Bodhidharma Quotes

As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha

When you don't understand, you depend on reality. When you do understand, reality depends on you.

Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.

Once you stop clinging and let things be, you'll be free, even of birth and death. You'll transform everything.

All know the way, but few actually walk it.

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.

To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.

The true Way is sublime. It can't be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? But someone who sees his own nature finds the Way, even if he can't read a word.

The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.

This one life has no form and is empty by nature. If you become attached by any form, you should reject it. If you see an ego, a soul, a birth, or a death, reject them all.

The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way.

Those who worship don't know, and those who know don't worship.

Buddhas don't practice nonsense.

As mortals, we're ruled by conditions, not by ourselves.

When we're deluded there's a world to escape. When we're aware, there's nothing to escape.

You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.

Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help.

Life and death are important. Don't suffer them in vain.

Many roads lead to the Path, but basically there are only two: reason and practice.

Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space.

Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.

People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something - always, in a word, seeking.

An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.

Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature.

But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind.

Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.

Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.

Externally keep yourself away from all relationships, and internally have no pantings in your heart; when your mind is like unto a straight-standing wall, you may enter into the Path.

Not creating delusions is enlightenment.

To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity.

To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings.

The awareness of mortals falls short. As long as they're attached to appearances, they're unaware that their minds are empty. And by mistakenly clinging to the appearance of things they lose the Way.

Reality has no inside, outside, or middle part.

The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

People who don't see their own nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are liars and fools.

If we should be blessed by some great reward, such as fame or fortune, it's the fruit of a seed planted by us in the past.

At every moment where language can't go, that's your mind.

The essence of the Way is detachment.

To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature.

And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares.

As long as you're enthralled by a lifeless form, you're not free.

I never lost or fail, not yet conquered. If I fall seven times, I get up eight

Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals.

Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.

Leaving behind the false, return to the true: make no discriminations between self and others. In contemplation, one's mind should be stable and unmoving, like a wall.

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.

But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.

And as long as you're subject to birth and death, you'll never attain enlightenment.

The mind is always present. You just don't see it.