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.
BODHIDHARMANot 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.
More Bodhidharma Quotes
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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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In order to see a fish you must watch the water
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To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.
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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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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.
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According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings.
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If you see your nature, you don’t need to read sutras or invoke buddhas. Erudition and knowledge are not only useless but also cloud your awareness. Doctrines are only for pointing to the mind. Once you see your mind, why pay attention to doctrines?
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As long as you’re enthralled by a lifeless form, you’re not free.
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The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.
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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.
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To have a body is to suffer.
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The mind is always present. You just don’t see it.
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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.
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All know the way, but few actually walk it.
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Buddhas don’t practice nonsense.
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But when you first embark on the Path, your awareness won’t be focused. You’re likely to see all sorts of strange, dreamlike scenes. But you shouldn’t doubt that all such scenes come from your own mind and nowhere else.
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The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way.
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An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.
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Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
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Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help.
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The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.
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Once you stop clinging and let things be, you’ll be free, even of birth and death. You’ll transform everything.
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To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity.
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The Way is basically perfect. It doesn’t require perfecting.
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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.
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The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind.
BODHIDHARMA