Seeking a method to avoid death.

The Chan sect has a verse that says,
The myriad Dharmas return to One.
The One returns to the origin.
Shen Guang, not understanding this,
Pursued Master Bodhidharma.
He knelt nine years at Bear’s Ear Mountain,
Hoping for a method to avoid King Yama.

Seeking the Dharma is not an easy task. It requires a spirit of sacrifice. Here is a story about that. After traveling by boat from India to China, Patriarch Bodhidharma came ashore at Guangzhou and went north to Nanjing. Passing by the place where Dharma Master Shen Guang was lecturing the sutras, the patriarch went in to join the assembly. After the lecture, the patriarch asked Master Shen Guang, “What are you doing here?”
Master Shen Guang answered “I am lecturing on the Sutras.”
Patriarch Bodhidharma asked, “Why are you explaining the Sutras?”
Master Shen Guang replied, “In order to teach people how to end birth and death.”
Patriarch Bodhidharma replied, “The essence of Dharma cannot be put into words. There is no Dharma to be spoken of. As to the Sutras you lecture, the inked areas are words and the blank areas are paper. How can this end birth and death?”
When Master Shen Guang heard that, he became angry and shouted, “You devil! How dare you slander the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This is outrageous!”
Then he struck Patriarch Bodhidharma on the face with his iron chanting beads!

The patriarch was caught unprepared and two of his front teeth got broken off. Patriarch Bodhidharma thought to himself, “If I spit the teeth on the ground, then this place will suffer three years of great drought.” (The folk belief was that if the teeth of a certified sage fell to the ground, the heavens would mete out punishment and the region would suffer a three-year drought.) Patriarch Bodhidharma did not wish to let this region’s people go through the suffering of a drought, so he swallowed the two teeth instead of spitting them out. His decision accords with the saying, “If someone knocks out the teeth of an arhat, the arhat swallows them.” Patriarch Bodhidharma practiced the paramita of patience under insult. Without a word, he left Master Shen Guang’s lecture hall. He crossed the Yangtze River and headed toward the Song Mountain Range in Henan Province.

At that time, the Ghost of Impermanence, under the orders of King Yama, came to invite Master Shen Guang to a tea in the underworld. He asked the monk, “Are you Shen Guang?” Master Shen Guang replied, “Yes.” The Ghost of Impermanence said, “King Yama sent me to invite you down for tea.” Master Shen Guang was surprised and said, “When I lecture on the sutras, the heavens rain down flowers, and golden lotuses well forth from the earth. Yet I still have to die?” The Ghost of Impermanence said, “Of course you have to die!” Master Shen Guang questioned, “Who in this world is free from death?” The Ghost of Impermanence told him, “That black-faced monk whose teeth you knocked out is free from death.”

Master Shen Guang then implored the Ghost of Impermanence saying, “Mr. Impermanence, could you be compassionate and speak to King Yama, asking him to let me go and find the dark-faced monk so that I can learn the method for ending birth and death?” The Ghost of Impermanence agreed to his request. Master Shen Guang then headed north, traveling day and night in order to catch up with Patriarch Bodhidharma. Finally, he arrived at Bear’s Ear Mountain and saw Patriarch Bodhidharma sitting in a cave facing the wall in meditation. He bowed to Patriarch Bodhidharma in repentance. After nine years of kneeling, Master Shen Guang obtained a method to avoid death, and became the Second Patriarch of the Chan School in China.