The Founder of Shaolin Chen Boddhidharma: The Awakened One

Boddhidharma is considered, by most sources, to be the father of the Martial Arts. However this is debatable. The third son of a Brahman King, the venerable Abbott left his monastery in Southern India to spread the Chen Buddhist faith to China. Chen is the Chinese translation for the Sanskrit word signifying Yogic concentration dhyana; a concept better known in the West as the Japanese Zen.

It is believed that a pregnant woman in the 6th century had a vision that her unborn son would be destined to be a great Emperor or a universal teacher. The path he followed would be determined by his life experiences. If her son experienced the suffering of the world he would become a teacher, if he did not he would become an Emperor.

When Siddharta was born, his father shielded his son from world suffering as he did not want him to live the life as a teacher, sequestered in a temple with little or no comfort. However the Gods had bigger plans for Siddharta. One day while Siddharta was being driven around his grounds a God appeared to him in the form of an old man. Siddharta was greatly disturbed by the fact that we have to grow old. A second visitation occurred shortly thereafter when a God appeared to in the form of a very sick and deformed man who died shortly after Siddharta set eyes upon him. This experience brought Siddharta further into doubt. An encounter with a wandering monk led the discontented Siddharta to renounce his worldly possessions and became a wandering monk himself in order to discover the meaning of suffering. Siddharta meditated under a tree for 49 nights when the truth behind world suffering was finally revealed to him. It is for this reason that he is called Boddhidarma or Buddha: the Awakened One.