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

Bodhidharma

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

Buddha Long Mind never Somewhere
Whoever realizes that the six senses aren’t real, that the five aggregates are fictions, that no such things can be located anywhere in the body, understands the language of Buddhas.
BODHIDHARMA

Aggregate Anywhere Body Fiction Five Locate Realize Sense Such Thing
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.
BODHIDHARMA

Behind Discrimination False Leave Make Other Return Self True
Everything sacred, nothing sacred.
BODHIDHARMA

Everything Nothing Sacred Scare
In order to see a fish you must watch the water
BODHIDHARMA

Fish Nothing Order See Seek
The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.
BODHIDHARMA

All Dharma Nature Pure Truth
And the Buddha is the person who’s free: free of plans, free of cares.
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Care Free Person Plan
People who don’t see their own nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are liars and fools.
BODHIDHARMA

Fool Liar Nature People Practice See Thoughtfulness Time
When mortals are alive, they worry about death. When they’re full, they worry about hunger. Theirs is the Great Uncertainty. But sages don’t consider the past. And they don’t worry about the future. Nor do they cling to the present. And from moment to moment they follow the Way.
BODHIDHARMA

Alive Death Full Hunger Mortal Worry
Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature.
BODHIDHARMA

Mind Nature Our Own
But this mind isn’t somewhere outside the material body of the four elements. Without this mind we can’t move. The body has no awareness. Like a plant or a stone, the body has no nature. So how does it move? It’s the mind that moves.
BODHIDHARMA

Body Element Four Mind Move Outside Somewhere
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.
BODHIDHARMA

Attach Empty Form Life Nature One Reject
The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.
BODHIDHARMA

Affliction Delusion Evil Greed Ignorant Mind Passion Poison
Someone who seeks the Way doesn’t look beyond himself.
BODHIDHARMA

Beyond Himself Lock Seek Someone
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

Buddha Cling Concrete Crush Emptiness Idea Preach Student
Don’t hate life and death or love life and death. Keep your every thought free of delusion, and in life you’ll witness the beginning of nirvana, and in death you’ll experience the assurance of no rebirth.
BODHIDHARMA

Death Decisions Every Free Hate Keep Life

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

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

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