Page 154 - Popular Deities of Chinese Buddhism (Illustrated) and Symbols

e Emperor, taken aback, then asked the next question, “What

then, is the essence of Buddhism?”

Bodhidharma’s immediated reply was, “Vast emptiness and no

essence at all!” is stunned the Emperor as he could not grasp

the deep meaning of ‘no essence at all’ in the Buddha’s teach-

ing. Other masters had taken great pains to explain that the es-

sence was contained in the doctrines such as ‘Cause and Effect,

the Four Noble Truths,the Bodhisattva Ideals, etc’, but this so-

called great patriarch of Buddhism had just declared that there

was ‘no essence at all’.

e Emperor then put his final question, “Since you say that

in Buddhism all things have no essence, who then is speaking

before me now?” Bodhidharma replied “I do not know.” e

Emperor was taken aback, for he could not understand what

Bodhidharma meant.

e thoroughly confused Emperor then dismissed the sage from

the court and thus, China had its first taste of Ch’an teaching.

ereafter, Bodhidharma, left to himself, reflected, ‘Since a

learned and great scholar such as the Emperor was not able to

understand what I am trying to impart perhaps the conditions

are not ripe enough for me to teach yet….’ He then retired to a

cave in the famous Shao Lin Temple where he sat in deep con-

templation, facing a wall, for some nine years, waiting for the

time when his teachings could be understood and accepted by

the people.

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