Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma was the third son of King Xiangzhi of southern India and studied under the Twenty-Seventh Patriarch of the Western Heaven, Prajñātāra. During China’s Southern and Northern Dynasties period, he sailed eastward across the sea. Emperor Wu of the Liang Dynasty welcomed him to Jinling (modern Nanjing), but their dialogue proved incompatible; thus, Bodhidharma broke a reed and used it to cross the Yangtze River northward, eventually settling at Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song. There he engaged in nine years of wall-gazing meditation, his shadow said to have imprinted itself upon the rock face. When Huike stood in snow for days and severed his own arm to demonstrate sincerity in seeking the Dharma, Bodhidharma calmed his mind and transmitted the robe and bowl to him—establishing Huike as the Second Patriarch of Chan. Bodhidharma advocated the ‘Two Entries and Four Practices’, emphasizing direct pointing to the mind and realizing one’s true nature to become a Buddha, thereby laying the foundational principles of Chan Buddhism in China and earning veneration as its First Patriarch in the Eastern Land. His birthday on the 5th day of the 10th lunar month is commemorated annually with grand ancestral rites at Shaolin Monastery, through which Chan philosophy and martial arts culture gained worldwide renown.