Bodhidharma Quotes (54) Spiritual Sayings
About the Author: Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th/6th century CE. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Ch'an (Sanskrit: Dhyāna, Japanese: Zen) to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the Shaolin monks that led to the creation of Shaolinquan. The principle sources, given in various translations, vary on their account of Bodhidharma's origins. Two popular traditions exist regarding Bodhidharma's origins. An Indian tradition regards Bodhidharma to be the third son of a Tamil Pallava king from Kanchipuram, while the Japanese tradition regards Bodhidharma to be from Persia. The accounts also differ on the date of his arrival, with one early account claiming that he arrived during the Liú Sòng Dynasty (420–479) and later accounts dating his arrival to the Liáng Dynasty (502–557). Bodhidharma was primarily active in the lands of the Northern Wèi Dynasty (386–534). Modern scholarship dates him to about the early 5th century.
Bodhidharma's teachings and practice centered on meditation and the Lankavatara Sutra. The Anthology of the Patriarchal Hall (952) identifies Bodhidharma as the 28th Patriarch of Buddhism in an uninterrupted line that extends all the way back to the Buddha himself. Throughout Buddhist art, Bodhidharma is depicted as a rather ill-tempered, profusely bearded and wide-eyed barbarian. He is referred as "The Blue-Eyed Barbarian" in Chinese Chan texts. See website for more info - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bodhidharma
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"The mind is the root from which all things grow if you can understand the mind, everything else is included."
― Bodhidharma
"The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion."
― Bodhidharma
"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
"According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings."
― Bodhidharma
"Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help."
― Bodhidharma
"To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings."
― Bodhidharma
"Regardless of what we do, our karma has no hold on us."
― Bodhidharma
"A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad."
― Bodhidharma
"As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha."
― Bodhidharma
"The mind is always present. You just don't see it."
― Bodhidharma
"Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom."
― Bodhidharma
"But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside."
― Bodhidharma
"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
"Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either."
― Bodhidharma
"And as long as you're subject to birth and death, you'll never attain enlightenment."
― Bodhidharma
"Freeing oneself from words is liberation."
― Bodhidharma
"All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions."
― Bodhidharma
"Buddhas don't practice nonsense."
― Bodhidharma
"You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself."
― Bodhidharma
"But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes."
― Bodhidharma
"Your mind is nirvana."
― Bodhidharma
"As mortals, we're ruled by conditions, not by ourselves."
― Bodhidharma
"The Way is basically perfect. It doesn't require perfecting."
― Bodhidharma
"Worship means reverence and humility it means revering your real self and humbling delusions."
― Bodhidharma
"People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something - always, in a word, seeking."
― Bodhidharma
"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
"Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature."
― Bodhidharma
"As long as you're enthralled by a lifeless form, you're not free."
― Bodhidharma
"Life and death are important. Don't suffer them in vain."
― Bodhidharma
"Not creating delusions is enlightenment."
― Bodhidharma
"People who don't see their nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are lairs and fools."
― Bodhidharma
"The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind."
― Bodhidharma
"To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature."
― Bodhidharma
"All phenomena are empty."
― Bodhidharma
"Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will."
― Bodhidharma
"If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure."
― Bodhidharma
"Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial."
― Bodhidharma
"The essence of the Way is detachment."
― Bodhidharma
"To have a body is to suffer."
― Bodhidharma
"Words are illusions."
― Bodhidharma
"And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares."
― Bodhidharma
"Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood."
― Bodhidharma
"If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha."
― Bodhidharma
"Many roads lead to the path, but basically there are only two: reason and practice."
― Bodhidharma
"Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals."
― Bodhidharma
"Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit."
― Bodhidharma
"Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way."
― Bodhidharma
"The Buddha is your real body, your original mind."
― Bodhidharma
"The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure."
― Bodhidharma
"Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path."
― Bodhidharma
"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
"To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity."
― Bodhidharma
"Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn't exist."
― Bodhidharma
"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
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