Page 152 - Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism (Illustrated) and Symbols
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C XV
a-o odhidharma
artiarch of en uddhism
Ch’an Buddhism, another major school of Chinese Mahayana
Buddhism, came about as a result of the historical visit to China
by the great Indian sage, Bodhidharma, who arrived at Can-
ton in 520 . Chan is the Chinese equivalent for the Sanskrit
word ‘Dhyana’, meaning meditation. Ch’an Buddhism therefore
requires its adherents to practise strict and deep meditational
practices which cut off intellectualism. is sometimes leads one
to believe that it is quite similar to Pure Land practice which
also does away with intellectual knowledge and teaches its fol-
lowers to put their full faith in the Buddha Amitabha for salva-
tion, although it is not, for Ch’an Buddhism is no ‘easy-path’. It
requires self power or effort to reach salvation and does not rely
on any Buddha for help to attain full enlightenment. However,
both schools became just as popular to the Chinese and then to
the Japanese by the twelveth century. In Japan it is known as
Zen Buddhism and the two major schools arising from it being
that of Rinzai (Lin-Chi) and Soto (Tsao-tung) which differ only
in their methods of approach towards enlightenment.
Bodhidharma ( 470–543) the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism was
also the 1st Patriarch of the Ch’an Buddhism, the school which
he founded in China. His teaching was handed on in succession
