Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha…. Using the mind to reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
BODHIDHARMATo 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.
More Bodhidharma Quotes
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If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won’t see the Buddha.
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You can’t know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.
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To have a body is to suffer.
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Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.
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The mind is the root from which all things grow. If you can understand the mind, everything else is included.
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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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Our true buddha-nature has no shape. And the dust of affliction has no form.
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When you don’t understand, you depend on reality. When you do understand, reality depends on you.
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If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure.
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All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions.
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All know the way, but few actually walk it.
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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.
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Life and death are important. Don’t suffer them in vain.
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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.
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To have a body is to suffer. Does anyone with a body know peace? Those who understand this detach themselves from all that exists and stop imagining or seeking anything. The sutras say, “To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.” When you seek nothing, you’re on the Path.
BODHIDHARMA