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Bodhidharma Quotes

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Famous Bodhidharma Quotes

“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. . . . The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding.”

IfsWorldMindUseRealityUnderstandingVisionStudyOppositesAriseTransparentTrue UnderstandingTrue Vision
Author:Bodhidharma
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“. . . the fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage . . . the sutras say, "Mind is the teaching." But people of no understanding don't believe in their own mind or that by understanding this teaching they can become a sage. They prefer to look for distant knowledge and long for things in space, buddha-images, light, incense, and colors. They fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity.”

PeopleWorldMindBelieveLooksLongLightFallBeliefUnderstandingLosesSpaceTeachingThis WorldColorFoolDon't BelieveInsanityFar AwayFalsehoodSagePreyIncense
Author:Bodhidharma
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“Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha.... Using the mind to reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation.”

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Book:The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
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“To find Buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory, keeping precepts results in good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings-but no Buddha.”

IfsWisdomMemoriesResultsPracticeBlessingKarmaUselessOfferingRebirthGood MemoriesRecitingGood Karma
Author:Bodhidharma
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“The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones. It's like space. You can't hold it. It's not the mind of materialists or nihilists. If you don't see your own miraculously aware nature, you'll never find a Buddha, even if you break your body into atoms.”

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Book:The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
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“Unless you see your nature, you shouldn't go around criticizing the goodness of others. There's no advantage in deceiving yourself. Good and bad are distinct. Cause and effect are clear. But fools don't believe and fall straight into a hell of endless darkness without even knowing it. What keeps them from believing is the heaviness of their karma. They're like blind people who don't believe there's such a thing as light. Even if you explain it to them, they still don't believe, because they're blind. How can they possibly distinguish light?”

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Author:Bodhidharma
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“If you know that everything comes from the mind, don't become attached. Once attached, you're unaware. But once you see your own nature, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. It's thousands of sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind. Understanding comes in midsentence. What good are doctrines? The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions. . . . Don't cling to appearances, and you'll break through all barriers. . . .”

IfsKnowsWayMindTruthUnderstandingBreakClearAmountTruth IsIllusionUltimateAppearanceDoctrineProseBarriersBreak ThroughCanonUltimate TruthClear Minds
Book:The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
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