A Story of Bodhidharma - 7th Sense

DARUMA - Father of Zen Buddhism From Buddhahood to Brothel, From Saint to Sinner The Evolution of Daruma Artwork in Japan.

The historical Bodhidharma (known as Daruma in Japan) was an Indian sage who lived sometime in the fifth or sixth century AD. He is commonly considered the founder of Chan (Zen) Buddhism 禅, and credited with Chan's introduction to China. (Important Note: Zen is the term used in Japan, but Daruma's philosophy arrived first in China, where it flowered and was called Chan Buddhism. Only centuries later does it bloom in Japan, where it is called Zen).

Practically nothing is known about Bodhidharma or his teachings. Early Chinese texts provide scant information, except to say he was a pious monk from Indian who came to China and introduced a form of meditation that involved "gazing at cave walls." Only one of the ten texts attributed to Bodhidharma is presently considered authentic. <Broughton, p. 4> The lack of robust historical evidence concerning Bodhidharma, paradoxically, is offset by countless legends about this sage. Legends come in two varieties -- the orthodox Chinese version, and the far more fanciful Japanese version. Both versions are considered largely apocryphal, containing layer upon layer of embellishments and legendary accretions spanning many centuries. Modern scholars and art historians are trying to discern the underlying historical figure by stripping away the ideological, idealizing, & idolizing accretions.  

MUST READ, DARUMA'S EVOLUTION IN JAPANIn his article The Patriarch Who Came From the West. Daruma, Smallpox and the Color Red, the Double Life of a Patriarch, Professor Bernard Faure (Columbia University) explores the relationship between the Bodhidharma legend and the popular image of Daruma in Japan and explains how the austere Chan patriarch eventually became a tumbler doll. This is a "must read" for anyone interested in Daruma. The text which follows is reproduced verbatim from the article.

How did the austere Chan patriarch ever become a tumbler doll? It is a complicated and obscure story. To understand it, we have to unravel many strands that were woven together into one figure. Daruma will thus appear to us successively as:

• a malevolent spirit (goryō 御霊)
• a crossroad deity (dōsojin 道祖神) associated with sexuality
• a placenta god (ena kōjin 胎盤荒神)
• "foreign" epidemic deity (god of Mt. Songshan 嵩山 and Shinra Myōjin 新羅明神)
• a smallpox deity (hōsōgami or hōsōkami 疱瘡神); the Japanese god of smallpox,
• a god of fortune (fukujin 福神)

Other elements contributed to his posthumous success. Let us mention for instance:

• the symbolism of komori, incubation, reclusion, gestation, and its relation with easy childbirth on the one hand, and silkworms and sericulture on the other.
• the color symbolism (red) and spatial (south): fire, exorcism, yang
• the tumbling doll device (with its sexual connotations and its symbolism of rebirth or recovery)

This gradual entertwining of motifs was essentially realized during the medieval period.

 

READ THE FULL STORY HERE: The Patriarch Who Came From the West. Daruma, Smallpox and the Color Red, the Double Life of a Patriarch, Professor Bernard Faure (Columbia University).

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