The Fourteenth Zen Patriarch Nagarjuna Bodhisattva was born six-hundred years after Shakyamuni Buddha went into Nirvana. He was exceptionally gifted since he was a small child; because of hiskeen understanding of the sufferings and impermanence of this world, he went to live a secluded life in deep mountains. Later when he received the lineage from Master Kapimala and became a monk, he went to South India to teach sentient beings. Nagarjuna Bodhisattva wrote many books in his whole life, among which Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way is the most well-known and widely circulated. Thus he was regarded as a key figure in spreading Mahayana.

Why did some of the patriarchs use magic power while Shakyamuni Buddha himself did not use it when he was alive? Supreme Master Qing Hai points out that some had learned magic powers before being converted to Buddhism; therefore they were not as free and egoless as Buddha. There was still difference between them even though they are all Zen Patriarchs. Master also reminds us that if we use magic power to attract people, we will be no different from the heretics. Once the magic power is used, the debt must be paid. That’s why Great Masters do not use such trivial magic power. They never show this power on purpose. They themselves are the magic power.