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The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way.

Bodhidharma

Many roads lead to the Path, but basically there are only two: reason and practice.
BODHIDHARMA

Basically Lead Many Path Practice Reason Road
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
Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial.
BODHIDHARMA

Basically Immaterial Nature See
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
To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.
BODHIDHARMA

Bliss Nothing See Suffer
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
As mortals, we’re ruled by conditions, not by ourselves.
BODHIDHARMA

Condition Morais Ourselves Rule
Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.
BODHIDHARMA

Come Everything Good Impossible Mind Something
I never lost or fail, not yet conquered. If I fall seven times, I get up eight
BODHIDHARMA

Conquered Eight Fall never
Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature.
BODHIDHARMA

Mind Nature Our Own
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
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.
BODHIDHARMA

Delusion Humanity Humbling Mean Real Reverence Self Worship
People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something – always, in a word, seeking.
BODHIDHARMA

Longing People World
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
And the Buddha is the person who’s free: free of plans, free of cares.
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Care Free Person Plan
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

The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way.

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The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They’re not the Way.

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