A Life of Bodhidharma by John M Evans. The Zen Masters Series.

For all those readers following the Zen Masters series over on our webtitle, Spiritual Nirvana, we’re now starting the third : A Life of Bodhidharma.

Following on from the lives of Bankei and Dogen, we now go right back to the first days of Zen — then known as Ch’an in China after the tea plant which monks used to keep themselves awake during meditation. Bodhidharma is reputed to be the founder of this now venerable school of Buddhism, which down to this day has an elaborate tea ceremony.

It is said he arrived in China from South India around the time of King Arthur in the West. From his practice of sitting for hours staring at a wall, the whole Zen movement takes its cue.

Read : A Life of Bodhidharma — Part One.

If you’re interested in practical paths to Enlightenment, you should head over to our Spiritual Nirvana site, where a new series on Zen masters is kicking off with Bankei, a 17th-century master who, in his day, enjoyed the status of a rock star.

We’ll be serializing biographies of the major, early masters by John M Evans — yours truly — over the next few weeks, each in six or so parts. The first three on Bankei are up, so go and take a look.

I was going to say, “Not to be missed”, but then remembered I wrote it, so I’ll make do with “Catch it if you can”.

Start reading here.