The elephant can hardly keep company with rabbits.  The petty orthodoxy can by no means keep pace with the elephantine stride of Zen.  No wonder that Bodhidharma left not only the palace of the Emperor Wu, but also the State of Liang, and went to the State of Northern Wei.[FN#25] There he spent nine years in the Shao Lin[FN#26] Monastery, mostly sitting silent in meditation with his face to the wall, and earned for himself the appellation of ’the wall-gazing Brahmin.’  This name itself suggests that the significance of his mission was not appreciated by his contemporaries.  But neither he was nor they were to blame, because the lion’s importance is appreciated only by the lion.  A great personage is no less great because of his unpopularity among his fellow men, just as the great Pang[FN#27] is no less great because of his unpopularity among the winged creatures.  Bodhidharma was not popular to the degree that he was envied by his contemporary Buddhists, who, as we are told by his biographers, attempted to poison him three times,[FN#28] but without success.

[FN#25] Northern Gi dynasty (A.D. 386-534).

[FN#26] Sho-rin-ji, erected by the Emperor Hiao Ming of Northern Wei A.D. 497.

[FN#27] Chwang-tsz in his famous parable compares a great sage with the Pang, an imaginary bird of enormous size, with its wings of ninety thousand miles.  The bird is laughed at by wrens and sparrows because of its excessive size.

[FN#28] This reminds us of Nan Yoh Hwui Sz (Nan-gaku-e-shi, died A.D. 577), who is said to have learned Zen under Bodhidharma.  He says in his statement of a vow that he was poisoned three times by those who envied him.

4.  Bodhidharma and his Successor the Second Patriarch.

China was not, however, an uncultivated[FN#29] land for the seed of
Zen—­nay, there had been many practisers of Zen before Bodhidharma.

[FN#29] The translation of Hinayana Zen sutras first paved the way for our faith.  Fourteen Zen sutras, including such important books as Mahanapanadhyana-sutra, Dhyanacarya-dharmasanyjnya-sutra, Dhyanacarya-saptatrimcadvarga-sutra, were translated by Ngan Shi Kao (An-sei-ko) as early as A.D. 148-170.  Cullamargabhumi-sutra was translated by K’ Yao (Shi-yo) in A.D. 185; Dharmatara-dhyana-sutra by Buddhabhadra in A.D. 398-421; Dhyananisthitasamadhi-dharma-parygya-sutra by Kumarajiva in A.D. 402; ‘An Abridged Law on the Importance of Meditation’ by Kumarajiva in A.D. 405; Pancadvara-dhyanasutra-maharthadharma by Dharmamitra in A.D. 424-441.  Furthermore, Mahayana books closely related to the doctrine of Zen were not unknown to China before Bodhidharma.  Pratyutpanna-buddhasammukhavasthita-samadhi was translated by K’ Leu Cia Chan (Shi-ru-ga-sen) in A.D. 164-186; Vimalakirttinirdeca-sutra, which is much used in Zen, by Kumarajiva in A.D. 384-412; Lankavatara-sutra, which is said to have been pointed out by Bodhidharma as the best explanation of Zen, by Gunabhadra in A.D. 433; Saddharma-pundarika-sutra, in its complete form, by Kumarajiva in A.D. 406; Avatamsaka-sutra by Buddhabhadra in A.D. 418; Mahaparinirvana-sutra by Dharmaraksa in A.D. 423.