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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

The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.
BODHIDHARMA

All Dharma Nature Pure Truth
All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions.
BODHIDHARMA

Condition Depend Experience Joy Suffer
Life and death are important. Don’t suffer them in vain.
BODHIDHARMA

Death Important Life Suffer Vain
An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.
BODHIDHARMA

Awake Bad Find Fortune Freedom Person Someone
But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes.
BODHIDHARMA

Condition Depend Eanes Failure Mind Neither Success Waxes
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
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 Buddha is your real body, your original mind.
BODHIDHARMA

Body Budhha Mind Original Rel
According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings.
BODHIDHARMA

Accordingly Bless Deed Evil Good Hardship Result Sutras
Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help.
BODHIDHARMA

Enlight Million One Only Person Teacher
Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature.
BODHIDHARMA

Mind Nature Our Own
Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit.
BODHIDHARMA

Bear Deed Evil Forse Fruit God Neither
To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity.
BODHIDHARMA

Charity Give Greatest Regret Yourself
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
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
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
Someone who seeks the Way doesn’t look beyond himself.
BODHIDHARMA

Beyond Himself Lock Seek Someone
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?
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Nature Need See Sutras
The mind is always present. You just don’t see it.
BODHIDHARMA

Always Mind Present See
To enter by reason means to realize the essence through instruction and to believe that all living things share the same true nature, which isn’t apparent because it’s shrouded by sensation and delusion.
BODHIDHARMA

Believe Enter Instruction Live Mean Reason
Many roads lead to the Path, but basically there are only two: reason and practice.
BODHIDHARMA

Basically Lead Many Path Practice Reason Road
Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path.
BODHIDHARMA

Follow Iranian Joy Path Silent Unmove Wind
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.
BODHIDHARMA

Bless Fame Fortune Fruit Great Plant Reward Seed Some
Regardless of what we do, our karma has no hold on us.
BODHIDHARMA

Hold Karma Regard Us
As long as you’re enthralled by a lifeless form, you’re not free.
BODHIDHARMA

Enthrailed Free Lifeless Long
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

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.

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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.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

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