stra and
Dvadasanikayasastra of Nagarjuna with the Satasastra of his
pupil Deva. It is simply the school of these two doctors and
represents the extreme of Mahayanism. It had some importance in Japan,
where it was called San-Ron-Shu.

The arrival of Bodhidharma at Canton in 520 (or 526) was a great event
for the history of Buddhist dogma, although his special doctrines did
not become popular until much later. He introduced the contemplative
school and also the institution of the Patriarchate, which for a time
had some importance. He wrote no books himself, but taught that true
knowledge is gained in meditation by intuition[793] and communicated
by transference of thought. The best account of his teaching is
contained in the Chinese treatise which reports the sermon preached by
him before the Emperor Wu-Ti in 520.[794] The chief thesis of this
discourse is that the only true reality is the Buddha nature[795]
in the heart of every man. Prayer, asceticism and good works are vain.
All that man need do is to turn his gaze inward and see the Buddha in
his own heart. This vision, which gives light and deliverance, comes
in a moment. It is a simple, natural act like swallowing or dreaming
which cannot be taught or learnt, for it is not something imparted but
an experience of the soul, and teaching can only prepare the way for
it. Some are impeded by their karma and are physically incapable of
the vision, whatever their merits or piety may be, but for those to
whom it comes it is inevitable and convincing.

We have only to substitute _atman_ for Buddha or Buddha nature to see
how closely this teaching resembles certain passages in the
Upanishads, and the resemblance is particularly strong in such
statements as that the Buddha nature reveals itself in dreams, or that
it is so great that it embraces the universe and so small that the
point of a needle cannot prick it. The doctrine of Maya is clearly
indicated, even if the word was not used in the original, for it is
expressly said that all phenomena are unreal. Thus the teaching of
Bodhidharma is an anticipation of Sankara's monism, but it is
formulated in consistently Buddhist language and is in harmony with
the views of the Madhyamika school and of the Diamond-cutter. This
Chinese sermon confirms other evidence which indicates that the ideas
of the Advaita philosophy, though Brahmanic in their origin and
severely condemned by Gotama himself, were elaborated in Buddhist
circle