Bodhidharma brought his special brand of Buddhism to China in A.D. 520. He is considered the first patriarch of Zen. He claimed a special transmission outside the sutras, and a direct seeing into one's nature. He noted that the enlightened being's mind is tranquil and its body moves freely in accordance with circumstances. What more could one ask? I would like to draw attention to the "tranquil mind" and how it relates to the human condition.
A mind caught up in illusion has a narrative to protect and can not possibly achieve tranquility. The animal mind exists in a narrative-rich environment and is pathologically drawn to romance and intrigue. So we find the Enlightenment of the Buddha early on entangled in superstitious ornamentation. Zen represents the refusal to gild the lily of Enlightenment.
The singular difficulty the doctrine of satori faces is the human appetite for narrative. When we "enter in to that which can not be entered" this becomes staggeringly obvious. The "not entered" is not entered because it was there all along. And entry to the "not entered" is barred by any narrative sacred or otherwise. Bodhidharma advocated a direct seeing into one's nature. This is no less than consciousness awakening to the Transcendental Awareness which is its progenitor. Awareness has no axe to grind, and the artifacts of consciousness are clearly seen to be the fabrications that they are.
The romance involved in throwing the word Zen around is made inevitable as mediocre minds seek to wrap themselves in an exotic triumphal narrative, and I suppose "honky zen" is better than no Zen at all.
The Zen of the patriarchs is the living meristem of the enlightenment of the historical Buddha.
