Later in life, he travelled throughout the Indian subcontinent and eventually reached East Asia arriving first in Tibet and later to China and Korea during the period when the Yuan dynasty was ruling the regions.

[5] At the age of eight, his father, the king, became ill and his mother was advised by a fortune teller that he would recover if her son was ordained as a monk.

Her mother then made the difficult decision to enrol Dhyānabhadra at Nalanda monastery at some point between 1295 and 1298 where he studied under the guidance of the Mahayana teacher Vinayabhadra.

After a final visit to Sri Lanka, Dhyānabhadra travelled northward from the southern tip of India up the western coast.

Upon his arrival in Tibet, he joined with another North Indian monk called Mahāpandit and they endeavoured to travel to Yuan China together.

He travelled through different parts of Yuan China with the goal being to proselytise the people, particularly around the frontier regions where the locals had little to no exposure to Buddhist teachings.

[7] He was so revered in Korea that after he died in 1363, King Gongmin of Goryeo had his relics brought back to the country where they were first placed in the royal palace and later placed at the Hoemsa temple.

Dhyānabhadra’s perspective on precepts was rooted in their potential to act as a "focusing mechanism" that eventually leads to the realization of their ultimate emptiness.

After realization, the practice of precepts transforms into an expression of the "True Mind" of the Buddha, which transcends dualistic notions of right and wrong.

In some instances, Dhyānabhadra's approach was assertive, using physical actions to convey the seriousness of adhering to the correct path.

For Dhyānabhadra, true meditation was not simply sitting in silence or avoiding the material world; instead, it was a dynamic and all-encompassing state of awareness that resided beyond ordinary distinctions.

This view reflects his broader philosophical approach, which often negated simplistic definitions and emphasised a deeper, more integrated understanding of practice.