Dave Cuomo - Zen Begins! (History of Zen - Bodhidharma)

Angel City Zen Center - Beginners Only Podcast

He's the man, the myth, the legendary founder of Zen himself. Some claim he never existed, some claim his eyelids invented tea leaves while he was off inventing kung fu in his down time. Clearly he is a legend that cannot be ignored, and Dave gives us the full scoop as we finally get to the story of Zen itself and its beginnings in ancient China. Dave claims this might be the greatest story ever told, and this one really does have it all with magic, wars, disasters, and crazy and often hilarious characters all trying to pass the great football of truth down through all the twists and turns of history. In this installment, we first get a full telling of the legend of Bodhidharma with all of its weird myths, deep koans, high drama and solid jokes that still land 1500 years later. Then we compare that to the "true" history using the latest scholarship, and what can reasonably be believed from the earliest sources about why a monk by that name did come to China and what his legacy is up to the present day. And finally, we look at what it was he actually taught in his own words (or close enough) and why the unvarnished truth is always going to be a hard sell, even while it's something we've all always known deep down.