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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

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

Anything Lying Once People Sitting Think
Reality has no inside, outside, or middle part.
BODHIDHARMA

Inside Middle Outside Part Reality
Our true buddha-nature has no shape. And the dust of affliction has no form.
BODHIDHARMA

Affliction Buddha Dust Form Nature One Shape True
The Way is basically perfect. It doesn’t require perfecting.
BODHIDHARMA

Basically Perfect Require Way
As mortals, we’re ruled by conditions, not by ourselves.
BODHIDHARMA

Condition Morais Ourselves Rule
The Way is basically perfect. It doesn’t require perfecting. The Way has no form or sound. It’s subtle and hard to perceive. It’s like when you drink water: you know how hot or cold it is, but you can’t tell others.
BODHIDHARMA

Ay Basic Perfect Require
Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals.
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Liberate Mortal
Without the mind there is no Buddha. Without the Buddha there’s no mind.
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Mind No Without
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
Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.
BODHIDHARMA

Come Everything Good Impossible Mind Something
The mind’s capacity is limitless, and its manifestations are inexhaustible. Seeing forms with your eyes, hearing sounds with your ears, smelling odors with your nose, tasting flavors with your tongue, every movement or state is all your mind.
BODHIDHARMA

Capacity Inexhasisible Limitless Manifestation Mind
The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way.
BODHIDHARMA

Behind Truth Ultimate Way Word
To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings.
BODHIDHARMA

Accept Awareness Buddha End Karma Mortal Nurture
Unless you see your nature, all this talk about cause & effect is nonsense. Buddhas don’t practice nonsense.
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Cause Effect Nature Nonsense Practice Talk Unless See
The mind is always present. You just don’t see it.
BODHIDHARMA

Always Mind Present See
The essence of the Way is detachment.
BODHIDHARMA

Death Essence Way
As long as you’re enthralled by a lifeless form, you’re not free.
BODHIDHARMA

Enthrailed Free Lifeless Long
An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.
BODHIDHARMA

Awake Bad Find Fortune Freedom Person Someone
People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something – always, in a word, seeking.
BODHIDHARMA

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

Arise Awareness Body Buddha Either Mena Mind Prevent
Everything sacred, nothing sacred.
BODHIDHARMA

Everything Nothing Sacred Scare
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
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
And the Buddha is the person who’s free: free of plans, free of cares.
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Care Free Person Plan
Many roads lead to the Path, but basically there are only two: reason and practice.
BODHIDHARMA

Basically Lead Many Path Practice Reason Road
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
You can’t know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.
BODHIDHARMA

Deceive Hype Long Mena Real

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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