Best 77 quotes of Bodhidharma on MyQuotes

A buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad. Such is his power that karma can't hold him. No matter what kind of karma, a buddha transforms it. Heaven and hell are nothing to him. But the awareness of a mortal is dim compared to that of a buddha, who penetrates everything, inside and out.

According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings.

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.

All know the way, but few actually walk it.

An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.

And as long as you're subject to birth and death, you'll never attain enlightenment.

And the Buddha is the person who's free: free of plans, free of cares.

As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha

As long as you're enthralled by a lifeless form, you're not free.

Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.

Buddhas don't practice nonsense.

Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.

But deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.

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.

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.

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.

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

Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.

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.

Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.

I do not need any writing, since I transmit teaching beyond words and ideas.

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.

If you know that everything comes from the mind, don't become attached. Once attached, you're unaware. But once you see your own nature, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. It's thousands of sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind. Understanding comes in midsentence. What good are doctrines? The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions. . . . Don't cling to appearances, and you'll break through all barriers. . . .

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?

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. . . . The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding.

I never lost or fail, not yet conquered. If I fall seven times, I get up eight

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.

Life and death are important. Don't suffer them in vain.

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

Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit.

Not creating delusions is enlightenment.

Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way.

Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.

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.

Once you stop clinging and let things be, you'll be free, even of birth and death. You'll transform everything.

One clings to life although there is nothing to be called life; another clings to death although there is nothing to be called death. In reality, there is nothing to be born; consequently, there is nothing to perish.

Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help.

Our true buddha-nature has no shape. And the dust of affliction has no form.

People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something - always, in a word, seeking.

People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something, always, in a word, seeking. But the wise wake up. They choose reason over custom. They fix their minds on the sublime and let their bodies change with the seasons.

People who don't see their own nature and imagine they can practice thoughtlessness all the time are liars and fools.

Regardless of what we do, our karma has no hold on us.

Still others commit all sorts of evil deeds, claiming karma doesn't exist. They erroneously maintain that since everything is empty, committing evil isn't wrong. Such persons fall into a hell of endless darkness with no hope of release. Those who are wise hold no such conception.

The awareness of mortals falls short. As long as they're attached to appearances, they're unaware that their minds are empty. And by mistakenly clinging to the appearance of things they lose the Way.

The Buddha is your real body, your original mind. This mind has no form or characteristics, no cause or effect, no tendons or bones. It's like space. You can't hold it. It's not the mind of materialists or nihilists. If you don't see your own miraculously aware nature, you'll never find a Buddha, even if you break your body into atoms.

The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.

The essence of the Way is detachment.

. . . the fools of this world prefer to look for sages far away. They don't believe that the wisdom of their own mind is the sage . . . the sutras say, "Mind is the teaching." But people of no understanding don't believe in their own mind or that by understanding this teaching they can become a sage. They prefer to look for distant knowledge and long for things in space, buddha-images, light, incense, and colors. They fall prey to falsehood and lose their minds to insanity.

The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.