If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both.

Tanlin's original is imprecise about Bodhidharma's travels saying only that he "crossed distant mountains and seas" before arriving in Wei. "

After Bodhidharma left the Emperor asked the official in charge of the Imperial Annals about the encounter. "
The Emperor regretted his having let Bodhidharma leave and was going to dispatch a messenger to go and beg Bodhidharma to return.

He is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" (碧眼胡) in Chinese Chan texts. Modern scholarship dates him to about the early 5th century. Two popular traditions exist regarding Bodhidharma's origins.