The Legend of Bodhidharma

One legend of tea’s origin tells the story of Bodhidharma, an East Indian Bodhisattva who came to China in the 6th Century B.C.E. to teach Buddhism. Bodhidharma is considered the founder of Martial Arts in China, or at least for changing it radically from warring techniques to a practice of spiritual and health exercise.
It is said that when he came to China, in order to attract students he sat in meditation in front of a cave for nine years. During the first three years, people would come by and mimic or ridicule him or even play tricks on him. Sometimes they would defile him, much like children making fun of someone different. During the second three years, people grew tired of bothering an un-reacting statue sitting in meditative repose, and they ignored him. In the final three years, some individuals realized his great accomplishment of sitting in meditation for so long despite the hardship and began to join him in sitting meditation. By the end of the nine years, Bodhidharma spoke in front of thousands of totally receptive students, every one of them became instantly enlightened.
The Sermon he gave was called the Lotus Sutra, Lotus being the flower that represents man’s striving quest to find meaning to life and rise above a world of pain and suffering just as the white lotus rises above the muddy water from which it grows. This sudden enlightenment method became known as Ch’an Buddhism. To prepare for this meditation marathon, Bodhidharma would sit for long hours each day. One day he fell asleep during meditation. He was so angry at himself for failing that he cut off his eyelids and threw them to the ground, so that he would never close his eyes again during meditation and fall asleep. To this day, Ch'an meditation practice always employs an open eyes method and Bodhidharma is always depicted with large, round, saucer like eyes. Legend states that where Bodhidharma’s eyelids fell, the first tea plant grew. The quality of tea, which keeps one awake, is Bodhidharma’s gift to the Buddhist world of meditators, establishing the drinking of tea as an aid to alert meditation and spiritual development.