Majestic Shaolin, ancestral home of Zen. Banners stirred in the wind, hearts vast and empty.
An hour earlier, within Shaolin's ancestral grounds on Mount Song,
From within a cave regarded as sacred, bursts of Wooden Fish sounded without warning, as though striking directly against the heart. Waves of Buddhist chants also drifted out from the cave, making the two old monks seated outside in silent vigil shudder all over as dust fell from their bodies in puffs.
"The Venerable One has conveyed his will!"
"Has the Divine Stone been unsealed ahead of time? Why? Why has this happened?"
The two old monks waiting outside the cave opened their eyes in unison. The dust on their faces fell away, revealing solemn and dignified features. Though neither spoke, they had already communicated through their minds.
Even the repeated Wooden Fish sounds and Buddhist chants emerging from the cave had conveyed an astonishing message.
This message could be understood but not spoken, a Buddhist method established by Bodhidharma: "transmitting mind to mind, without relying on words."
After Venerable Bodhidharma passed away, this method continued to be passed down within Shaolin. The cave where he had once meditated facing the wall for nine full years also became Shaolin's sacred ground. It contained extraordinarily powerful Buddha-nature and Buddha-intent. Those without a Buddha-heart could not sense it, but anyone who did would be considered to have received Bodhidharma's true transmission, becoming his successor generations apart and receiving a Dharma name of the Hui generation.
Over the years, Shaolin had hidden dragons and crouching tigers, with masters emerging one after another. Bodhidharma's Meditation Cave had made an immense contribution, nurturing countless formidable successors of Bodhidharma for Shaolin.
Yet most of these successors only sat in meditation before the cave year after year, sensing the boundless Buddhist Dharma