Xuansha Shibei

Xuansha Shibei was a student of Xuefeng Yicun who, before becoming a monk, had been an illiterate fisherman. His awakening occurred when he stubbed his toe on a rock while leaving the mountain—the sharp pain suddenly clarified everything, and he exclaimed, "Bodhidharma never came to China; the Second Patriarch never went to India." This utterance expressed the realization that the Dharma is not something imported or transmitted from elsewhere but is the immediate truth of one's own experience.

Xuansha developed the teaching of the "three diseases"—the spiritual ailments that afflict practitioners who are blind, deaf, or mute to the truth. Each disease points to a different way in which practitioners remain trapped in partial understanding. His lineage through Luohan Guichen produced Fayan Wenyi, the founder of the Fayan school, making Xuansha the grandfather of an entire school of Chan. Despite his humble origins, he became one of the most penetrating teachers of the late Tang period.