As I said elsewhere, Zen became truly the product of the Chinese mind by thus creating a unique influence in the history of Chinese culture. As long as Indian influence predominated, Zen could not be free from the speculative abstraction of Buddhist philosophy, which meant that Zen was not Zen in its specialised sense. Some scholars think that there is no Zen in the so-called primitive Buddhism and that the Buddha was not at all the author of Zen. But we must all remember that such critics are entirely ignoring the fact that religion when transplanted adapts itself to the genius of the people among whom it is introduced, and that unless it does so it gradually dies out, proving that there was no life-giving soul in that religion. Zen has claimed from the beginning of its history in China that it is transmitting the spirit and not the letter of the Buddha, by which we understand that Zen, independent of traditional Buddhist philosophy including its terminology and modes of thinking, wove out its own garment from within just as the silkworm weaves its own cocoon. Therefore, the outer garment of Zen is original, befitting itself wonderfully well, and there are no patchings on it, nor any seams either: Zen is truly the traditional celestial robe. XIII Before closing I must not forget to give some of the sermons by the masters which are recorded chiefly in _The Record of the Transmission of the Lamp_, as well as in the “Sayings.” Jōshu says[7.43]: “This thing is like holding up a transparent crystal in your hand. When a stranger comes, it reflects him as such; when a native Chinese comes, it reflects him as such. I pick up a blade of grass and make it work as a golden-bodied one[f155] sixteen feet high. I again take hold of a golden-bodied one sixteen feet high and make him act as a blade of grass. The Buddha is what constitutes human desires and human desires are no other than Buddhahood.” A monk asked,[f167] “For whom are the Buddha’s desires roused?” “His desires are roused for all sentient beings.” “How does he get rid of them then?” “What is the use of getting rid of them?” answered the master. On another occasion he said: “Kāśyapa handed [the Law] over to Ānanda, and can you tell me to whom Bodhi-Dharma handed it over?” A monk interposed: “How is it that we read about the second patriarch’s getting its marrow from Dharma?”[f157] “Don’t disparage the second patriarch,” Jōshu continued: “Dharma claims that the one who was outside got the skin and the inside one got the bone; but can you tell me what the inmost one gets?” A monk said, “But don’t we all know that there was one who got the marrow?” Retorted the master: “He has just got the skin. Here in my place I do not allow even to talk of the marrow.” “What is the marrow then?” “If you ask me thus, even the skin you have not traced.” “How grand then you are!” said the monk. “Is this not your absolute position, sir?”