Once His Temper Flares, in His Rage,
He Strikes the Patriarch
Wah! You see, his lectures caused flowers to
rain down from the heavens and golden lotuses to well up from the
earth, and still he lost his temper! That's why I said Buddhism seemed
to exist in China, and yet it did not. What happened when he lost his
temper? What happened when he got angry? He grabbed his weapon. What
was it? His string of recitation beads. His beads weren't lightweight
like these "stars and moon Bodhi" beads of mine. His recitation beads
were made of iron! They were hard and durable. His recitation beads
were
designed to be a weapon to be used in case he
encountered weird entities, demons, ghosts, wolves, reptiles,
tigers, or panthers. He could conveniently grab his recitation
beads and attack.
This time, encountering Patriarch Bodhidharma, who
had dared to challenge him so, his wrath was extreme, like a
combination of tidal wave, avalanche, and earthquake. As he whipped
out his beads, he snapped, "You are slandering the Dharma!" and
cracked Patriarch Bodhidharma across the mouth.