Someone who seeks the Way doesn’t look beyond himself.
BODHIDHARMANeither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit.
More Bodhidharma Quotes
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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.
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All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions.
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Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help.
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Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals.
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Worship means reverence and humility. It means revering your real self and humbling delusions. If you can wipe out evil desires and harbor good thoughts, even if nothing shows, it’s worship. Such form is its real form.
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According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings.
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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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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.
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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.
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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.
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The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way.
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And as long as you’re subject to birth and death, you’ll never attain enlightenment.
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If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure.
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People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something – always, in a word, seeking.
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To have a body is to suffer.
BODHIDHARMA