ABSTRACT
Bodhidharma, the great Indian Ancestor, is credited by the Zen Tradition with having introduced the practice of Serene Reflection Meditation into China some time near the beginning of the sixth century c.e. It is said that after he arrived in South China by sea, he went to the court of the emperor Wu of the Liang dynastic family, where he found great commitment on the part of both the emperor and his courtiers to attempting to follow the Buddhist Scriptures to the letter. In his dialogue Bodhidharma uses some terms that may mislead the present-day Western reader when rendered into English without commentary. Because those in Western twentieth-century cultures have been exposed to multiple psychological theories, there is a danger of confusing Bodhidharma’s practice of ‘looking at one’s own mind’ with some modern psychological technique for personal analysis through introspection, as well as with other meditational practices which employ an object, image, or topic that is meditated on.
