勅修百丈清規 2.24

2.24

祖師南天竺國香至王第三子也。姓剎帝利。本名菩提多羅。後遇二十七祖般若多羅尊者。知師密跡。因試令與二兄辯所施寶珠。發明心要。既而尊者謂曰。汝於諸法已得通量。夫達磨者通大之義也。宜名達磨。因改名菩提達磨。師乃告尊者曰。我既得法。當往何國而作佛事。願垂開示。尊者曰。汝雖得法未可遠遊。且止南天。待吾滅後六十七載。當往震旦設大法藥直接上根。慎勿速行衰於日下。梁普通八年丁未歲九月二十一日至南海。廣州刺史蕭昂表聞武帝。帝遣使詔迎。十月一日至金陵與帝語。不契。是月十九日渡江北。十一月二十三日屆于洛陽。當魏孝明太和十年也。萬止于嵩山少林寺。面壁而坐。終日默然。人莫之測。謂之壁觀婆羅門。至太和十九年丙辰歲十月五日端居而逝。其年十二月二十八日葬熊耳山。起塔於定林寺。唐諡圓覺大師。塔曰空觀。

The ancestral master was the third son of King Sugandha of South India, of the kṣatriya clan. His original name was Bodhitara. Later, he met the twenty-seventh patriarch, the Venerable Prajñātāra, who recognized the master's hidden capacity. Therefore, testing him, he had him debate with his two elder brothers on the precious pearl that had been bestowed, thereby elucidating the essential point of mind. Shortly thereafter, the Venerable said to him: "You have already attained comprehensive capacity regarding all dharmas. 'Dharma' means comprehensive and great; it is proper that you be named Dharma." Because of this, he changed his name to Bodhidharma. The master then told the Venerable: "Now that I have attained the Dharma, to which country should I go to perform the Buddha's work? I pray you deign to give me instruction." The Venerable said: "Although you have attained the Dharma, you must not travel far yet. Stay for now in South India. Wait for sixty-seven years after my passing, and then you should go to Cīnasthāna to dispense the great medicine of the Dharma and directly receive those of superior capacity. Take care not to travel hastily and decline in the imperial sun." In the eighth year of the Putong era of Liang, a dingwei year, on the twenty-first day of the ninth month, he arrived in Nanhai. Xiao Ang, the governor of Guangzhou, submitted a memorial informing Emperor Wu. The emperor dispatched an envoy with an imperial decree to welcome him. On the first day of the tenth month, he arrived in Jinling and conversed with the emperor, but they did not accord. On the nineteenth day of that month, he crossed the river to the north; on the twenty-third day of the eleventh month, he arrived in Luoyang, which corresponded to the tenth year of the Taihe era of Xiaoming of the Wei. He stayed at Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song, sitting facing the wall, silent all day long. People could not fathom him and called him the "Wall-Gazing Brahman". On the fifth day of the tenth month in the nineteenth year of the Taihe era, a bingchen year, he passed away sitting upright. On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of that year, he was buried on Mount Xiong'er, and a stūpa was erected at Dinglin Monastery. In the Tang, he was posthumously granted the title Great Master of Perfect Enlightenment, and the stūpa was named Empty Contemplation.