After twenty-eight patriarchs had taught the doctrine of contemplation,
the last came into China in A.D. 520, and tried to teach the Emperor the
secret key of Buddha's thought. This missionary Bodhidharma was the
third son of a king of the Kashis, in Southern India, and the historic
original of the tobacconist's shop-sign in Japan, who is known as
Daruma. The imperial Chinaman was not yet able to understand the secret
key of Buddha's thought. So the Hindu missionary went to the monastery
on Mount Su, where in meditation, he sat down cross-legged with his face
to a wall, for nine years, by which time, says the legend, his legs had
rotted off and he looked like a snow-image. During that period, people
did not know him, and called him simply the Wall-gazing Brahmana.
Afterward he had a number of disciples, but they had different views
that are called the transmissions of the skin, flesh, or bone of the
teacher. Only one of them got the whole body of his teachings. Two great
sects were formed: the Northern, which was undivided, and the Southern,
which branched off into five houses and seven schools. The Northern Sect
was introduced into Japan by a Chinese priest in 729 A.D., while the
Southern was not brought over until the twelfth century. In both it is
taught that perfect tranquillity of body and mind is essential to
salvation. The doctrine is the most sublime one, of thought transmitted
by thought being entirely independent of any letters or words. Another
name for them is, "The Sect whose Mind Assimilates with Buddha," direct
from whom it claims to have received its articles of faith.

Too often this idea of Buddhaship, consisting of absolute freedom from
matter and thought, means practically mind-murder, and the emptiness of
idle reverie.

Contrasting modern reality with their ancient ideal, it must be