ORAL STORIES , PROVERBS , COUPLETS PASSED DOWN GENERATIONS

Bodhidharma traveled to the monastery of Shaolinsi on Songshan mountain in northern China. Legend holds that along the way, he crossed the Yangtze River on a reed, a scene frequently depicted in East Asian art.

After arriving at the monastery, Bodhidharma sat in meditation for nine years. It is said that he sat facing a wall the entire time, letting his legs wither away. Some stories even say he ripped off his eyelids to avoid falling asleep. Some say that where his eyelids fell, there grew the first tea plants in China, so he also gets credit for tea. This is the origin of the Daruma doll, a Japanese egg-shaped toy with lidless eyes and a weighted bottom that springs upright when knocked over (“Daruma” is the Japanese name of Bodhidharma). Historical work attributed to Bodhidharma, The Two Entrances and Four Practices, references the practice of “wall-contemplation.”