What kind of Buddha is Bodhidharma, and are Bodhidharma and Shakyamuni Buddha the same person?

Gautama Hiddatta went through all kinds of hardships and cultivated to become a Buddha.

When a person cultivates to reach the Dharma of the world, and then cultivates upwards, there are three levels: Arhats, Bodhisattvas, and Buddhas. Arhat is the first level of the Dharma of the world.

Bodhidharma's level is an Arhat, and he is not yet a Buddha. To say that he is a Buddha is what we ordinary people say, saying that he is a Buddha cultivator, a Buddhist, and has a certain level and wisdom.

Bodhidharma and Shakyamuni Buddha are not one person. Shakyamuni is the founder of Buddhism, and if they have to be related, in a sense, Bodhidharma is a disciple of Shakyamuni. Shakyamuni is the founder of Buddhism, and Bodhidharma is the twenty-eighth patriarch of Zen Buddhism, Zen Buddhism is a sect of Buddhism, which was founded by Shakyamuni.

The founder of Zen Buddhism, His Holiness Kasya, has been passed down from generation to generation, and it is already the twenty-eighth generation of Patriarch Daman. Without the founding of Buddhism by Shakyamuni, there would be no Zen Buddhism of Bodhidharma, which is a branch derived from the Buddhism founded by Shakyamuni. Bodhidharma was born around the 6th century A.D., and in his later years sailed to China to promote Buddhism, and is the ancestor of Zen Buddhism in China.

Background of the time of the Buddha

According to legend, the Buddha is a descendant of the famous royal family of the ancient Indian Vedic period, King Yishima, that is, the Chinese translation of the king of sugarcane, the crown prince of the king of Kapila Weiguo, and belongs to the Kshatriya caste. Kapilawei was a small city inhabited by the Shakya tribe, located at the foot of the Himalayas, near Tirolak, which is adjacent to India in the southern part of present-day Nepal, and was a vassal state of the Kusara kingdom at that time.

By the time Fa Xian traveled to India in the 4th century, the country was in decline. At the end of the 19th century, archaeologists unearthed a stone pot containing bones engraved with a Brahma riddle script popular in centuries BC, meaning the bones of the Buddha worshipped by the Shakyas. In addition, a stone carving built by Emperor Ashoka during his visit to Kapilawei was found, which confirmed its approximate geographical location, and archaeological excavations have been carried out in Nepal** since then.

The founder of Zen Buddhism, His Holiness Kasya, has been passed down from generation to generation, and it is already the twenty-eighth generation of Patriarch Daman. Without the founding of Buddhism by Shakyamuni, there would be no Zen Buddhism of Bodhidharma, which is a branch derived from the Buddhism founded by Shakyamuni. Bodhidharma was born around the 6th century A.D., and in his later years sailed to China to promote Buddhism, and is the ancestor of Zen Buddhism in China.

<> Bodhidharma did not become a Buddha. Bodhidharma is the founding ancestor of Chinese Zen Buddhism, and is respected as "the first generation of patriarchs of the Eastern Soil" and "Bodhidharma patriarchs". The reason why Patriarch Bodhidharma did not become a Buddha in the world of Sampa is because the fourth Buddha of the virtuous tribulation is the Maitreya Buddha who was born in the next life, so there is no other Buddha between Shakyamuni Buddha and Maitreya Buddha who has attained the virtuous tribulation.

At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Bodhidharma Patriarch sailed from India to Guangzhou, and traveled north from here to the Northern Wei Dynasty, teaching people everywhere with Zen Buddhism. Patriarch Bodhidharma translated the four volumes of the Ranga (Eggplant) Abhadra Sutra, and later taught the disciples with this four-volume Ranga Sutra.

What kind of Buddha is Patriarch BodhidharmaBodhidharma Patriarch is the Arhat realm. Patriarch Bodhidharma is the self-proclaimed twenty-eighth ancestor of Zen Buddhism and the ancestor of Zen Buddhism in China. Patriarch Bodhidharma was born in the Brahmin tribe of Nantianzhu, and legend has it that he was the second son of King Xiangzhi.

According to historical records, after the first ancestor of Bodhidharma preached the Dharma in Shaolin Temple, he went to Dinglin Temple at the foot of Bears Ears Mountain to preach the Dharma for 5 years. He died in December of the second year of Emperor Wu of Liang at the age of 150. Emperor Xiao Yan of Liang Wu personally wrote the inscription of the preface of the Ode to Bodhidharma Master Bodhidharma in the Southern Dynasty to commemorate the founding of Zen Buddhism by Bodhidharma Master.