10/05/2023
๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ต๐ด๐๐ฟ๐๐ฅ: Bodhidharma was born a prince in the Pallava Kingdom in South India. He was the son of the king of Kanchipuram, but at an early age, he left his kingdom and princehood and became a monk. At the age of twenty-two he was fully enlightened, and that was when he was sent as a messenger to China. The moment the news of his arrival came, Emperor Wu himself came to the borders of his empire and set up a huge reception and waited.
Emperor Wu made a list of all the good things that he had done in his life โ how many people he had fed, how many things he had done, all the charity that he had given and asked Bodhidharma, โTo spread the dharma, to spread Buddhaโs message, I have built so many meditation halls, hundreds of gardens, and trained thousands of translators. I have made all these arrangements. Will I get mukti (liberation)?โ
Bodhidharma became serious. He stood up and glared down at the emperor with his huge big eyes and said, โWhat? You! Mukti? You will burn in the seventh hell.โ
What he meant was, according to the Buddhist way of life, there are seven layers of the mind. Instead of just doing what is needed, if a man does something and then keeps accounts of it, โHow much I have done for somebody,โ he is in the lowest level of the mind and he will inevitably suffer because he is expecting people to be nice to him in return for his deeds. If they are not nice to him, he will be mentally tortured and it will be a seventh hell.
But Emperor Wu did not understand any of this. He flew into a rage and threw Bodhidharma out of his empire. For Bodhidharma, it made no difference โ in or out. It doesnโt matter whether it is a kingdom or a mountain; he carried on with his journey. But Emperor Wu missed the only opportunity of his life.
