History of Martial Arts
Daruma Boddhidharma was the 28th patriarch of Buddhism and the founder of Zen Buddhism.
Born into a warrior caste as the 3rd son of a king in South India somewhere around 560 AD -
he made the arduous trip over the Himalayas across to China where he settled in Shaolin
(Shorin in Japanese). He was a skilled martial artist and believed the way to reach true
enlightenment required the body to be in perfect health.
The body must be rigorously trained and exercised to achieve the physical stamina needed for perfect harmony with
the mind.
Most accounts of this monk are peppered with legend
and lore. He is known as the wall gazing monk as he is purported to have meditated for 9 years in
front of a wall in the Shaolin temple. This legend becomes lore - when accounts discuss his
attempts to avoid sleep by removing his eye lids and casting them to the ground -
where a tea tree took root.
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