According to Osho, the Zen koan ‘Bodhidharma’s coming from the West’ is not a historical query but a device to explode the mind’s need for meaning. It points to meaninglessness-as-meaning: pure suchness. When thought stops, your original face appears. The ‘West’ and ‘coming’ are distractions; the real journey is inward, to immediate, silent awareness here-now.
It’s a trick question that stops your thinking so you can feel the quiet, real you inside.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, RYUGE WAS ASKED BY A MONK, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA COMING FROM THE WEST?" RYUGE SAID, "WAIT TILL THE STONE TURTLE SPEAKS WORDS OF EXPLANATION AND I WILL TELL YOU." THE MONK SAID, "THE STONE TURTLE HAS SPOKEN!" RYUGE SAID, "WHAT DID IT SAY TO YOU?" THE MONK WAS SILENT. ONE OF DAIBAI'S MONKS ASKED HIS MASTER THE SAME QUESTION, TO WHICH DAIBAI REPLIED, "HIS COMING HAS NO MEANING." THE MONK BROUGHT THIS QUESTION UP TO ENKAN, WHO SAID, "TWO DEAD MEN IN ONE COFFIN." GENSHA, HEARING OF THIS, SAID, "ENKAN IS A CLEVER CHAP." THE SAME QUESTION -- THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA COMING FROM THE WEST -- WAS BROUGHT TO SEKITO, OR "STONEHEAD", AS HE WAS ALSO KNOWN. "GO AND ASK THE OUTSIDE POST OF THE HALL!" HE EXCLAIMED. THE MONK SAID, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN." "NOR DO I," SAID SEKITO.
A monk came to a master for help on working on one of the classic questions in zen dialectic: 'what is the meaning of bodhidharma's coming from the west?' the master suggested that before proceeding with the problem the monk should make him a low salaam. As he was dutifully prostrating himself the master gave him a good swift kick. The unexpected kick resolved the murk irresolution in which the monk had been foundering on for some time. When he felt the master's foot he attained immediate enlightenment. Subsequently he said to everyone he met, 'since I received that kick from matzu, I haven't
That is primal innocence, and that is our ultimate. Our ultimate being is before thought and after thought. Not that it disappears when thought is there, but it becomes clouded -- just like the sun surrounded by too many clouds, dark clouds. It appears as if the sun has disappeared. We never lose our ultimacy, we cannot. That's what ultimacy is -- it cannot be lost. It is our innermost nature. There is no way to lose it. But it can become clouded. The flame can become too clouded with smoke; can almost be thought of as lost. The sun can be so clouded that it appears as if it has become dark night. That's the situation. We are before thought, we are while thought is there, we will be there when thought has disappeared -- we are always there. But when thought is there it is very difficult to…
Question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, A MONK ONCE DREW FOUR LINES IN FRONT OF MA TZU. THE TOP LINE WAS LONG AND THE REMAINING THREE WERE SHORT. HE THEN DEMANDED OF THE MASTER, "BESIDES SAYING THAT ONE LINE IS LONG AND THE OTHER THREE ARE SHORT, WHAT ELSE COULD YOU SAY?" MA TZU DREW ONE LINE ON THE GROUND AND SAID, "THIS COULD BE CALLED EITHER LONG OR SHORT. THAT IS MY ANSWER." ON ANOTHER OCCASION, A MONK SAID TO MA TZU, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA'S COMING FROM THE WEST?" MA TZU REPLIED, "AT THIS MOMENT, WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY `MEANING'?" AGAIN THE MONK ASKED THE QUESTION, AND MA TZU STRUCK HIM, SAYING, "IF I DIDN'T STRIKE YOU, PEOPLE WOULD LAUGH AT ME." E OF ROKUTAN ASKED MA TZU THE SAME QUESTION ABOUT BODHIDHARMA'S COMING FROM THE WEST.
Question: BELOVED OSHO, A MONK ASKED BOKUSHU, "WHAT IS THE INNER MEANING OF THE TEACHINGS OF BUDDHISM?" BOKUSHU SAID, "I WON'T ANSWER." "WHY NOT?" ASKED THE MONK. "BECAUSE," SAID BOKUSHU, "YOU THINK AND THINK AND THEN COME AND ASK ME." THE MONK FURTHER ASKED, "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF BODHIDHARMA COMING FROM THE WEST?" BOKUSHU SAID, "ARE WE NOT TEACHER AND LEARNER? WHY DON'T YOU COME NEARER?" THE MONK WENT NEARER, AND THEN BOKUSHU SAID, "WHEN I CALL A MAN ONE FROM EAST OF SETSU, ONE FROM WEST OF SETSU IS INCLUDED. WHAT'S THE MEANING OF THAT?" THE MONK THEN ASKED, "WHAT IS THE ESSENCE OF THE MEANING OF SOKEI?" -- (WHICH WAS WHERE ENO LIVED). BOKUSHU SAID, "WHEN YOU MEET A SWORDSMAN IN THE STREET, GIVE HIM A SWORD. IF HE IS NOT A POET, DON'T SHOW HIM YOUR POEM." ONCE, UMMON EXCLAIMED, "BUDDHISM IS JUST TERRIFIC!
Is the drive towards creativity only another expression of our inability to sit quietly and do nothing?
If you have been to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, you will find that on the other side of the Yamuna there are the foundations of another Taj Mahal -- just the foundations. The same emperor who allowed the Sufi mystics to design the Taj Mahal thought, "It is too costly to bring all these mystics from Persia and Arabia. And now that we have the model..." It took thirty years for one thousand artists to make the Taj Mahal. He released them, and he told the architects that were available in New Delhi, "Now that the Taj Mahal is ready, you can build the same on the other side of the bank." This Taj Mahal was going to be his wife's samadhi. It is from his wife's name that it became Taj Mahal; her name was Mumtaz Mahal. The other he was creating for himself. And the architect…