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.

A Life of Dogen by John M Evans. Part of the Zen Masters Series.

The sixth and final part of the life of Zen Master Bankei is now up on our Spiritual Nirvana site. To catch up with the serial go here.

We are continuing this series with a master whose name looms large in Zen history. It is the aristocratic priest, Dogen (1200-1253), renowned for introducing the Soto Zen school into Japan. His philosophic writings on Being-Time are said to foreshadow the work of Einstein and quantum physics.

He was a master of words as well as Zen and one of the greatest writers in all Buddhism. Although little known now outside a small circle of Zen scholars, his legacy has lived on, especially in the West through Shunryu Suzuki, a recent Abbot at the San Francisco Zen Center.

Start reading here