When the Disciples First Came,
They Met with Difficulty

徒弟先来　处处碰壁

Before Patriarch Bodhidharma himself went to China, he sent two of his disciples there first. Who would have thought that when they got to China they would be totally ostracized and bullied?

在达摩祖师没有到中国以前，他派过两个徒弟到中国来；孰不知到中国，受了很大的气，被人欺负。

Those two disciples, named Fo Tuo and Ye She, were Indians who went to China to transmit the Sudden Teaching Dharma Door of the Chan School that advocates seeing the nature and becoming a Buddha, and which does not abide in language.

他这两个徒弟都是印度人，一个叫佛驮，一个叫耶舍，他们到中国传顿教法门，也就是不立文字，见性成佛的禅宗法门。

At that time in China another Indian monk named Bodhiruchi was aware that these two monks had also come from India to explain the Chan School. Chan belongs to the Great Vehicle Teaching, but Bodhiruchi explained the Tripitaka Teaching, which belongs to the Small Vehicle.

那时中国也有一个印度和尚叫菩提流支，这个和尚一看，又来了两个和尚是讲禅宗的。禅宗是大乘佛法，而他是讲三藏的，是小乘法。

For that reason, Bodhiruchi got all other monks to join together to ostricize these two Indian monks. No matter what they said, no one would listen. No matter where they went, everyone ignored them. Deciding that the situation was meaningless, they left. That is how these two disciples of Patriarch Bodhidharma came to leave the western capital of Changan.

这时候菩提流支就联合所有的和尚默摈他们。默摈──就是不和他们讲话，你讲什么，也没有人听。所以无论到什么地方讲，人家都不睬他们，这么一来，他们自己也觉得没意思，就走了。达摩祖师这两个徒弟就这样由西京长安那个地方硬给赶走了。