Bodhidharma & Padampa Sangye. Same person?

[Jikan]

Well, you've never seen them photographed together, right?

The Phadampa Center website (a group based in California) claims that Padampa Sangye *was* Bodhidharma, that is, the person known as Bodhidharma was Dampa Jakar while teaching in China. (Evidently, he did teach in China.)

I find this claim unconvincing because the chronology seems off... Bodhidharma was appealed to as an authority in China at least a century before Padampa Sangye was said to have visited China.

Thoughts?

[Seishin]

Well, he does have a beard...

[Astus]

Why not say that Bodhidharma was later known as Padmasambhava and then Padamba Sangye? Or Luke Skywalker for that matter. Why not?

But if we want to go with the known facts, Bodhidharma lived hundreds of years before that mahasiddha, he is supposed to have taught some Lankavatara Sutra teachings, practically Bodhidharma's whole life is a legend created centuries later and there is no definitive information of who Bodhidharma was (if he was at all).

[Malcolm]

Well, you've never seen them photographed together, right?

The Phadampa Center website (a group based in California) claims that Padampa Sangye *was* Bodhidharma, that is, the person known as Bodhidharma was Dampa Jakar while teaching in China. (Evidently, he did teach in China.)

I find this claim unconvincing because the chronology seems off... Bodhidharma was appealed to as an authority in China at least a century before Padampa Sangye was said to have visited China.

Thoughts?

This is clearly a Tibetan sectarian polemical hagiographical statement. It is not to be taken seriously. Just as the person of Bodhidharma was wildly inflated by the Chinese, so too has the person of Padampa been wildly inflated by Tibetans.

N

[Silent Bob]

Padampa Sangye was also Hui Neng and more recently, Elvis Presley.

[Jikan]

Padampa Sangye was also Hui Neng and more recently, Elvis Presley.

That's a relief, because in addition to my regular Dharma duties, I'm also a Bishop in the 24 Hour Church of Elvis (because I bought a T-shirt in 1991):

http://www.24hourchurchofelvis.com

[conebeckham]

Don't be Cruel...to a heart that's true.

Sounds like Dharma to me.