The movement of Bodhidharma’s teaching can be seen less as the journey of a single person and more as the unfolding of a lineage. Historically, Bodhidharma is associated with bringing a distinctive form of meditative Buddhism from India into China, where it came to be known as Chan. There he transmitted his approach—centered on meditation, direct insight into mind, and a certain distrust of mere words and ritual—to disciples such as Huike, remembered as the Second Patriarch. Over time, Chinese masters organized these teachings into recognizable Chan schools, and lineage records placed Bodhidharma at their head, giving his style of practice enduring authority. In this way, what began as a personal transmission became a living current within Chinese Buddhism. From China, this current flowed outward to neighboring lands through the steady movement of monks and texts. Korean monks traveled to Chinese monasteries, especially during the great flourishing of Chan, and brought back methods of meditation and doctrinal perspectives that were woven into the Seon tradition. Vietnamese practitioners likewise received Chan teachings from Chinese masters, integrating them into what became known as the Thiền tradition, which retained Chan’s emphasis on meditative practice while taking on local cultural forms. In each case, Bodhidharma’s presence was carried not by his physical travel, but by the lineages that revered him as the first patriarch and preserved his way of “direct pointing to the mind.” Japan encountered this same stream somewhat later, again through monks who journeyed to China for training. They studied within established Chan lineages that already honored Bodhidharma as their founding figure and then transplanted those lineages to Japanese soil, where they developed into the Zen schools. Across East Asia, the pattern was similar: monastic exchange, translation of Chan texts, and the establishment of monasteries modeled on Chinese precedents allowed Bodhidharma’s teaching to take root in new settings. Over centuries, these communities adapted the inherited practices to their own cultures, yet continued to trace their spiritual genealogy back to the figure of Bodhidharma. Seen in this light, the spread of Bodhidharma’s teaching is less a story of outward expansion and more a story of deepening transmission from mind to mind. Teacher–disciple relationships, formal lineage structures, and the shared reverence for a common ancestor allowed a particular vision of meditation and awakening to cross mountains and seas. Although historical details are often sparse, the continuity of this lineage across China, Korea, Vietnam, and