~I believe Bodhidharma spread ZEN* in the 5th century way after the arrival of Christ~it was during his 9 years in front of the wall in meditation was said to have had direct transmission of Buddha's words during that time~someone seen Bodhidharma walking into a field with his crowel and one shoe on his crowel~as he approached the man he asked him where is Bodhidharma going?~Bodhidharma said~"back to India"~then the man seen another man in town and said he just seen Bodhidharma going back to India~when the other man heard this he told him that Bodhidharma was dead for a long time~when they went to his grave they found only the other shoe in it and no Bodhidharma~could it be that in such awakening we do not experience death but a whole other dynamic that the "mind" cannot comprehend?~

~From Wikipedia~

~"Appearance after his death~

Three years after Bodhidharma's death, Ambassador Sòngyún of northern Wei is said to have seen him walking while holding a shoe at the Pamir Heights. Sòngyún asked Bodhidharma where he was going, to which Bodhidharma replied "I am going home". When asked why he was holding his shoe, Bodhidharma answered "You will know when you reach Shaolin monastery. Don't mention that you saw me or you will meet with disaster". After arriving at the palace, Sòngyún told the emperor that he met Bodhidharma on the way. The emperor said Bodhidharma was already dead and buried and had Sòngyún arrested for lying. At Shaolin Monastery, the monks informed them that Bodhidharma was dead and had been buried in a hill behind the temple. The grave was exhumed and was found to contain a single shoe. The monks then said "Master has gone back home" and prostrated three times: "For nine years he had remained and nobody knew him; Carrying a shoe in hand he went home quietly, without ceremony"*