Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived in the 5th or 6th century CE.  He s traditionally credited with bringing Chan Buddhism to China, the stream that later evolved into Zen Buddhism in Japan.  Legend also says that he taught the dharma to monks at Shaolin monastery, and then, disturbed at their poor physical condition, instructed them in an exercise called ‘Eighteen Arhat Hands,’ based on postures of statues of various Arhats [literally, ‘one who is worthy,’ a highly advanced student; one who has attained nirvana].  From this beginning grew  the form of Shaolin kungfu.  Bodhidharma is traditionally portrayed as ill-tempered, profusely bearded, and with very wide eyes, but very little is known with certainty about him. He may have come from South India, or from central Asia.

Through endless ages, the mind has never changed.

It has not lived or died, come or gone, gained or lost.

It isn’t pure or tainted, good or bad, past or future, true or false, male or female.

It isn’t reserved for monks or lay people, elders or youths, masters or idiots, the enlightened or unenlightened.

It isn’t bound by cause and effect and doesn’t struggle for liberation.

Like space, it has no form.

You can’t own it and you can’t lose it.

Mountains, rivers or walls can’t impede it.

But this mind is ineffable and difficult to experience.

It is not the mind of the senses.

So many are looking for this mind, yet it already animates their bodies.

It is theirs, yet they don’t realize it.