Traditional attribution
The Breakthrough Sermon (Poxiang lun)
達磨大師破相論 (觀心論)
A dialogue teaching that 'contemplating the mind' is the single practice that includes all others, and symbolically reinterpreting external rites (building temples, lighting lamps, making offerings) as operations of the mind. Its text coincides in substance with the Guanxin lun (Treatise on Contemplating the Mind).
Authorship note
A false attribution: the Dunhuang manuscripts and modern research (McRae) identify the text with the Guanxin lun of Shenxiu (d. 706), master of the so-called Northern School; later tradition placed it under Bodhidharma's name.
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma («Breakthrough Sermon»)
North Point Press, 1989
Translation: Red Pine (Bill Porter)
ISBN 9780865473997
Other works by Bodhidharma
- Treatise on the Two Entrances and the Four Practices
- The 'Long Scroll': Dunhuang Compilation around the Two Entrances · 700
- The Bloodstream Sermon (Xuemai lun) · 1100
- The Wake-up Sermon (Wuxing lun) · 1100
- The Dharma Gate of Pacifying the Mind (Anxin famen)
- Verses on the Heart Sūtra (Xinjing song)
- The Six Gates of Shaoshi (Shaoshi liumen)
- Sinew-Changing Classic (Yijin jing) · 1624
- Marrow-Washing Classic (Xisui jing) · 1650
Sources
- McRae, John R. Seeing Through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003. ISBN 9780520237988.
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