"Your mind is in pain?" said Patriarch Bodhidharma. "Bring out your mind and show it to me. Then I will help quiet it for you and you won't feel any more pain."

Dharma Master Shen Guang searched for his mind. Where was his mind? He looked in the north, east, south, west, in the intermediate points, and up and down. It was simply not to be found anywhere! At last he said to Patriarch Bodhidharma, "I can't find my mind! It is nowhere to be found."

"I have already finished quieting your mind!" said the Patriarch. "You can't find your mind; I have already calmed it for you."

Upon hearing that, the Second Patriarch suddenly became enlightened. Those few words brought him to a great awakening. Having achieved a profound awakening, his mind no longer hurt, his liver did not hurt, nor did the tips of the hairs in his pores. From that time on, he cultivated the Dharma door taught by Patriarch Bodhidharma, known as "a direct pointing to the human mind that leads to seeing the nature and realizing Buddhahood; a special transmission beyond the teaching that is not set forth in words or language."

The Second Patriarch transmitted this Dharma door to the Third Patriarch, who in turn passed it to the Fourth Patriarch. The Fourth Patriarch transmitted it to the Fifth Patriarch. The Fifth Patriarch then transmitted that Dharma to the Sixth Patriarch. That Dharma has been passed down from generation to generation in China. Now it has come to America. But here in America, no one has knelt for nine years, and no one needs to. All you have to do is to bring forth a true mind to cultivate; then you will be able to attain this Dharma.