Zanmai-o-zanmai -- Last Paragraph

The founding ancestor, the Venerable Bodhidharma, after arriving from the west, went to the Shaolin temple on the Shaoshi peak of Mount Song and, facing the wall in lotus-sitting-zen, passed nine years. From that time through to the present China has bulged with brains and eyes. The lifeblood of the founding ancestor is nothing but full lotus sitting. Before the founding ancestor came from the west, living beings in eastern lands had never known full lotus sitting. Since the founding ancestor came from the west they have known it. So, through one life and ten thousand lives, from bottom to top and top to bottom, not leaving the forest, day and night, just to practise lotus sitting and be otherwise jobless -- this is the samadhi that is king of samadhis.





Translated late at night on 2nd May 2008 by one full-lotus-sitting man, an individual, through whose veins has coursed the lifeblood of the founding ancestor. As for Zen Buddhist patriarchies, from old ones like the Soto Sect to new ones like Dogen Sangha...

The lifeblood of the founding ancestor is nothing but full lotus sitting.