A mighty bearded old man with a stern but wise look under looming eyebrows - this is how the founder and first patriarch of Chan or Zen Buddhism, Bodhidharma (VI century), went down in history. They say that he spent nine years in meditation in a cave facing the wall, gave the Shaolin monks special training methods, and brought the tradition of drinking tea to this world. But what was he really like? What was the early technique of meditation and what methods did the early Chan masters teach? To whom did Bodhidharma actually convey the patriarchate and what were the secret instructions “never transmitted outwardly”? The book includes translations of treatises and aphorisms attributed to Bodhidharma, stories about him from medieval Chinese sources, a narrative of the early methods of Chan spiritual practice with unique examples training in Chan schools - methods of emancipation of consciousness. The book is illustrated with Chan drawings.