black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

If you use your mind to study reality, you won’t understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you’ll understand both.

Bodhidharma

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
But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes.
BODHIDHARMA

Condition Depend Eanes Failure Mind Neither Success Waxes
People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something – always, in a word, seeking.
BODHIDHARMA

Longing People World
Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.
BODHIDHARMA

Appear Birth Budhha Death Disappear Freely Move Will
Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
BODHIDHARMA

Free Liberation Oneself Word
Life and death are important. Don’t suffer them in vain.
BODHIDHARMA

Death Important Life Suffer Vain
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
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.
BODHIDHARMA

Awareness Embark First Focus Path
I do not need any writing, since I transmit teaching beyond words and ideas.
BODHIDHARMA

Beyond Idea Ned Since Teach Transmit Word Write
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

Dharma Nothing Perceive See Understand Wa
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 Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.
BODHIDHARMA

All Dharma Nature Pure Truth
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
But people of the deepest understanding look within, distracted by nothing. Since a clear mind is the Buddha, they attain the understanding of a Buddha without using the mind.
BODHIDHARMA

Deepest Distract Nothing People Understanding
As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you’ll never see that your own mind is the Buddha
BODHIDHARMA

Buddha Long Mind never Somewhere

If you use your mind to study reality, you won’t understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you’ll understand both.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

If you use your mind to study reality, you won’t understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you’ll understand both.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Bodhidharma Quotes