The Long Scroll

**Jundo** · 01-30-2025, 03:29 AM

Hi Huichan,

Another full translation in English, with translator's commentary, is in the book "Bodhidharma Anthology" (which is what the translator, Jeffrey Boughton, called the "Long Scroll.") It is certainly worth a read. If you cannot access a copy to purchase, here is a PDF in the meantime: LINK or LINK

My understanding is this: Only one of the writings in that book might arguably actually be by Bodhidharma, the "Two Entrances and Four Practices". Red Pine, in another good book "Zen Baggage", comments on his earlier Bodhidharma translations, "How much of it was actually by Bodhidharma is unknown, but even scholars agree that the one called [Two Entrances and] Four Practices was most likely his." In "Bodhidharma Anthology", Broughton writes, "For decades discussion [by scholars] both Japanese and Western, has concentrated on the Two Entrances [and Four Practices], and has come to the consensus that only this text can be attributed to Bodhidharma." Historian John McRae agrees (discussed in Anthology Footnote 10 to the Introduction). So, I think that the basic conclusion is that the "Two Entrances and Four Practices" has a good chance of actually being by Bodhidharma, or someone in his close circule such as a student, and that other pieces in the Long Scroll are old, but authorship is more questionable. I think that Jorgenson comes to the same conclusion, but I am not sure.

Boughton writes that the pieces should be taken separately and seem to have different authors (in his Introduction from p4, which is cut out of the above link for some reason, which I will quote at length for that reason):

Let us turn to the literature associated with the name Bodhidharma. Of the ten texts we now have attributed to Bodhidharma or claiming to present his teaching, the one generally held to contain material that is authentic in some sense is the Bodhidharma Anthology, which itself is composed of seven texts. Over time I have come to consider it crucial to emphasize the individuality of the texts of this anthology rather than to fall into thinking of the anthology as one piece:

1. Biography: a preface containing a brief biography of the "Dharma Master," Bodhidharma, who is presented as the third son of a South Indian king who ventures to North China and teaches "quieting mind" or "wall-examining."
2. Two Entrances: an exposition of his teaching of entrance by principle and entrance by practice. The former involves awakening to the realization that all sentient beings are identical to the True Nature, although the True Nature is not revealed because of an unreal covering of adventitious dust; if one abides in "wall-examining'' without dabbling in the scriptures, one will "tally with principle." Wall-examining is not explained. Entering by practice includes four practices: having patience in the face of suffering in the present, because one knows it is due to the ripening of bad intentional actions in the past; being aware that, if good things come to one in the present, the conditions for such things will eventually run out and the things themselves will disappear; seeking for nothing; and being in accord with intrinsic purity.
3. First Letter: a letter in which an anonymous author describes how he spent years in fruidess study of the scriptures until he came to realize the pearl of the mind through practice; the appended verses are a friendly admonition to those in the same situation.
4. Second Letter: a letter in which an anonymous author argues that delusion and awakening are but one thing, and that some unnamed people are igniting disputations by erecting names, terms, and principles.
5. Record I: lecture materials and anonymous dialogues, which contain a substantial number , of colloquial elements (in contrast to the first four parts above, which are all cast in a literary, and not a spoken, style); contains one saying attributed to Bodhidharma.
6. Record II: named and anonymous dialogues, many of which are attributed to an otherwise unknown master named Yuan and to Hui-k'o, w ho serves as Bodhidharma's successor in the traditional story; contains even more colloquial elements.
7. Record III: named sayings, including sayings attributed to Bodhidharma, Hui-k'o, and Yuan; contains fewer colloquial usages.

The Bodhidharma Anthology as a continuum was discovered only in the early part of this century, and it is fair to describe it as one of the most important finds among the Tun-huang manuscripts, a small portion of which constitute the "Dead Sea Scrolls" of Zen (see appendix A). In the early summer of 1935 the Japanese Zen layman Suzuki Daisetsu, also known as D. T. Suzuki, arrived in Peiping, present-day Beijing, in order to seek out Zen texts in the collection of Tun-huang manuscripts housed in the National Library. Tens of thousands of manuscripts had been discovered in a hidden chamber in the Tun-huang cave complex in Northwest China in the early years of the twentieth century and were subsequently carried off to various libraries and museums in Europe and East Asia. Having perused a catalogue of the Chinese collection and having noted some intriguing Zen-related entries, Suzuki was able to find and reproduce a number of Zen texts, including an anthology that came to be called the Long Scroll of the Treatise on the Two Entrances and Four Practices (Ninyu shigydron chokansu); he subsequently published the reproductions in Japan.6

The Long Scroll is the work I have dubbed the Bodhidharma Antholohy. The Biography, Two Entrances, First Letter, Second Letter, and even Record I of the Bodhidharma Anthology were at least known of when Suzuki discovered the Long Scroll manuscript, but the dialogues and sayings following Record I, which Suzuki called Miscellaneous Record II (Zatsuroku dai-ni), were unknown at the time, in spite of the fact that brief quotations from these dialogues and sayings were buried in a famous traditional Zen collection transmitted in East Asia. I have given Suzuki's two Miscellaneous Records the titles Record I, Record II, and Record III. (Subsequent manuscript discoveries have considerably extended his Miscellaneous Record II, and I have divided it into two parts.) Unfortunately, for the next half century or so virtually no one paid any attention to the highly colloquial Miscellaneous Record II, a treasure store of dialogues and sayings of proto-Zen. One of the most important Zen texts found among the Tun-huang manuscripts was totally ignored. It is the colloquial element in these dialogues and sayings—the fact that they are closer to the spoken words of teaching masters, less reworked into the literary language—that should have caught our attention. Use of the colloquial is at the heart of the Zen tradition and its literature; of the Buddhist traditions of China, Zen is distinguished by its preference for Chinese literary genres, most notably the colloquial record of the sayings and dialogues of the master (yii-lu) on the model of the Confucian Analects. An eminent scholar of Chinese literature has described the Analects as "a collection of fragmentary dialogues and sayings, couched in what appears to be the conversational style of the period, simple in diction and forceful in expression."7 We can trace the precursors of Zen's adoption of this quintessential Chinese literary genre directly back to Record II and Record III.8 A propensity for choosing vernaculars, spoken languages of localities, to express Buddhist religious teachings is nothing new, for it can be traced back to the Buddha himself. ...

... For decades discussion of the Long Scroll or Bodhidharma Anthology, both Japanese and Western, has concentrated on the second section, the Two Entrances, and has come to the consensus that only this text can be attributed to Bodhidharma.10 Eminent monks of medieval China and modern scholars from around the world have produced many exegeses of the two entrances and the baffling term "wall-examining" (pi-kuan) mentioned in the Biography and Two Entrances', in the traditional story Bodhidharma is usually said to have practiced waU-examining for nine years.11 Though much exegetical ingenuity has gone into this project, the exclusive focus on the two entrances has obscured the importance of the Records. In fact, the Records have been so eclipsed that they pass unnoticed in most treatments of early Zen. A purpose of this book is to give the Records, particularly Record II and Record III, their due as the real beginnings of Zen literature, the true ancestors of the Zen genre known as recorded sayings. Any reader— studer^ or practitioner—who has thrilled to the power of the most famous of all Zen recorded-sayings books, the Record ofLin-chi (Lin-chi lu), will recognize the ancestral genius of portions of the Records. Let us now turn to a complete translation of the Bodhidharma Anthology, which is followed by commentary on all seven of its texts.12

By the way, other texts often attributed to Bodhidharma, such as those in Red Pine's collection like the "Bloodstream Sermon," were certainly written centuries after the time of Bodhidharma, by some authors from later Zen schools. Bernard Faure reminds us that the whole character of "Bodhidharma" is probably a beautiful religious fiction (LINK)

If you are interested, a few years ago I looked at the "Two Entrances and Four Practices" and found that the content resonated very much with Shikantaza practice.

The piece is so short that it can be quoted in full. Doing so reveals that this "proto-Chan" instruction is obviously a guide to ... proto-Shikantaza!

(I quote mostly from the Red Pine translation, but also in [] use portions from McRae and Boughton, e.g., in using their "principle" in place of Red Pine's "reason")

The piece is usually interpreted to speak of the Buddhist perspectives and philosophy that must be learned and understood [principle] and then put into practice in life [practice]. Much of the content is shared by many flavors of Buddhism and Zen, but cumulatively [especially those marked in boldface] they particularly smack of Shikantaza.

It begins with an affirmation of our "original enlightenment", followed by a strong statement calling nonetheless for silent, still "wall like" sitting, or "illuminated" sitting, whereby the divisions of self/other and ordinary/sage drop away ...

MANY roads lead to the Path, but basically there are only two: [principle] and practice. To enter by [principle] means to realize the essence through instruction and to believe that all living things [both ordinary and enlightened] share the same true nature, which isn’t apparent because it’s shrouded by sensation and delusion.

Those who turn from delusion back to reality, who meditate [in "wall contemplation" in which self and other, ordinary person and sage, are one and the same], and who remain unmoved even by scriptures are in complete and unspoken agreement with [principle].

The meaning of "wall contemplation" (?? bìgu?n/pi-kuan) is long debated, but may mean (not literally "facing the wall" as often, and probably "too literally" and incorrectly professed in the Soto school), but rather to sit "as a wall sits", i.e., unperturbed by surrounding circumstances and the dusts of the senses. It may also mean something like to sit "abiding in illumination".

The recently discovered ninth-century Tibetan treatise Dhyâna of the Enlightened Eye (Bsam gtan mig sgron) contains translations of some of [Bodhidharma's] the Two Entrances ...
The summary of Ch'an ends with a series of quotations from Ch'an masters, the first of whom is Bodhidharmatâra, the version of the name that is encountered in Tibetan sources: "From the sayings of the Great Master Bodhidharmatara [Bo-dhe-dar-mo-ta-ra]: 'If one reverts to the real, rejects discrimination, and abides in brightness, then there is neither self nor other. The common man and sage are equal. If without shifting you abide in firmness, after that you will not follow after the written teaching. This is the quiet of the principle of the real. It is nondiscriminative, quiescent, and inactive. It is entrance into principle" (The Bodhidharma Anthology, p. 67). (Italics mine.)

Whatever the case, it is clear that from this silent, still, quiescent "wall like" sitting, or "illuminated" sitting, the divisions of self/other and ordinary/sage drop away ... i.e., Shikantaza.

The text continues

Without moving, without effort, they enter, we say, by principle.

In other words: Unmoving, dropping effort to enter realization ... one thus enters realization ... i.e, Shikantaza.

The central term there is Wu-wei ??: (described here as "Free from forced effort (but not necessarily no-action), free from clinging and attachments, unconditioned, absolute. It also means inner peace obtained by having no desires, with the understanding that we are intrinsically complete and lacking nothing." http://ctzen.org/sunnyvale/enBodhiDh...Annotation.htm ) ... an encapsulation of the core views of Shikantaza

Next, the following sections look at practice [based on the foregoing principle] in daily life. The emphasis is on accepting circumstances (in this case, the hard fortunes and injustices of life) just as they are without resistance. The text goes on to explain that one should just accept the visitudes of life as one's Karmic lot in life. However, whatever the explanation, the basic attitude of "acceptance" and dropping resistance is at the heart of ... Shikantaza.

To enter by practice refers to four all-inclusive practices: Suffering injustice, adapting to conditions, seeking nothing, and practicing the Dharma. First, suffering injustice. When those who search for the Path encounter adversity, they should think to themselves, "In Countless ages gone by, I’ve turned from the essential to the trivial and wandered through all manner of existence, often angry without cause and guilty of numberless transgressions.

Now, though I do no wrong, I’m punished by my past. Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit. I accept it with an open heart and without complaint of injustice. [The sutra says, “Face hardships without distress.”] With such understanding you’re in harmony with [principle]. And by suffering injustice you enter the Path.

Next, even accepting with equanimity the positive conditions, rewards, successes, achievements encountered ... Shikantaza:

[The second is the practice of the acceptance of circumstances. ] As mortals, we’re ruled by conditions, not by ourselves. All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions. If we should be blessed by some great reward, such as fame or fortune, it’s the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past. When conditions change, it ends. Why delight In Its existence? But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes. Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path.

Third, ... non-seeking, flowing with the changes of time [the seasons], the heart of Shikantaza.

Third, seeking nothing. People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something-always, in a word, seeking. But the wise wake up. They choose [principle] over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons. All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth desiring. Calamity forever alternates with Prosperity! To dwell in the three realms is to dwell in a burning house. To have a body is to suffer. Does anyone with a body know peace? Those who understand this detach themselves from all that exists and stop Imagining or seeking anything. The sutras say, "To seek is to suffer.

To seek nothing is bliss." When you seek nothing, you’re on the Path.

Not seeking yet walking the Path.

Next, dropping divisive thoughts into emptiness ... thoughts of defilement and attachment, thoughts of this and that, subject and object. ... a key aspect of Shikantaza:

Fourth, practicing the Dharma.’ The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure. By this truth, all appearances are empty. Defilement and attachment, subject and object don’t exist [ and there is no defilement and no attachment, no "this" and "that." ]. The sutras say, "The Dharma includes no being because it’s free from the impurity of being, and the Dharma includes no self because it’s free from the impurity of self." Those wise enough to believe and understand these truths are bound to practice according to the Dharma.

Next, an emphasis on "good works" in life ... even though there is no giver or recipient, and living by the Precepts ... even though there is nothing to practice (and despite original enlightenment). Shikantaza.

And since that which is real includes nothing worth begrudging, they give their body, life, and property in charity, without regret, without the vanity of giver, gift, or recipient, and without bias or attachment. And to eliminate impurity they teach others, but without becoming attached to form. Thus, through their own practice they’re able to help others and glorify the Way of Enlightenment. And as with charity, they also practice the other virtues. But while practicing the six virtues to eliminate delusion, they practice nothing at all. This is what’s meant by practicing the Dharma.

In other words ... to summarize:

Originally enlightened yet needing to be practiced ... silent, still "wall like" sitting, or "illuminated" sitting, whereby the divisions of self/other and ordinary/sage drop away ... Wu-wei ?? stillness dropping effort to enter, one thus enters ... accepting circumstances, both the positive and negative, with equanimity ... non-seeking while walking the path ... dropping into 'emptiness' divisive thoughts and judgments of defilement and attachment, thoughts of this and that, subject and object ... living in accord with the Precepts and engaging in "good works" in life, even though there is no giver or recipient, and nothing to practice ... an emphasis on method as simply according with and allowing circumstances "as it is" with equanimity and insight ...

... Shikantaza.

Gassho, J
stlah

**Huichan** · 01-30-2025, 04:23 AM

Thanks. Seems like a rabbit hole for me to go down at some point

I'm more interested in the text as a whole (even though it was an anthology) and how it can give us a greater understanding to the development of Zen/Chan. It seems like all of the authors of the various texts were quite important in the development, whether or not they have the status that Bodhidharma has.

慧禅

The Long Scroll

The Long Scroll

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