that in and of itself perfects both mind and body, and satisfies the objectives of both Chan Buddhist and Daoist cultivation. It is hard to say whether these sources reflect the views of parties that considered themselves Buddhist, Daoist, both, or neither.

In the sources mentioned so far in this essay for which we know that the author stood firmly within the Daoist fold, Bodhidharma is portrayed as falling short of the highest ideals of Daoism, despite the considerable efficacy and merits of his method. According to both Xishan qunxian huizhen ji and Huandan neixiang jinyaoshi, Buddhist methods can at best result in one living on as a ghost of a yin quality. However, as has been recently demonstrated by Capitanio, a discourse regarding Bodhidharma—along with Śākyamuni Buddha and all the Chan Patriarchs up to the Sixth Chinese Patriarch (Huineng)—as an inner alchemist of supreme attainment, emerged by the twelfth century within the Daoist tradition that followed the legacy of Zhang Boduan 張伯端 (984–1082) and his inner alchemical classic, Wuzhen pian 悟真篇. As we shall see in Sections 3 and 4, such a discourse would be continued and magnified in both sectarian hagiography and in the writings of Wu Shouyang and (especially) Liu Huayang.


2.2. LINGBAO GUIKONG JUE


Since, as mentioned in the introduction, Lingbao guikong is a manual on death practices, one is tempted to speculate as to the possible connection between its teachings and those of Tibetan Buddhism. Teachings on how to navigate the intermediate state (bardo [[[Tibetan]]] or antarābhava [[[Sanskrit]]]) are most famously expounded in the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bardo Thodol).38 However, it can be noted that Buddhist theories regarding the intermediate state and the visions therein were well developed in Indian sutras and had entered into China by the sixth century, although these sutras describe no meditative techniques for positively altering the outcome of the intermediate state (rather, the outcome is deemed to be entirely contingent upon one’s past karma). Such techniques were developed by Indian siddhas such as Tilopa (988–1069) and Nāropa (1016–1100), and perhaps Padmasambhava (eighth c.),39 and would become integral to the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition.40 However, as I have discussed in a previous study, meditative techniques for positively altering the outcome of the intermediate state are also mentioned or described in Daoist texts dating as early as the eighth or ninth century, and could have developed independently in China. Lingbao guikong jue was edited and rewritten by Zhao Yizhen 趙宜真 (d. 1380), an eminent late Yuan-early Ming Daoist renowned for his mastery of the ritual methods of the Qingwei 清微 and Jingming 淨明 traditions, as well as the inner alchemy of the Quanzhen 全真 tradition.43 The text (eight folios in its entirety) contains eighteen stanzas of verse, each with four lines of seven characters. Following each stanza are prose commentary passages of varying length. The text concludes with a postface (houxu 後序). In this postface, Zhao Yizhen states that his 38 See Robert Thurman, trans., The Tibetan Book of the Dead: Liberation through Understanding in the Between (New York: Bantam Books, 1994). According to tradition, this text was authored in the eighth century by Padma Sambhava and discovered in the fourteenth century by Karma Lingpa. 39 This is if he indeed is the author of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, as tradition claims. 40 See Bryan J. Cuevas, The Hidden History of the Tibetan Book of the Dead (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 40–49; Cuevas, “Predecessors and Prototypes: Towards a Conceptual History of the Buddhist Antarâbhava,” Numen 43, no. 3 (1996): 263–302; Robert Kritzer, “The Four Ways of Entering the Womb (garbhâvakranti),” Bukkyô bunka, no. 10 (2000): 1–41; Kritzer, “Semen, Blood and the Intermediate Existence,” Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies 46, no. 2 (1998): 30–36; Kritzer, “Garbhâvakrantisutra: A Comparison of the Contents of Two Versions,” Maranatha: Bulletin of the Christian Culture Research Institute, Notre Dame Women’s College, no. 6 (1998): 4–13.


Lingbao guikong jue was based on an older text attributed to Bodhidharma. He doubted this attribution because the text was full of errors and in his view unbecoming of a “Mahayana Bodhisattva”—particularly one such as Bodhidharma who “did not stand upon words and letters” 不立文字. Unfortunately, Zhao Yizhen does not indicate the provenance of the older text attributed to Bodhidharma. Fortunately, thanks to testimony given by the Buddhist monk and Lotus Tradition apologist Pudu (and brought to our attention by Barend ter Haar),44 we can be pretty sure that it existed at least by 1305, and that its teachings had infiltrated Buddhist circles before coming to the attention of Zhao Yizhen. In the tenth juan of his Lushan lianzong baojian 廬山蓮宗寳鑑, Pudu laments how certain parties “falsely speak of Bodhidharma’s Returning to Emptiness (Damo guikong)” 妄言達磨歸空 (350a).45 Further on he laments how certain “fools” (yuren 愚人) established a list of ten symptoms of imminent death (“the ten appellations of the itinerary of return” 十號歸程), claiming that it is “a secret method of life and death transmitted by Bodhidharma” 達磨大師傳來生死祕法, and how “from time to time the Lotus Tradition has received this transmission from these blind teachers and blind fellows” 往往蓮宗被此等盲師瞎漢遞相傳授 (351a). He also denounces certain “fools” who falsely claim that one can avoid becoming reborn if one can avoid being misled by visions of things such as sedan chairs, horses, towers, terraces, flags, canopies, and cymbals (350c).

Zhao Yizhen apparently shared Pudu’s view that the “Returning to Emptinessdiscourse was not the teaching of Bodhidharma. Yet, despite this and other flaws that he saw in the “Bodhidharma” text he had in his hands, Zhao Yizhen bothered to edit and rewrite it. Apparently he felt that it addressed a pervasive need too urgent to be neglected—the need to anticipate the moment of death and cope with dying in the best manner. As is stated in the comments to the first stanza of verse in Zhao

44 See ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History, 96–111.

45 It can also be noted that in a letter (Shang Bailian zong shu 上白蓮宗書 [A Letter Presented Concerning the White Lotus Tradition]) addressed to the Yuan Emperor Wuzong 武宗 in 1310, Pudu includes a “Collection on Returning to Emptiness” (Guikong ji 歸空集) within a list of “spurious scriptures” (weijing 偽經) that were authored by wandering folk who “have not left the home (have not taken monastics vows), but are not in the home (do not behave like lay people), and many of whom deceptively bear the name of ‘White Lotus’” 既非出家亦非在家多是詐稱白蓮名色. See Lushan fujiao ji 廬山復教集 (edited by Guoman 果滿; in Yuandai Bailian jiao ziliao huibian 元代白蓮教資料彙編, ed. Yang Ne 楊訥 [[[Wikipedia:Beijing|Beijing]]: Zhonghua shuju, 1989], 16a–17a). This letter was written in the wake of a prohibition on the White Lotus tradition, which was issued in 1308 (and rescinded in 1311). It sets out to define what the orthodox White Lotus Tradition is, so as to disassociate it from deviant groups, practices, and individuals that get conflated with it and give it a bad name. See ter Haar, The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History, 100– 101.

Yizhen’s Lingbao guikong jue, it is only the best of adepts, whose “elixir is completed” 丹成, that can remainintheir bodies for as long asthey wantto. All other practitioners must “at the moment of returning to Emptiness (dying), observe and know it in advance, so as not to become confused and lost” 當歸空之際,必先覺察。不生昏迷 (1a). The second through eighth stanzas, along with their commentary, deal with how to gauge the proximity of death by observing various sensory and physical symptoms. This gauging involves a number of self-diagnostic techniques. For example, one can cover one’s ears with the palms of one’s hands and tap on the back of the head (“the Drum atop the Tower” [loutougu 樓頭鼓]) with one’s fingers thirty-six times. If the sound that one hears resembles a drum, death is still not near, but if it sounds like a bell, one has three years left to live. If it sounds like stone chimes, one has only a year. If it sounds like cicadas, death will come in a hundred days, and if it sounds like earthworms, one has only seven days. If no sound issues forth, death is certainly imminent (1b). The text goes on to mention many more harbingers of imminent death. The following are just a few examples: When one rubs one’s eyes in a pitch dark place, one sees no light (“sun and moon have no radiance” 日月無光). No pulse is detectable in the arteries in front of the ears (“the fisherman has relinquished his pole”釣客罷竿; one day left to live). There is no saliva under the tongue (“the water of the Cao Gorge is exhausted” 曹溪水竭; “the Flower Pond is dry” 華池乾; seven days are left). One feels a sharp pain like the jabbing of an awl in the kidneys when one urinates. A jabbing pain is felt in the left leg if one is a man, and in the right leg if one is a woman (there is only a half a day left to live). One has a sensation that feels like ants and mole crickets running all over the body. One may have the sensation of a snake swimming inside the body. When the snake reaches the heart, one feels pain throughout one’s bones and joints (2a–3b).

If one has witnessed two or three of these “signs of returning to Emptiness” 歸空證, one must bathe in peachwood-infused hot water (taotang 桃湯), change clothes, drink a cup of white tea (baicha 白茶) or plain water (jingshui 淨水), and enter into meditative contemplation. In this state of stable concentration one observes the various visions that will occur as one is dying. Each vision has the capacity to lure one into rebirth into some particular place and state of being within the realm of saṃsāra. The commentary to the tenth stanza notes that all of the ghosts (gui ) and spirits (shen ) one encounters in the visions are actually produced by the mind, with each sensory/mental organ generating upon death a particular category of ghost (4a). The commentary then proceeds to describe the various visions, which include sights of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, deities, family and relatives, vengeful people, lamps, open fields, parades, elephants, brothels, sumptuous feasts, etc. Allowing oneself to be agitated or drawn to these results in rebirth variously as devas, demons, hungry ghosts, local deities, humans, cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, cats, dogs, foxes, birds, insects, snakes, etc. (4a–5a). The commentary explains that all these visions are mere figments of the mind; one must remain calm, without fearing them or clinging to them. If this equanimity is lost for even a moment, one can fall into an undesirable state of rebirth. It also explains that when “the qi is cut off” (qiduan 氣斷; meaning apparently the moment of physical death), “it is like being hacked open with an axe” (ru fu pi 如斧劈)—yet one must not be afraid. One must remain unmoved and hold firmly to “the seal of the mind” (xinyin 心印) (5a).

In the end, there is just one type of vision that one should take hold of and advance toward. As the eleventh stanza states, “Only when you see roads of thunder fire and lightning radiance, or rays of sunlight a thousand fathoms long, should you resolutely take yourself toward it with your mind unwavering. You thereby attain the status of human or deva, or return to the Pure Land” 只見雷火電光路,日光毫光千丈度。將身猛去不動心,即證人天歸淨土 (5a). The thirteenth stanza exhorts “the four sorts of lofty persons (monks, nuns, lay men, lay women) who study Immortal-hood and Buddha-hood” 四輩高人學仙佛 to train carefully and diligently so as not to succumb to the conniving of the “Six Bandits and Three Corpses”六賊三屍 and fall into countless further miserable rebirths (5b). The teachings of Lingbao guikong jue are directed at both Daoists and Buddhists, and the assumption throughout is that both pursue legitimate paths that can achieve the same goal. Such seems to be the attitude of Zhao Yizhen, and perhaps also of the parties that produced and circulated the prior version of the text in Bodhidharma’s name. However, it is difficult to determine the extent to which Zhao Yizhen altered the original text and imposed his own views on it. To what extent does the current Lingbao guikong jue convey teachings that were previously circulating in the name of Bodhidharma? And again, who was circulating these teachings as

Bodhidharma’s?

These questions cannot be definitively answered beyond observing that proponents of Bodhidharma’s “Returning to Emptiness” text had apparently already mingled with Buddhists (particularly those inclined to Pure Land faith) before Zhao Yizhen got his hands on their text. In any case, despite the skepticism of Pudu and Zhao Yizhen regarding Bodhidharma’s connection to such teachings, such teachings continued to be ascribed to him. Ample evidence for this is found in the sectarian hagiographies of Bodhidharma.


3. SECTARIAN HAGIOGRAPHIES OF BODHIDHARMA57


Sectarian” here refers to what pertains or belongs to popular sects—voluntary religious organizations of primarily lay membership and leadership, whose teachings blended elements of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, and popular religion. These began to appear during the Yuan dynasty (1264–1368), and by at least 1430 began to produce their own scriptures typically known as “precious scrolls” (baojuan 寳卷). These sects had the frequent tendency to spawn or inspire newer sects with their own scriptures that would carry on and further develop the mythology, soteriology, and praxis of their predecessors. An early figure who influenced many sects was Luo Qing 羅清 (1442–1527), who, drawing particularly upon the Chan tradition, emphasized an inner quest for mystical apprehension of the “True Emptiness” that is one’s “home” or “mother.” By the late sixteenth century, sectarian scriptures typically came to feature a mythology surrounding an Eternal Mother who dispatches Buddhas down to the mortal realm to help her lost “children” (all sentient beings) “return home.” The practices and rituals by which this “return” was deemed attainable were various, and by the sixteenth and (especially) the seventeenth centuries it became common for sectarian scriptures to describe or refer to inner alchemy.58

Below we discuss three hagiographies that shall be referred to respectively as the Patriarch Scroll, the Precious Scroll, and the Precious 57 In this article I discuss the three sectarian Bodhidharma hagiographies that I have been able to access and view. There are other versions and editions out there, although I do not know how significantly these vary in content from the versions I have read. Yoshioka Yoshitoyo 吉岡義豐, in the endnotes (p. 372, nt. 3) to his article discussing a sectarian Bodhidharma hagiography that he had in his own private collection, lists seventeen different extant copies of texts representing some version of Bodhidharma’s sectarian hagiography. Three of these were in his own collection, three were owned by Sawada Mizuho 澤田瑞穗, three were in the collection of Fu Xihua 傅惜華, and one was held at Kyoto University. In addition, Yoshioka cites seven additional texts that are listed in Li Shiyu, ed., Baojuan zonglu 寳卷綜錄 (Shanghai: Zhonghua Shuju, 1961). In all cases where a specific date of printing is mentioned, that date falls within the latter half of the nineteenth century or early twentieth century. Almost all bear a title resembling or matching one of three versions that I have read; the one exception is Damo laozhu xuanmiao bizong 達摩老主玄妙秘宗, in Yoshioka’s collection. See Yoshioka, “Chūgoku minshū shinkō no naka no Daruma daishi: Daruma hōkan wo chūshin to shite 中国民衆信仰の中の達摩大師―『達摩宝巻』を中心として―,” in Dōkyō to Bukkyō 道教と仏教, vol. 3 (Tokyo: Kokusho kankōkai, 1976), 353–380. 58 See Daniel L. Overmyer, Precious Volumes: An Introduction to Chinese Sectarian Scriptures from the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999), esp., 1–8, 92–135, 197, 232–237.

Biography.61 None of them bear a colophon by which we can determine the date of composition. However, each text does provide clues by mentioning or alluding to a particular sect or founder thereof. The Patriarch Scroll (52a–54a) mentions a certain “future Buddha” (Weilaifo 未來佛) Puming 普明, which likely refers to Li Bin 李賓 (d. 1562) of Wanquan Fort 萬全衛 (northern Hebei), founder of the Huangtianjiao 黃天教 sect. The Precious Scroll twice mentions the Yuandunjiao 圓頓教, a sect founded in 1624 by a man of Caoqiaoguan 草橋關 (northern Hebei) who went by the name of Gong Chang 弓長. The Precious Biography frequently employs the terms “prior heaven” (xiantian 先天) (prior heaven) and “pervading unity (yiguan 一貫), and in one place (p. 19) it has Bodhidharma stating, “Only my Way of the Prior Heaven of the Pervading Unity combines together the Three Teachings (Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism), and is the Dharma gateway of non-duality” 惟我一貫先天大道,三教合一。是不二法門也. From this one might surmise that the text’s compiler/ editor Wuzhenzi 悟真子 belonged to the Xiantiandao 先天道 sect founded by Huang Dehui 黃德輝 in Nanchang 南昌 (Jiangxi), during the Shunzhi 順治 (1644–1661) era of the Qing dynasty. However, one might also speculate that he belonged to the Yiguandao 一貫道 sect that took shape much later—around the turn of the twentieth century in Qingzhou 青州 (Shandong)—and grew to a nation-wide organization of millions of followers by the late 1930s.64

Tokyo’s Waseda University Library and can be viewed online (http://www.taolibrary.com/category/ category62/c62008.htm). Its front cover is stamped with two red inscriptions, one reading, “Shanhaiguan (Hebei) Tongshan Chapter,” 山海關同善分社 and the other, “Nanchuan (?) Tongshan Chapter”南川同善分社. In content the text appears to be similar (down to its mention of the Yuandunjiao) to the Damo baozhuan 達摩寳卷 that has been summarized and discussed by Yoshioka Yoshitoyo. That text, according to Yoshioka, bears a colophon indicating it was reprinted in 1898. See Yoshioka, “Chūgoku minshū shinkō no naka no Daruma daishi: Daruma hōkan wo chūshin to shite.”

61 Full title, Damo baozhuan 達摩寳傳 (Precious Biography of Bodhidharma). Taichung, Taiwan: Ruicheng shuju, 1971. Also included in Minjian baojuan 民間寳卷 (Hefei: Huangshan shushe, 2005), 11: 114–132. “Augmented and recorded” (補述) by Wuzhenzi 悟真子. Proofread (jiaoyue 校閲) by Chen Shishen 陳士紳 and Qian Zifu 錢紫芙. There is a preface by Wuzhenzi (bearing only a sexagenary cycle year date [Jiayin, summer 甲寅夏]) where he states that he wrote his text based on an incomplete version of the first chapter that he had obtained in Shaanxi, and an abridged version of the second chapter that he had obtained in Diannan 滇南 (Yunnan). A section entitled “Recording the Provenance of the Mind-Seal” (Ji xinyin laili 記心印來歷) traces the transmission of the Dharma from Śākyamuni through the 28 Patriarchs down to Bodhidharma. Here the intriguing claim is made that Śākyamuni was conceived when a radiance lovingly emitted by Laozi had entered the womb of Queen Maya.

Of course, these clues only point us toward the earliest possible dates of authorship —our texts were perhaps written later. However, one can also add the observation that a certain Xiantiandao adherent known as Benchengzi, Elder of Canghai 滄海老人本誠子 (fl. 1669), in his Lüzu zhixuan pian bizhu 呂祖指玄篇秘註,65 quotes

Bodhidharma as stating, “The one character is getting bigger, the one character is big! The four continents together cannot hold it. If one can receive a transmission of this single character, one can engage in the discussion on the Holy Mountain” 一字大來一字大。四大部洲挂不下。有人得授一字傳,靈山會上同說話. This same statement gets uttered by Bodhidharma in both the Patriarch Scroll (29a) and the Precious Scroll (22b). This, then, would suggest that our texts draw on sectarian Bodhidharma lore that existed by the seventeenth century. As we shall see in Section 4.1, further evidence of this is found in the statements of Wu Shouyang.

We shall now summarize the main plot of Bodhidharma’s life story as conveyed largely in common among the three hagiographies, while noting key discrepancies as we go along:

Bodhidharma was the third son of the king of the Fragrant Branch Kingdom 香枝國 (in India), but held no interest in the throne. He entered the Dharma and became the 28th Patriarch, but did not bask in this lofty status either. Compassionately he traveled to the eastern land (China) to enlighten the people there. Riding upon a cloud he arrived at the palace of Liang Emperor Wu. The Emperor marveled at this and proceeded to ask Bodhidharma a series of questions. His last question was, “Who is heaven, and who is hell?” 誰是天堂,誰地獄? To this Bodhidharma responded. “I am heaven and you are hell” 我是天堂,你地獄. The Emperor was angered, particularly because he felt that his lavish patronage of Buddhism ought to have earned him great merit. He ordered that Bodhidharma be executed. However, before executing him, he made Bodhidharma lecture on 48 scrolls of scripture.

According to the Precious Biography (pp. 6–7), before the lecture, the great civil and military ministers 文武大臣 asked Bodhidharma about his origins. Bodhidharma responded, “I came from the single qi of primordial chaos. The birth-less (eternal) is my own elderly mother. My infancy name is ‘Little August Fetus’” 我從混元一氣來。無生是我考親母。乳名叫做小皇胎. He went on to explain that he had 9.6 billion 九十六億 brothers, some of whom were powerful and rich, some of whom were poor and destitute, some of whom had been reborn as animals, and some of whom had attained immortality. The ministers simply scoffed and regarded him as crazy. 65 This is a commentary to inner alchemical verses attributed to the legendary late Tang Immortal Lü Dongbin 呂洞賓 (also with extensive commentary attributed to eminent Southern Song inner alchemist Bai Yuchan). It was perhaps produced through spirit writing, in the seventeenth century or not long before.

The three hagiographies then describe how Bodhidharma went to the lecture platform as ordered by the Emperor. As soon as he but glanced at the 48 scrolls of scripture, he understood their meaning—yet he did not utter a single word. When the Emperor asked him why he would say nothing, Bodhidharma responded, “When you see your innate nature, you rotate the 3000 canonical scriptures. In a single moment you understand the 100 sections of scriptures” 見性時轉三千藏了。一刻通百部經. The Emperor did not understand, and had Bodhidharma taken out to be executed. The Patriarch Scroll (5b) tells us that Bodhidharma was then pummeled to death and buried in a stone coffin, but that his “Dharma Body” (fashen 法身) pulled itself out and briefly returned to India, before almost immediately returning to China, concerned that “the sentient beings of the eastern land would not get to return to their origin” 東土衆生不得還原. The Precious Biography (p. 8) indicates, however, that Bodhidharma swiftly slipped away and avoided execution, while the Precious Scroll (3b) is unclear whether the execution was carried out.

In any case, Bodhidharma then went to see Shenguang 神光 (the future second Chinese Chan Patriarch Huike 慧可), an eminent monk who had been lecturing on the scriptures for 49 years, and whose lectures were so powerful that they would causeflowers to rain down from heaven, golden lotuses to burst forth from the ground, clay oxen to cross the ocean, and wooden horses to neigh forth wind” 天花亂墜,地湧金蓮,泥牛過海,木馬嘶風. Bodhidharma witnessed these miracles wrought by Shenguang personally, but yet proceeded to inform Shenguang that he had come to save him, and that the true Dharma was not something that could ever be attained through studying and discussing scriptures. Insulted and angry, Shenguang struck Bodhidharma in the face with his iron rosary beads, knocking out his two front teeth. Bodhidharma then magically transformed himself into the form of the Yama Lords of the Ten Halls 十殿閻君, and showed up at yet another one of Shenguang’s preaching assemblies. To Shenguang’s horror, the Ten Yama Kings announced that they had come to retrieve him for trial in the underworld. Shenguang—now greatly regretting his act of violence—asked if there was anybody anywhere who could elude the judgment of the underworld, since even he himself could not. The Ten Yama Kings replied that there indeed was such a person, and that it was none other than that monk that Shenguang had just injured. When Shenguang implored them to spare his life at least for the moment so that he could go and seek out the monk (Bodhidharma) for guidance, they disappeared. Shenguang set out to look for Bodhidharma and soon encountered an old monk who informed him that Bodhidharma had died, and took Shenguang to see Bodhidharma’s grave. However, the old monk suddenly disappeared, and another monk came by. This monk told Shenguang that Bodhidharma had not died at all, and that he had in fact seen him crossing the Yangzi, floating on a reed,69 carrying a single sandal on his back, on his way to Mt. Xiong’er 熊耳山 to nurse his injured teeth. Shenguang exhumed Bodhidharma’s grave and, lo and behold, found only a single sandal and no body.

Shenguang eventually found Bodhidharma at Mt. Xiong’er. He apologized profusely for his violent act, and begged Bodhidharma to teach him. When Bodhidharma told him that he would teach him if and only when “red blood reaches your waist”紅血齊腰, Shenguang cut off his arm. The Patriach Scroll (10b) and Precious Biography (pp. 18–19) both indicate here that Bodhidharma did not intend his words to be taken literally as enjoining self-mutilation. They describe how Bodhidharma bemoaned the ignorance of Shenguang and then magically healed his wound. Bodhidharma proceeded to transmit many things to Shenguang, which are recorded at great length in each of the hagiographies. In the Patriarch Scroll and the Precious Scroll, the hagiographical plot essentially concludes with the conversion of Shenguang and the lengthy conferral of teachings. The Precious Biography alone proceeds to a second chapter, with a narrative relating Bodhidharma’s encounter, conversion, and instruction of a Daoist monk named Zongheng 宗橫 (whom he eventually renames Zongzheng 宗正). A predominant theme in the teachings conferred upon Shenguang (and also Zongheng/Zongzheng, in the Precious Biography) is meditation, and most importantly for us the teachings on meditation amply contain elements of Daoism and inner alchemy. For example, Bodhidharma states: 高明者乃是一寸三分下手之功。博厚者乃是無生之地。東洋半水,西洋半金。此時腎水上昇,心火下降。乃是坎離之功。天是性之主,地是命之根。人能常清淨,天地悉皆歸。 What is high and bright is the merit of undergoing the practice within the 1.3 inches. Vast and thick is the ground of no-birth (eternity). [Employ] a half portion of the water of the eastern ocean and a half portion of gold from the western ocean. At this time the water of the kidneys ascends, and the fire of the heart descends. This is the merit of kan and li. Heaven is the master of innate nature, and earth is the root of life. If a person can always be clear and pure, heaven and earth will all return. (Patriarch Scroll 12b)

The last sentence here is a direct quote of the very popular Daoist scripture, Taishang

Laojun shuo chang qingjing miaojing 太上老君說常清靜妙經. Bodhidharma 69 The motif of Bodhidharma crossing the Yangzi on a reed was current within Chan circles by the Song period, though it is not mentioned in the Jingde chuandeng lu or the Chuanfa zhengzong ji. Zhipan’s 志磐 (ca.1258–1271) Fozu tongji 佛祖統紀 (T 49, no. 2035; 37th juan) quotes Yuanwu Keqin 圜悟克勤 (1063–1135) alluding to the alleged feat (350a). apparently speaks here of the pacification of the mind and the concentration upon the Lower Elixir Field in the belly (1.3 inches below the navel) that facilitates the converging of dualities (heaven/earth, east/west, water/fire, kidneys/heart, the trigrams kan 坎/li ) within one’s being, leading to the concoction of the inner elixir of immortality.

In thus portraying Bodhidharma as a master of inner alchemy, the sectarian hagiographies certainly follow the trend we saw emerging in the Daozang—yet, the term Embryonic Breathing is conspicuously absent. However, in the second chapter of the Precious Biography is a discourse on the process of gestation and birth that is interestingly reminiscent of Damo miaoyong jue. As will be recalled, that Daozang text on Embryonic Breathing, within the context of an extended exposition on conception, gestation, and birth, had enjoined filial piety in recognition of the fact that one’s mother sacrifices a great portion of her own vitality in giving birth. In the Precious Biography (pp. 48–53), Bodhidharma similarly exhorts Zongheng— first in prose and then in verse—with an extended description of the process of pregnancy, birth, and child-rearing, with vivid, poignant descriptions of the mother’s suffering and sacrifice. These include: states of stupor and drowsiness, fevers, loss of appetite, anxiety, headaches, vomiting, weakness, chest pains, insomnia, shortness of breath, intense pain (and at times loss of life) at giving birth—all followed by constant nursing and caring (including the washing of filthy garments) for the child after birth. All three of our sectarian hagiographies record teachings by Bodhidharma on death practices. These are highly similar to those in Zhao Yizhen’s Lingbao guikong jue. In fact, the portion of the Patriarch Scroll containing these teachings bears the heading Damo laozu guikong ji 達磨老祖歸空記 (The Venerable Patriarch Bodhidharma’s Record on Returning to Emptiness). Also, in the Precious Biography, in verses near the end of the discourse on death practices, one finds the statement, “If you can also get to encounter the Record on Returning to Emptiness, you can elude saṃsāra and climb the ladder to heaven” 若還得遇歸空記得免輪廻上天梯 (p. 60). Thus, something similar to the “Returning to Emptiness” text that Pudu had denounced and Zhao Yizhen had rewritten (without accepting its ascription to Bodhidharma) was heartily embraced by the sectarian hagiographers as the genuine teachings of Bodhidharma. Our three hagiographies have Bodhidharma describing various symptoms by which to gauge the imminence of death, many of which resemble or match descriptions in Lingbao guikong jue. For example, the Precious Scroll (30b) reads

身上猶如螞蟻行。四大疼痛不安寧。專听楼臺皷角响。華池無水即行程。两目雙睁不見光。有臂伸來不見藏。

Your body feels like ants are crawling on it. Your body’s four extremities ache in discomfort. Listen to the drums and flutes atop the tower. If there is no water in the Flower Pond, you will be on your way. You stare with your two eyes but see no light. You stretch out your arms but do not see the storage (?). It will be recalled that Lingbao guikong jue described a sensation of insects crawling on the body, aching in the joints and a lack of saliva under the tongue (in the “Flower Pond”) as symptoms of imminent death. It also described how to beat the “Drum atop the Tower” by tapping the back of the head with the fingers to gauge the imminence of death according to the quality of sound thus made.

The visions described in the sectarian hagiographies, along with the samsaric conditions to which they can lure careless practitioners, also resemble those described in the Lingbao guikong jue. The visions include those of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (Śākyamuni 釋迦, Avalokitesvará 觀音, Mahāsthāmaprāpta 勢至, and Manjusŕ ı̄ 文殊 are named specifically), processions, chariots, sedan chairs, banners, palace concubines, musicians playing instruments and banners, jeweled pagodas and terraces, and red-clad lads. The states to which they lure people include those of foxes, dragons, tigers, cats, birds, phoenixes, crabs, monkeys, donkeys, slaves, praying mantises, butterflies, pigs, sheep, and great wealthy officials.

However, the only vision that one should allow oneself to be drawn to is that of a white light coming from the west. This light transforms into an elderly monk in a white robe, who is none other than the Buddha Amitābha 阿彌陀 who has come to provide escort to his Pure Land. Thus, whereas in Lingbao guikong jue it had only been stated that one can be reborn in “the Pure Land,” leaving us only to surmise that Amitābha’s Western Pure Land was what was meant, the sectarian hagiographies make it clear that Amitābha’s Pure Land is indeed the destination prepared for those who are drawn to the auspicious light. However, the sectarian hagiographies then proceed to describe yet a whole other complex sequence of visions and experiences that are to be expected by the newly deceased. No counterpart for this sequence is found in Lingbao guikong jue. Perhaps this is material that Zhao Yizhen had edited out; however, it appears more likely that we are dealing with a later textual layer, as it conveys themes integral to notions that became prominent within popular sectarian circles during the sixteenth century. In any case, the sectarian hagiographies describe—with some variation in complexity and in the details—a journey to a heavenly paradise and a reunion with one’s “True Parents.” To gain entry there one must undergo interrogation as to who one is and where one came from. To this one must declare that one is “the infant who has come home to pay reverence to the Eternal Father and Mother” 嬰兒回家參拜無生父母 (or “… to the Eternal Venerable Mother無生老母*). One states that one’s true mother’s name is Observer of Sounds (Guanyin 觀音; Avalokitesvara), and oné ’s true father’s name is Venerable True Emptiness (Lao Zhenkong 老真空). One describes how one had been lost amid ignorance in the “eastern land” but had fortunately encountered good, compassionate teachers, and had made painstaking efforts to pursue the correct path to salvation. (Names such as Little August Fetus [[[Xiao]] Huangtai 小皇胎] or Little Genuine Emptiness [[[Xiao]] Zhenkong 小真空] also appear as appellations for the newly deceased entering salvation.)

In sum, the sectarian Bodhidharma hagiographies retell the life story of Bodhidharma in a way that magnifies and expands upon the key motifs and themes that had been established in the Chan Buddhist accounts. As in Chan hagiography, Bodhidharma comes to China from India to preach a true, wordless Dharma, and in doing so encounters a misguided Buddhist establishment that attempts and seemingly succeeds at killing him. However, it turns out that he is not dead after all. The sectarian hagiographies accentuate the drama by portraying Emperor Wu as a vain, murderous draconian, and Shenguang/Huike as a pompous and ill-tempered senior monk. They also attribute to Bodhidharma the additional magical powers of flight, shape-shifting, and healing. However, they also add to his persona a dimension related specifically to sectarian mythology; they portray Bodhidharma as a messenger from the realm of the Eternal True Parents, who has come to help “bring home” his fellow lost “infants.” His True Dharma is a universal Way that precedes and encompasses the Three Teachings of Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism. The Bodhidharma of the sectarian hagiographies is an expert on inner alchemy— an aspect of his persona that we could see beginning to develop in the Daozang Embryonic Breathing materials. His teachings on death practices are largely based on an earlier source that had also inspired the fourteenth century Daoist cleric Zhao Yizhen to write his Lingbao guikong jue, but are further augmented with themes integral to popular sectarian mythology. As has been brought to attention by both Yoshioka Yoshitoyo and Daniel Overmyer, an important sectarian scripture entitled Huangji jindan jiulian zhengxin guizhen huanxiang baojuan 皇極金丹九蓮正信歸真還鄉寳卷, particularly in its 15th chapter, portrays Bodhidharma as an envoy from the realm of the Eternal Venerable Mother who has come to save her lost “children.” It closely associates him with Amitābha (in fact it regards the two as the same person), and inner alchemical teachings constitute an integral part of his message. Yoshioka suggests—perhaps rightly— that this text holds the key to determining the earliest possible date of the sectarian Bodhidharma hagiographies. Following the view of Sawada Mizuho, he dates the scripture to the first half of the eighteenth century. However, as Overmyer has aptly pointed out, it would appear that the scripture is actually significantly older, since there is an edition with a colophon indicating a publication date of 1523.

Yoshioka also points out that by modern times the sectarian lore of Bodhidharma was embraced by the Green Gang (Qingbang 青幫), a secret society and (later) crime organization that originated in the eighteenth century among Grand Canal boatmen and adherents of the Luo Sect (Luojiao 羅教), that honored Luo Qing along with the first six Chan Patriarchs (Bodhidharma through Huineng).82 Yoshioka notes that scriptures transmitted among Green Gang members in modern times (such as San’an baojian 三庵寳鑑, Daoyi zhengzong 道義正宗 and Daoyi zhinan 道義指南) refer to the key motif of Shenguang breaking Bodhidharma’s teeth and getting chastised by the Ten Yama Lords, and contain poetic phrasing matching the sectarian Bodhidharma hagiography (Damo baojuan 達磨寳卷) in his possession (which in turn is very close to our Precious Scroll).


4. LATE IMPERIAL INNER ALCHEMY: WU SHOUYANG AND LIU HUAYANG

4.1. WU SHOUYANG’S XIANFO HEZONG YULU

One Daoist inner alchemical source strongly suggests that the sectarian Bodhidharma narrative was current at least by the end of the Ming. That source is Xianfo hezong yulu 仙佛合宗語錄 (Recorded Sayings on the Combined Traditions of the Immortals and Buddhas) by Wu Shouyang 伍守陽 (1574–1644), with commentary by his cousin Wu Shouxu 伍守虛. Wu Shouyang, who hailed from and spent most of his life in Nanchang 南昌 (Jiangxi), was an acclaimed inner alchemist who professed to be an eighth generation disciple of the Quanzhen Longmen 全真龍門 Daoist lineage. While there is no credible evidence that he was connected to any Quanzhen monastery or temple, his writings came to be widely read in late imperial and modern times, and are recognized by Quanzhen clerics (including those whom I have asked) as legitimate expositions on the methods of their tradition. In Xianfo hezong yulu, Wu Shouyang states: 二祖神光説法,亦至天花墜。猶懼未脫閻君之手。斷臂達摩前,求於此向上事。

The Second Patriarch Shenguang preached the Dharma, and also got to where the heavenly flowers came down. Yet he still feared that he had not yet eluded the hands of the Yama Lords. He cut off his arm before Bodhidharma, seeking instruction on even higher things. (Xianfo hezong yulu 1.103b) 82 As a crime organization the Green Gang dealt in extortion, gambling, opium, and prostitution. It was particularly powerful in Shanghai, and was at times employed by Chiang Kai-shek’s Guomindang to suppress labor unions and the Communist party. See Brian G. Martin, The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919–1937 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996).

He alludes here, it appears, to the conversion episode of Shenguang/Huike as described in sectarian accounts. In Chan accounts Shenguang/Huike does not make flowers rain down with his sermons and is not made to encounter the Yama Lords. It is to be noted, however, that according to Wu Shouyang’s theories, the falling of heavenly flowers is a sort of vision that very advanced adepts witness, which is a sign that it is time for them to send the spirit out through the crown of the head. Even after one has reached this point, one has more training to undertake by which the spirit can be further refined in preparation for a return to the Void (huanxu 還虛) or merger with the Dao (hedao 合道). What Wu Shouyang apparently thus means to say here is that after his scare with the Yama Lords, Shenguang begged to learn from Bodhidharma these most advanced of inner alchemical teachings. Bodhidharma is mentioned twelve different times in Xianfo hezong yulu. It is apparent that Wu Shouyang and Wu Shouxu regarded Bodhidharma as a great authority on inner alchemy. Abstruse inner alchemical statements of Bodhidharma, quoted from an obscure source, appear repeatedly. In one place Wu Shouyang quotes a Patriarch Bodhidharma’s Treatise on Embryonic Breathing (Damozu taixi lun 達摩祖胎息論). The passage he quotes closely resembles a passage from the Damo taixi jue that we discussed earlier. In another place, Wu Shouyang states, “There are those who can escape, and those who cannot escape,” to which Wu Shouxu provides the comment:

能逃者能知達摩歸空十信,又知世尊自擇父母之法。 Those who can escape are able to know Bodhidharma’s ten signs of returning to Emptiness, or know the World Honored One’s (Śākyamuni Buddha) method for choosing one’s own father and mother. (Xianfo hezong yulu

1.118a) Thus the Wus (or at least Shouxu) were familiar with Bodhidharma’s death practices, as well other such practices in circulation attributed to Śākyamuni. The “ten signs of returning to Emptiness” probably refers to the symptoms of death, and corresponds to the theory of the “ten appellations of the itinerary of return” critiqued by the Buddhist monk Pudu back in 1305.88

In any case, Wu Shouyang and Wu Shouxu’s perception of Bodhidharma is colored by notions that we encountered in the Daozang and in the sectarian hagiographies (and they were also familiar with Chan lore). As is apparent from the title of Xianfo hezong yulu (Record of the Combined Tradition of the Immortals and Buddhas), Wu Shouyang believed that Heavenly Immortals and Buddhas are the same; they all practice the same method (orthodox Quanzhen inner alchemy) and attain the same powers and soteriological outcomes. In other words, the authentic Dharma of Śākyamuni Buddha was inner alchemy, and this is what passed down to Bodhidharma and on down as far as the Sixth Patriarch Huineng (638–713). Sadly, after this the Buddhists of China ceased to properly understand this authentic Dharma, and perceived a false distinction between the Ways of Buddhism and Daoism.90 It was Wang Zhe 王嚞 (1113–1170), the founder of Quanzhen Daoism, who rectified this error and reunited the two Ways into one.91 Thus, in China, the proponents of the Buddha’s authentic Dharma are the Quanzhen Daoists—not the so-called “Buddhists.”


4.2. LIU HUAYANG’S HUIMING JING


About 150 years after Wu Shouyang there came along another influential inner alchemist named Liu Huayang 柳華陽 (fl. 1794), who also hailed from Nanchang. Liu Huayang was deeply influenced by the theories of Wu Shouyang. In his preface to one of his major works, Huiming jing 慧命經 (Wisdom Life Scripture),92 he claims to have personally encountered Wu Shouyang and received secret teachings from him. However, Liu Huayang considered himself a Buddhist. In the same preface he also describes how on Mt. Lu 廬山 a certain Old Master Huyun 壺雲老師 had entrusted him with the task of reviving the Buddhist Dual Cultivation (viz., inner alchemy) that had been “cut off.” Liu Huayang concludes by stating that his purpose for writing Huiming jing was to “open up the secrets of the ancient Buddhas, and leak the original principles of the Master-Patriarchs” 開古佛 之秘密,泄師祖之元機.93

Liu Huayang followed the lead of Wu Shouyang insofar as he believed that inner alchemy was what the Buddha actually taught, regarded Bodhidharma as a foremost master of this inner alchemy, and regarded Chinese Buddhists as being by and large misguided. However, in Huiming jing Liu Huayang also expresses some notions about Chinese Buddhism and Bodhidharma that are more uniquely his own: 奈何此道,自漢明帝至今,併無一人宣講。獨有達磨寂無二祖師密受。故肉身俱已變化。親登太空,允証金身。達磨微露,而寂無著諸經典,闡揚此道。奈門人藏閉其書。余今解明備全。願同志者,概而証之,免墮傍門,得疾病而夭死。早成乎大道矣。

Alas, this Way (of Buddhist inner alchemy), from the time of Han Emperor Ming up to now, has not been proclaimed by even a single person. Only the two Patriarch-Masters Bodhidharma and Jiwu have secretly received it. Therefore their bodies of flesh were simultaneously transformed [with their spirits]. They ascended the great sky in person, and were allowed to attain the Golden Body. Bodhidharma subtly revealed it, and Jiwu recorded it in scripture, in order to propagate this Way. Alas, his disciples hid and closed his book(s). I now explain and elucidate it completely. I hope that my comrades will all attain it, and avoid falling into heretical sects, becoming ill, and dying prematurely. [I hope that they] will quickly accomplish the Great Way. 世尊達磨,雖有火化風吹候之言,而文武之用度,未行竹帛。故世之無雙修。而亦不能信。自達磨寂無後,無有神形俱妙之高僧矣。 [As for] the World-Honored One (Śākyamuni) and Bodhidharma, even though they had spoken about transforming by fire and blowing with wind, [their instructions regarding the] degrees of employment of the civil and martial [firings] were not put to bamboo or silk (not written down). Thus, among the people of the world there is no Dual Cultivation. They cannot believe in it. After Bodhidharma and Jiwu, there have been no eminent monks whose spirits and bodies are both marvelous.

In the above passages, Liu Huayang conveys the view that among all Buddhists in Chinese history, Bodhidharma and a certain Chan Master Jiwu 寂無禪師 (fl. 1723–1735) were the only ones who taught the Buddha’s authentic inner alchemical teachings, and the only ones who attained the highest level of Immortal/Buddha-hood through these methods. In fact, the problems lie not only with Chinese Buddhists, since even the missionaries who first brought Buddhism to China in the first century during the reign of Han Emperor Ming apparently did not teach the true Way either. Liu Huayang claims that he is the reviver of a true Buddha Dharma that is the inner alchemy teachings of Śākyamuni, Bodhidharma, and Jiwu, which had sadly been lost to posterity. It sounds as though this is a truly special transmission that even the second through sixth Chan Patriarchs were not privy to. The attainments of Bodhidharma and Jiwu appear also to surpass those of the Heavenly Immortals (tianxian 天仙) whom Wu Shouyang lauds as being the equals of Buddhas. They are Golden Immortals (jinxian 金仙), whose “bodies of flesh were simultaneously transformed [with their spirits]” 肉身俱已變化. As Liu Huayang explains elsewhere in the Huiming jing, this “Golden Body” (jinshen 金身) is attained by the most advanced of adepts when they enter into prolonged meditative trances lasting anywhere from three to nine years, whereby the “single speck of golden, radiant true fire” (jinguang zhenhuo 金光真火) stored within the body ultimately transforms and rarefies the body into qi 炁. This is why Bodhidharma was seen traveling the road to the west, holding a single sandal after he had supposedly died. This is why his grave turned out to be empty.


5. CONCLUSION


In the various types of sources examined in Sections 2, 3, and 4, Bodhidharma is repeatedly portrayed as a master of immortality techniques (Embryonic Breathing and/or inner alchemy) and death practices. Two of the Daozang sources we examined (Huandan neixiang jinyaoshi [10th c.] and Xishan qunxian huizhen ji [11th c.]), whose respective authors self-identified as Daoist, are reserved and somewhat critical in their assessment of Bodhidharma’s methods and attainments. However, Bodhidharma’s stature as an Immortal subsequently grew to great heights in the eyes of inner alchemy proponents both Daoist and sectarian, and reached its apex in the writings of the self-professed Buddhist inner alchemist Liu Huayang.

But who first started to claim that Bodhidharma was a master of immortality techniques and death practices? In light of the fact that the motifs of Bodhidharma’s great longevity and feigning of death are established in Chan sources by at least the eight century, it is not difficult to surmise that this apparent fascination with immortality could have inspired some Buddhists to appropriate Daoist immortality techniques and attribute them to Bodhidharma. Indeed, we have indication in a Song bibliographical source (Junzhai dushu ji [1151]) that a Buddhist monk (Zunhua [fl. 904–907]) wrote a manual describing Bodhidharma’s Embryonic Breathing method. Also, Damo miaoyong jue (pre-1025)—which is likely the earliest of the Bodhidharma Embryonic Breathing discourses in the Daozang—contains some wording (pertaining to Śākyamuni Buddha) that seems to suggest that the author saw himself as a follower of the Buddha. However, if proponents of Bodhidharma’s immortality techniques and death practices were indeed professing to be Buddhist, such claims and endeavors came to be adamantly denounced by the early fourteenth century Buddhist monk and Lotus Tradition apologist Pudu.

Along with noting the lukewarm appraisal of Bodhidharma’s immortality techniques and attainments by the Daoist authors of Huandan neixiang jinyaoshi and Xishan qunxian huizhen ji, we also noted that the prominent fourteenth century Daoist cleric Zhao Yizhen—much like the Buddhist Pudu earlier in the same century—rejected the notion that Bodhidharma was an expounder of death practices (yet chose to re-write the death practices manual attributed to Bodhidharma). In contrast to such attitudes of Pudu and Zhao Yizhen, we have the sectarian hagiographies, which proudly glorify Bodhidharma as a master inner alchemist and Immortal, and confidently present the death practices as his teachings. Similar high regard for Bodhidharma’s inner alchemical methods and attainments was held by Wu Shouyang (and his cousin Wu Shouxu, who also affirmed Bodhidharma’s death practices) and Liu Huayang, who professed to being Daoist and Buddhist respectively. Yet, Wu Shouyang does not appear to have been affiliated with any Daoist monastery or temple. Liu Huayang, who regarded inner alchemy as the true Buddha Dharma and considered himself privy to a unique transmission from Śākyamuni, Bodhidharma, and the obscure figure Jiwu, certainly does not appear to have been the conventional sort of Buddhist cleric.

In other words, while both Buddhists and Daoists were likely involved in propagating immortality techniques and death practices in the name of Bodhidharma during the tenth through fourteenth centuries, their teachings were most warmly received and perpetuated among popular sects and religious individuals functioning outside the auspices—or at the margins—of clerical Buddhism and Daoism. While the popular sects that produced the Bodhidharma hagiographies appeared from the sixteenth century onward, one wonders whether there may have existed similar and significantly earlier sects that produced, received and/or circulated texts describing the immortality techniques and death practices of Bodhidharma. Of course, the most significant way in which sectarian hagiography reshaped Bodhidharma’s legacy was by recasting him as a messenger from the realm of the Eternal True Parents, who has come to help “bring home” his fellow lost “infants.” In this way he became a transmitter not only of Buddhism, but of an eternal Truth encompassing the Three Teachings. Yet, while remolding Bodhidharma’s life and teachings in such a way, sectarian hagiography managed to retain and magnify some of the most compelling elements of the Chan narrative.


BIBLIOGRAPHY

CANONICAL COLLECTIONS


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NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTOR
Stephen Eskildsen (蘇德樸) is a Professor in the Department of Humanities, International Christian University (Tokyo, Japan). He obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia. His primary research interests are Daoism and its interaction with other forms of religion in China, with an emphasis on meditation, asceticism, and mystical experience.
Correspondence to: Stephen Eskildsen. Email: steve.eskildsen@gmail.com.


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