勅修百丈清規 2.24

2.24

The ancestral master was the third son of King Sugandha of South India, of the kṣatriya clan. His original name was Bodhitara. Later, he met the twenty-seventh patriarch, the Venerable Prajñātāra, who recognized the master's hidden capacity. Therefore, testing him, he had him debate with his two elder brothers on the precious pearl that had been bestowed, thereby elucidating the essential point of mind. Shortly thereafter, the Venerable said to him: "You have already attained comprehensive capacity regarding all dharmas. 'Dharma' means comprehensive and great; it is proper that you be named Dharma." Because of this, he changed his name to Bodhidharma. The master then told the Venerable: "Now that I have attained the Dharma, to which country should I go to perform the Buddha's work? I pray you deign to give me instruction." The Venerable said: "Although you have attained the Dharma, you must not travel far yet. Stay for now in South India. Wait for sixty-seven years after my passing, and then you should go to Cīnasthāna to dispense the great medicine of the Dharma and directly receive those of superior capacity. Take care not to travel hastily and decline in the imperial sun." In the eighth year of the Putong era of Liang, a dingwei year, on the twenty-first day of the ninth month, he arrived in Nanhai. Xiao Ang, the governor of Guangzhou, submitted a memorial informing Emperor Wu. The emperor dispatched an envoy with an imperial decree to welcome him. On the first day of the tenth month, he arrived in Jinling and conversed with the emperor, but they did not accord. On the nineteenth day of that month, he crossed the river to the north; on the twenty-third day of the eleventh month, he arrived in Luoyang, which corresponded to the tenth year of the Taihe era of Xiaoming of the Wei. He stayed at Shaolin Monastery on Mount Song, sitting facing the wall, silent all day long. People could not fathom him and called him the "Wall-Gazing Brahman". On the fifth day of the tenth month in the nineteenth year of the Taihe era, a bingchen year, he passed away sitting upright. On the twenty-eighth day of the twelfth month of that year, he was buried on Mount Xiong'er, and a stūpa was erected at Dinglin Monastery. In the Tang, he was posthumously granted the title Great Master of Perfect Enlightenment, and the stūpa was named Empty Contemplation.