The translators of these patriarchal verses are, according to the author of the Records of the Right Transmission, Chih-chiang-liang-lou,[4.5] of the First Wei dynasty, and Na-lien-ya-shê,[4.6] of the Eastern Wei; the former came from Middle India and the latter from Kabul. Their book known as the Account of Succession in the Law[4.7] disappeared after the repeated persecutions carried out by the reigning dynasties, but the stories of these patriarchs were quoted at least in the two books, the Pao-lin Ch‘uan[4.8] and the Shêng-chou Chi,[4.9] both compiled prior to the Transmission of the Lamp, in which they are referred to. But they too were lost some time after Kaisu (Ch‘i-sung) in the Sung dynasty. Therefore at present the Transmission of the Lamp is the earliest history of Zen where the twenty-eight patriarchs and their verses of law-transmission are recorded in detail.
To quote as samples two of the six Buddhas’ gāthās, the first Buddha Vipaśyi declares:
“This body from within the Formless is born,
It is like through magic that all forms and images appear:
Phantom beings with mentality and consciousness have no reality from
the very beginning;
Both evil and happiness are void, have no abodes.”[4.10]
The gāthā of the sixth Buddha, Kāśyapa, who just preceded the Muni of the Śākyas, runs thus:
“Pure and immaculate is the nature of all sentient beings;
From the very beginning there is no birth, no death;