傳法正宗定祖圖 1.59

1.59

The twenty-eighth patriarch, Bodhidharma (his name was called differently, such as Dharmatrāta, in three or four accounts), was a man of Southern India whose surname was Kṣatriya, being a prince of that country. He renounced the householder's life under Prajñātāra and received his transmission of the Dharma, said to be a trace manifested by the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara. Sixty-seven years later, he came east to China with the Dharma. What he transmitted directly pointed to the human mind: seeing into one's nature and attaining Buddhahood, not relying on words and letters. At first he reached Liang, but because the karmic circumstances were not aligned, he went to Northern Wei, staying at Mount Song and Shaolin for nine years before he gained Huike, who sought the Way from him. Later, he did indeed transmit the Great Dharma to Huike, along with the robe and bowl as proof, thus becoming the first patriarch of the transmission of the Dharma in this land. Afterwards, he left Shaolin and manifested extinction. His verse of Dharma transmission said: