Bodhidharma Quotes

Quotes about:

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

  Bodhidharma

  Reality, Depends

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.57, Macmillan

  111 Copy quote

• In order to see a fish you must watch the water

  Bodhidharma

  Order, Water, Watches

  18 Copy quote

• 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.

  Bodhidharma

  Lying, Reality, Thinking

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.49, Macmillan

  21 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Attachment, Transformation, Birth

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.41, Macmillan

  98 Copy quote

• 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.

  Bodhidharma

  Reality, Opposites, Understanding

  76 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Fall, Eight, Failing

  29 Copy quote

• To have a body is to suffer. Does anyone with a body know peace? Those who understand this detach themselves from all that exists and stop imagining or seeking anything. The sutras say, "To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss." When you seek nothing, you're on the Path.

  Bodhidharma

  Peace, Suffering, Doe

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.5, North Point Press

  20 Copy quote

• All know the way, but few actually walk it.

  Bodhidharma

  Buddhism, Inspire, Way

  87 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Inspiring, Worship, Knows

  41 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Suffering, Bliss

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.5, Macmillan

  76 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Somewhere Else, Long, Mind

  114 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Roots, Mind, Grows

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.77, Macmillan

  25 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Doctrine, Way, Tao

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.31, Macmillan

  45 Copy quote

• To see nothing is to perceive the Way, and to understand nothing is to know the Dharma, because seeing is neither seeing nor not seeing, and because understanding is neither understanding nor not understanding.

  Bodhidharma

  Understanding, Way, Dharma

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.55, North Point Press

  15 Copy quote

• Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist.

  Bodhidharma

  Real, Uprising, Mind

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.53, Macmillan

  14 Copy quote

• All Buddhas preach emptiness. Why? Because they wish to crush the concrete ideas of the students. If a student even clings to an idea of emptiness, he betrays all Buddhas.

  Bodhidharma

  Crush, Ideas, Wish

  13 Copy quote

• . . . 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.

  Bodhidharma

  Believe, Fall, Teaching

  90 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Anger, Passion, Ignorant Masses

  49 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  Lying, Thinking, Mind

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.49, Macmillan

  93 Copy quote

• Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.

  Bodhidharma

  Ignorance, Stupidity, Engaging

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.51, Macmillan

  26 Copy quote

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

  Bodhidharma

  World, Deluded

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.51, Macmillan

  35 Copy quote

• 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.

  Bodhidharma

  Reality, Mind, Use

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.55, Macmillan

  80 Copy quote

• 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.

  Bodhidharma

  Karma, Wisdom, Memories

  18 Copy quote

• People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something, always, in a word, seeking. But the wise wake up. They choose reason over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons.

  Bodhidharma

  Wise, People, Sublime

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.5, Macmillan

  14 Copy quote

• Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial.

  Bodhidharma

  Sex

  Bodhidharma (2009). “The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma”, p.39, Macmillan

  21 Copy quote

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