Tamo (Bodhidharma) (483 - 532 )

Tao, or Damo as his name is spelled in Pinyin, is a very interesting figure in Chinese history in general and in Buddhist and Martial Arts history particularly. Below a description of his life (it is part of the Shaolin Temple section of the site)

Damo is seen by many Buddhists as the founding father of the Chan sect in China, so he is seen as saint and worshipped. History shows, as outlined below, that it is in fact highly unlikely that he really did 'invent' Chan Buddhism and some say he never lived at all!
His role in the martial arts of Shaolin is more or less the same as it is in martial arts, since Chan Buddhism and Shaolin martial arts are essentially one. 

Personally I don't think we can say that the Shaolin martial arts today have a strong connection with Damo. Many schools teach and practice Shaolin without any Buddhism in it, let alone that Damo plays in role in it. In China Damo, as other 'founding fathers' of sects and schools, is part of ancestral worshipping. I see him in that role; a symbol of all the people that have contributed to the development of the Shaolin martial arts. From my teacher to the very start of martial arts in a Buddhist context, Damo  reminds me of the fact that the Shaolin martial arts is a continuing development to which many, for a large part anonymous, people contributed.

History became a legend, or a myth from the start  ... ?

Damo was a mysterious figure, both in the world of martial arts as the Buddhist world. Many Zen sects in Japan, where his name is written as Bodai Daruma: Daruma, see in him the patriarch, but at the same time others ignore him totally. His roll in the martial arts is even more mysterious. He was never recognized as a formal leader of the Shaolin temple, but his influence is big and he is always directly affiliated with the temple. 

According to legend was he the son of the King of Kanicipura (Xing Chi) of a small tribe from the South of India.  He was born around the year 483 and died between the years 526 and 536. Some sources call him Bodhitara or Tarabodhi, but his most common full name is Bodhidharma Sardili. He was born in times of turmoil, this was the case as well as in India as in China. At that time India was attacked by the Huns from the North and loitered the country. Born in this time and being a member of a royal family he had to have had a military education and training on order to one day succeed his father. He was probably a member of the Ksatryas (military) caste.  If he really was a member of that caste then he must have been trained in the Indian martial art of Kalaripayat. The area he was born in is especially know for its martial arts. Kalaripayat includes techniques for armed as well unarmed combat. Despite this, or maybe because of this, he came in contact with Buddhism and became a pupil of teacher Prajnatara, and from that moment on he followed the Buddhist Sarvastivada (Existential Reality). Prajnatara was the 27th Buddha after Mahakasyapa, the first disciple of Sakyamuni Buddha. Prajnatara was a teacher of the Sarvastivada school, this was a of the proto-Mahayana schools that emerged from the Deravada school. It propagated ideas that differentiated from the other schools, for example ideas about: essence of being, the elements, what did and what didn’t caused karmic activity and other interesting problems. Bodhidharma received his name from his teacher and was send to China by him. Maybe to succeed or assist the well known Bodhiruci, who lived in the same time period as Damo. Because Buddhism came from India, that country was, according to the Chinese, the spiritual center of
 the world.  Many of the Chinese Emperors send priests to India to study and take back religious books.  They also invited Indian priests to come to China to preach. The whole Chinese society and law were based on Buddhist beliefs.

The legends tell us this about Damo's arrival in China:

Damo  travelled for 3 years and arrived Guangzhou and was received by the governor Xiao Ang. Emperor Wu Di also called Damo in Jinling (present Nanjing) to appear before him. The emperor told Damo about his achievements and dedication to the Buddhist religion. He talked about temples build by him, sutra's published by him, etc. It was long list, but he finally ended. Damo was not impressed Surprised by Damo's lack of interest he asked Damo: 'All these things taken into account, which merits have I achieved?'
Damo frowned his forehead and answered: ' None what so ever, your majesty'
The emperor was astonished by this answer, but he asked another question: 'What is the basic principle of Buddhism?'
The second answer of Damo was: ' Far reaching emptiness.'
The second answer flabbergasted the emperor as well, and he desperately asked him he who he thought who he was. Damo's answer was: 'I've got no idea whatsoever', after which the conversation ended. Damo excused himself and left. He knew that this emperor wouldn't support his interpretation of Buddhism and left for Luoyang, which was at that time the Buddhist center of China.

Legends tells us that Damo sat in meditation for nine years to listen to the 'screaming of the ants'. Because of this long period of meditation in China he is also known as 'Holy man facing the wall'.

The nine years of mediation were spend in a cave, near the Shaolin temple. The cave can still be visited; a walk there will take about 2 hours. The cave is simply know as 'Damo Tong', which means Damo's cave. Because he spend such a long time in the cave his shadow was 'engraved' in a rock, so they say. The rock was later removed from the cave and taken to the Shaolin temple where it is displayed in the Guanyin Dian.

Once he fell a sleep while meditating. He was so angry over this that he cut his eyelids and threw them on the floor. From his eyelids grew a tea plant, which the monks until this day use to keep awake during meditation. In the nine years that he stayed in the temple, he taught his disciple Hui Ke Buddhism according his views and created in doing so the Mahayana school of Buddhism in China. He noted down his vision in the Lankavatara sutra and left the temple.

What happened with Damo after this is unclear. Some say he was poisoned (in Shaolin) by a jealous monk, others say that he travelled to central Asia, and some say that he even travelled to Japan.
The most frequently heard story is that he died on the banks of the Luohe river at the age of 150,after being poisoned for several times. He was buried on Xiong'ershan (Bear's ear hill), where now stands a small nunnery.

Three years after his death Song Yun, a lay Buddhist, met Damo in the mountains of Turkestan (Cong Ling), while returning to China after doing business in the West for the Chinese empire. Damo was wearing only one shoe. Song asked Damo were he was going, his answer was: 'To the Western Paradise' (meaning India). Damo also said the that Emperor of China just died. By the time Song arrived in Luoyang he heard that the Emperor indeed had died. He told his story to the new Emperor, who ordered that Damo's grave was to be opened. Besides one shoe, the grave was empty. It was taken out of the grave and brought to Shaolin temple were is was kept as a holy object. Since that time, Damo can be seen on pictures and paintings wearing only one shoe. Chinese shoemakers adopted Damo as their patron and every year celebrate his birthday.

During his time in China Damo didn't attract much attention; the first records mentioning him date from one hundred later (Further levensbeschrijvingen of Vooraanstaene Priests : +/- 645). In this work he is only mentioned as a meditating monk. Later on stories became more and more fantastic, and in the end he was elevated to the post of first patriarch of Chan Buddhism. The masters of later periods needed a heritage, and Damo was used for this role. The problem with Damo is that many of his teachings were sometimes contradictory to the later Chan teachings. For example relying on sutras. The Lankavatara sutra emphasized meditation, but the master of later periods were totally against this. Jesuit scholar Heinrich Dumoulin said that Damo's teachings differ in nothing from what is preached in the Mahayana sutra's.

Buddhists from that time period always contributed great value to the Buddhist doctrines, the sutra’s, which they recited endlessly. According to Buddhist scriptures, Buddhists must bind themselves to Buddhist doctrines, chant Buddhist scriptures and always relieve themselves from worldly attractions.

But Chan of Bodhidharma wasn’t the same as the already existing Chan from India or as the one developed in the North of China represented by Seng Chou (Chan like idea’s already existed in China before Damo came to China). It differentiated through cleansing of the spirit in order to accept the doctrines of Buddhism. The theories of Chan are based on Madhymika, which differs a lot from the Hinayana of Buddhabhadra. In many ways Chan can be looked upon as a form of Buddhism with strong Taoist influences. The Taoist elements of Chan are: 

 1. Emphasis on spontaneity and naturalism; and an aversion of everything that’s artificial; 
 2. Emphasis on the fact that Buddha-nature is present in all things, with is congruent with the Taoist idea that  the Dao (Tao) is immanent in all things; 
 3. Buddhism as well as Taoism both emphasis teaching without relying on words, harmony of the contrasts, abstinence and the mystical appreciation of nature; 
 4. Pedagogical methods are related; although both use everyday language in everyday life, they both use  sudden surprises and enigmatical expressions which are supposed to bring about metal short circuits; 
 5. Under the influence of Taoism, Chan masters dissociated themselves from the Indian independence of holy scriptures, liturgy, sacred objects and speculative theology. Their path to enlightenment is direct, concrete and practical, consequently their use of language is never abstract but normal everyday language. 

Damo left four volumes of Lengjia Scriptures to his disciples. The Dhyana it preached was a reformation on the old Chan prevailing in Northern China. As soon as it emerged, it met all kinds of slanders, even bodily persecution. However there were people, though few in number, who believed in it, among them were Hui Ke and Dao Yu. Damo was moved by their fidelity and taught them how to face the wall with pure mind. Later on he passed his cassock and alms bowl to Hui Ke.

Since present Chan doesn’t rely on holy scriptures, holy portraits or even Buddha himself, some people
wonder whether Chan has anything left to do with Buddhism. Chan masters claim that they are Buddhists, and that they pursue enlightenment and that scriptures, portraits, ritual actions etc. are only means to an end, but that they in no way present enlightenment itself. And because they understand this, they say that they are the only true Buddhists.

The Yi Jin Jing taught the monks to maintain they health and to change their bodies from weak to strong. These exercises were later combined with fighting techniques, which consequently became more effective. The Yi Jin Jing has had a big influence on Shaolin. Many ways of hardening different body parts are derived from the Yi Jin Jing, like Iron Palm, Iron Body and Iron Head. In fact, all body parts could be conditioned and even up to present day this is still being done.  Also in the Yi Jin Jing are the 18 exercises of Luohan, also called 18 Fist techniques of Luohan. The movements have the following names: 

 1. Crane Dance 
 2. Dragon Dance 
 3. Pressing and lifting 
 4. Single Phoenix Dance 
 5. Tiger looking askance 
 6. Body Turning 
 7. Circling 
 8. Advancing and retreating 
 9. Drawing the bow 
 10. Boy worshipping Avalokitesvara 
 11. Beauty sporting with lotus 
 12. Bear looking back 
 13. Abrupt lifting 
 14. Fairy crossing palms at the back 
 15. Welcoming a guest 
 16. Elephant standing on the hind legs 
 17. Single pheasant Dance 
 18. Crane standing on one foot 

According to legend Damo came up with these movements after he saw that the monks of the temple were in bad physical condition. This was partly caused by long hours of (Chan) meditation. The exercises loosened their joints and eventually improved their heaths. Trough long term practice and constant enrichment, a complicated series of martial arts came into being. This is a popular explanation as to the rise of the Shaolin martial arts.

The name 'Luohan' is a well known one in common Buddhism and the martial arts. Luohan comes from the Sanskriet Arhat. The Chinese transformed this name via A Luo Han to Luohan. In Japan the same Chinese characters are pronounced as Rakan. Luohan (Kung Fu) is being looked on as the basis and the beginning of the actual development of the martial arts within the temple. Later the name Luohan was used for other series of movements and sometimes a style got the name Luohan. In Indian Buddhism, a Luohan is a person who aims his daily life on reaching Nirvana, without special concern for his environment. This in contrast with a Bodhisatva, who gives up Nirvana to help others achieve enlightenment. In Chinese Buddhism, a Luohan is a monks that reached enlightenment, but hasn’t entered Nirvana in order to help others in this world. 
In China the first 16 disciples are regarded as Luohan. Beside the 16 there are 2 others who are looked upon as Luohan; they are the first 2 disciples of Damo. Altogether there are 18 Luohan. The number 18 is a important number in Buddhism because the number 9 is a magical one. Within Buddhism and martial arts many numbers are multiples of 9: 18, 36,57 and very often 108. 

The name Luohan can not be separated from Buddhism and the Shaolin temple in particular. This is also the reason why there are who use Luohan for the name of their martial art, sometimes with and sometimes not in combination of Shaolin. Often Luohan and Shaolin are synonyms and therefore interchangeable. 

The Xi Sui Jing is said to teach the monk how to purify their bone marrow and blood, enhance their immune system and make better use of their brain capacity, which would help them achieve Buddhahood. Especially the last usage was and still is surrounded with much mystery. The two classics were caused a revolution among the Chinese Buddhists and as with many revolutionary ideas it found a lot of resistance, in this case from the traditional Buddhists. Because of the training methods of Damo, this Buddhist school separated from the traditionalists. However  The methods of Damo were kept inside the Buddhist society, but even so, the traditionalists refused to use them. The most important reason for not using them was that most monks believe that the physical body is not as important as the mental part of the body. They believe that the mental part is the part you need to develop in order to enter Nirvana, so why would you spend time on training the psychical part? 
Another important reason is that the exercises in the Shaolin temple were used to develop martial arts. Many monks were of the opinion that all exercises with the aim of injuring or killing people were by definition evil.

Hui Ke was born in Wulao, with the family name of Ji. His original given name was Guang (Light) which he himself later changed into Shenguan: the light of God. During his childhood he read the classics and loved travelling in mountains. Ones he visited a monk in a temple called Xiangshan in a place called Longmen. He studied the 'Mahayana' and later the 'Hinayana' schools. When he was 40 years old he had a divine impulse to visit Songshan mountain to study under Damo. The first couple of times that he looked for Damo's attention he saw him facing a wall from early in the morning until late in the evening.

To show his determination and loyalty he decided to stand in the vicinity of where Damo meditated daily  during the night of 8 December. That night it snowed heavily and when the sun rose the snow reached his knees. Damo saw this and out of pity he asked Hui Ke whether he could do anything for him. 'There is nothing you do besides accepting me as your student', was Hui Ke's reply. Damo answered: 'What I teach asks many sacrifices. It will be hard for who hasn't got the will and isn't loyal; for him it will be nothing else than aimless suffering. Right then and there Hui Ke, through Damo words, reached enlightenment. Without replying, Hui Ke took out a sharp knife and cut his left arm of and presented it to Damo. Damo accepted Hui Ke as a student. It is this legend is the reason for building the Lixue Ting (Standing in Snow Pavilion) inside the temple and the Yang Bi Tai (Heling arm Pavilion). 

But the probably true story of his life goes as follows: 

Hui Ke, also known as Sen Ke, was born into the Ji family in Xinowang. He read many Buddhist sutra's and some say that he was an ex- Confucianist. At the time he was 40 years old he met Damo, who was travelling in the surroundings of Luoyang and Songshan mountain area. He became his student and studied under Damo for 6 years. After Damo's death he lived a solitary life near the Luohe river. After some time had passed, monks started visiting and consulting him and Hui Ke started to comment on sutra's and explaining them. His teachings spread fast around the empire and he travelled to the capital of Ye(de?) of the Eastern Wei dynasty (a place east of present Anyang in Henan province). At that he had quite a reputation. Dao Heng was Hui Ke's contemporary and influential in the north of China. He was of the opinion that he was preaching the one and only true Chan and Hui Ke teaching was deviating from it. He send his disciples to Hui Ke to make trouble. But all the disciples Dao Heng send were converted by Hui Ke and didn't return to Dao Heng. He was infuriated by this and planned an assault on Hui Ke. Hui Ke didn't die after the assault, but did lose his left arm. The rest of his life he lived as a beggar. 

In a book of Sung (in 'Tsi'ing-te tsj'oean-teng-lu' (Pinyin?) ) it says that during his stay in the Shaolin temple Damo summoned four disciples and asked them to show him what they achieved sofar. (The Zengaku Yokan published by Segawa Shobu, Japan, in 1907 also tells this story.)  .The first disciple is said to have said: 
 'In my view we cannot rely soly on words and letters, neither can we totally ignore them. Damo replied: "You  reached my skin". 
After that a non stepped forward and said: "The way I see it is that that the Truth is a glance into Buddha’s paradise; one sees it only once and never again." Damo replied:" You reached my flesh". 
The third disciple said:" The four big elements are empty and the five Skanda’s (those being: body, feeling, perception, willpower and  consciousness) do not exist." To this Damo replied: " You reached my bone". The last  disciple was Heike. He only bowed for his master and said nothing. 
To him Damo replied:" You reached my bone marrow". (Damo’s answer was a citation from Nagarjuna). Damo choose his successor in this manner. 

Damo’s and Huike’s Buddhism became very popular in the south of China. Some people say that Huike brought it there himself; others say that it was a monk called Sen Jie.