Only One Shoe in an Empty Coffin:
Where Is the Patriarch?

空棺只鞋　祖师何在

Those who heard his tale retorted, "Patriarch Bodhidharma? You must have seen a ghost! Patriarch Bodhidharma is already dead. He was buried in such and such a place. How could you have met him?" No one believed Song Yun's story. "He is already dead, how could you have met him? Let's go together and dig up his grave." When they arrived at the grave, they said, "He had already been dead a long time when you say you saw him. Is it possible that he did not die after all?"

So they dug up Patriarch Bodhidharma's grave and opened the coffin. It was empty. There was nothing inside but one shoe. Since Patriarch Bodhidharma had taken one shoe with him, only one shoe remained in the coffin.

这些人说：“达摩祖师？哟！你真见鬼了，他早就死了嘛！坟就在某个地方呢！你怎么会碰见他？”大家都不相信宋云讲的话。“他已经死了，你怎么会遇着他？我们去把他的坟打开看看。”到了那儿，说：“他死了很久，你又看见他，莫非他没有死？”于是就打开达摩祖师的坟，打开一看，棺材里什么也没有，空空如也，只剩一只鞋。因为达摩祖师拿走了一只，所以棺材里只剩一只鞋。

Well, where did Patriarch Bodhidharma go? No one knows. Perhaps he came to America. It's not for sure. But no one would recognize him, because he can change his appearance at will. He goes through thousands of transformations and myriad changes according to his convenience. When he reached China he said he was one hundred and fifty years old, and when he left he said he was still one hundred and fifty years old. Where did he go? No one knows. You may suggest that we look it up in the historical records, but no historical references can be found. This has been a general discussion of Patriarch Bodhidharma's life in China.

那么究竟达摩祖师到什么地方去了？以后就没有人知道，说不定现在到美国来，也不一定。不过没人认识他，他可以改头换面，随便千变万化的。他到中国时，就说是一百五十岁，走了还是一百五十岁；到什么地方去？没有人知道。说是去考察历史，历史上也没有这些个问题，没有地方可以考据。这是达摩祖师一生到中国的大概经过。