Within the Zen tradition, Bodhidharma stands as the pivotal patriarch who links the living experience of the Buddha’s awakening to the later flourishing of Chan/Zen in East Asia. He is traditionally regarded as the twenty‑eighth patriarch in the Indian lineage descending from Śākyamuni Buddha through Mahākāśyapa and other meditation masters, and at the same time as the first patriarch of Chinese Chan. In this way, his figure serves as a symbolic bridge: from India to China, and from the historical Buddha to the later Zen communities that took shape in China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. All classical Zen lineages present themselves as flowing back through Bodhidharma to the Buddha, grounding their authority in this continuous transmission.

Within that lineage, Bodhidharma is remembered less as a system‑builder and more as the embodiment of a certain style of Dharma transmission. His role is associated with “mind‑to‑mind transmission,” a direct pointing to the enlightened mind that does not rely on words and letters. The emphasis falls on seeing one’s own nature and thereby realizing Buddhahood, rather than on scriptural study or doctrinal elaboration. Stories of his strict and uncompromising practice, such as the image of long, unbroken meditation, function as teaching symbols for the intensity and single‑mindedness expected of Zen practitioners.

From Bodhidharma, the traditional line of Chinese patriarchs proceeds to Huike and then to figures such as Sengcan, Daoxin, Hongren, and Huineng, whose teachings shaped the main currents of Chan. In this narrative, Bodhidharma is the root from which these later branches grow, and his transmission defines what it means for a lineage to be authentically “Zen.” The stress on seated meditation, direct experience, and a transmission outside scriptures all trace back, in Zen memory, to his example. Thus his role in the lineage is not only chronological but paradigmatic: he is held up as the originating model of how the Dharma is to be received, practiced, and passed on from teacher to disciple.