达磨

(sa) dharma; also 達摩; 達麼; 達而麻耶; 曇摩; 馱摩 tr. by 法. (sa) dharma is from (sa) dhara, holding, bearing, possessing, etc.; and means 'that which is to be held fast or kept, ordinance, statute, law, usage, practice'; 'anything right.' M.W. It may be variously intp. as

(1) characteristic, attribute, predicate;

(2) the bearer, the transcendent substratum of single elements of conscious life;

(3) element, i.e. a part of conscious life;

(4) (sa) nirvāṇa, i.e. the Dharma par excellence, the object of Buddhist teaching;

(5) the absolute, the real;

(6) the teaching or religion of Buddha;

(7) thing, object, appearance. Also, Damo, or Bodhidharma, the twenty-eighth Indian and first Chinese patriarch, who arrived in China A.D. 520, the reputed founder of the Chan or Intuitional School in China. He is described as son of a king in southern India; originally called Bodhitara. He arrived at Guangdong, bringing it is said the sacred begging-bowl, and settled in Luoyang, where he engaged in silent meditation for nine years, whence he received the title of wall-gazing Brahman 壁觀婆羅門, though he was a (sa) kṣatriya. His doctrine and practice were those of the 'inner light', independent of the written word, but to 慧可 Huike, his successor, he commended the <Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra> as nearest to his views. There are many names with Dharma as initial: Dharmapāla, Dharmagupta, Dharmayaśas, Dharmaruci, Dharmarakṣa, Dharmatrāta, Dharmavardhana, etc.