A Monk from the Ming Dynasty
Came to Visit during the Republic

明朝和尚　民国来访

He waited till a little past ten and saw a monk wearing a tattered robe and carrying a stick with a bundle attached that held his clothing and bedding. The monk put down his bundle and spoke to him. Now, Filial Son Wong wasn't talking, but he mentally asked the monk, "Where did you come from?" He spoke with his mind, not his mouth.

等着，大约到十点多，就看见一个穿破衣服的和尚，挑着一个挑子；这个挑子就是担子，担着他用的衣服和棉被之类的。挑到这儿来，这个人就把挑子放下，和他谈话。王孝子是不讲话的，所以就在心里问这人说：“你从什么地方来？”心里讲，口没讲出来。

The monk answered, saying, "I come from Mount Guangning."

这个人就说：“喔！我从广宁山来的。”

Filial Son Wong asked, "What is your name? What are you called?"

王孝子说：“那么你姓什么？叫什么？”

他说：“我的名字呀，你知道明朝吗？我是明朝的一个将军，以后出家修道了，直到现在。我觉得和你很有缘，今天特来见一见。”

他又说：“我知道你要到广宁山去修道。广宁山那个地方，是独善其身的人修道的地方；你呢，应该兼善天下。你在这一方，与这一方的人非常有缘，所以你不要到广宁山去修道了；等守完孝后，就在这地方造一座庙，在这儿弘扬佛法好了。”和王孝子说完这几句话，这个人就走了。

The monk replied, "My name? Well, are you familiar with the Ming Dynasty? I was a general during the Ming Dynasty. Later, I left home and started cultivating the Way. Recently, I have felt that I have some affinities with you, so I have come here today to see you." He also said, "I know you are thinking of going to Mount Guangning to cultivate. That is a place for people who only take care of their own virtue in solitude. As for you, you should take care of the whole world. Your affinity with people in this place is very strong. Don't go to Mount Guangning. After you finish your period of filial mourning, stay here and build a monastery. It would be best to propagate the Buddhadharma here." After saying those few sentences to Filial Son Wong, the monk left.

这个人自己说是明朝的人，由什么证明他是真的？因为王孝子在心里问他话，他就可以知道王孝子问他什么，足见这个人是已经得到他心通──五眼六通这种境界了。王孝子这个时候是民国时代，由明朝到民国，已经有三百多年了；三百多年，这个人还没有死，来见王孝子。由这一点证明，达摩祖师入灭后，过了几百年，有人在印度见到他，和方辩所说传授衣钵的情形，这是很平常，不足为奇的。所以达摩祖师这种不可思议的境界，是令人永远都不能忘的，中国人对达摩祖师也是永远地怀念。

That monk claimed that he was from the Ming Dynasty. How can we prove what he said was true? The fact that he knew the question asked in Filial Son Wong's mind proved that he was a person who had already attained the penetration of knowing others' thoughts--a state associated with the Five Eyes and Six Spiritual Powers. However, Filial Son Wong lived during the Republic, about three hundred years after the Ming Dynasty. Over three hundred years had passed, and yet this monk was still alive and came to visit Filial Son Wong. This incident proves that the claim that someone saw Patriarch Bodhidharma in India a few hundred years after he entered the stillness, and that the situation described by Fang Bian regarding the transmission of the sash, are not that unusual. Those incidences were, in fact, rather ordinary occurrences; not all that strange. The inconceivable states of Patriarch Bodhidharma will never be forgotten. The Chinese people will forever remember Patriarch Bodhidharma.