It means: What was I before I was born, and who was I when I was born? Everyone comes from the void and goes to the void. Their names, wealth, and relatives are just smoke and smoke in the past. Some people can’t forget what happened to me, lovelorn, suffered a loss, etc., so they have a lot of troubles. But am I really that important? Will this world collapse if I leave it?

Dharma was the first to spread Zen Buddhism in China, which "points directly to the human heart, sees one's nature and becomes a Buddha. He does not establish words and teaches it to outsiders." The Buddha picked up the flowers and smiled, and Kasyapa understood this, which is considered the beginning of Zen Buddhism.

Not establishing words means that Zen is separated from words. Language and words are just codes for describing everything. This is also the reason why Huineng does not know anyone, but he is familiar with Buddhist scriptures. As long as you understand your mind and see your nature, you can become a Buddha.

Extended information

It is said that when Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze River, he did not cross the Yangtze River by boat, but broke a reed on the river bank and stood on the reed to cross the river. There is still a stone carving monument of Bodhidharma's "crossing the river with a reed" in Shaolin Temple. Confucianism has different interpretations of "a reed crossing the river". They believe that "a reed" is not a single reed, but a large bundle of reeds.

After Bodhidharma "crossed the river with a reed", he stopped at Changlu Temple in the north of the Yangtze River, and then went to Dingshan to stay in the Zen Temple and practice facing the wall. Dingshan Temple still has relics such as "Dharma Rock", "Banquet Sitting Stone", and Bodhidharma portrait stele. Among them, the Bodhidharma portrait stele is the earliest Bodhidharma stele in China, more than 120 years earlier than the Patriarch stele in Songshan Shaolin Temple. Dingshan Temple has become an important jungle of Zen Buddhism and is known as the "No. 1 Dojo of Bodhidharma".

Baidu Encyclopedia—Bodhidharma