Bodhidharma quotes - page 3

Bodhidharma was an Indian Buddhist monk, traditionally credited as the founder of Zen Buddhism in China. His journey from India to China became a significant legend in both Buddhist and martial arts traditions. He inspired countless followers and remains a symbol of discipline, meditation, and spiritual awakening. Here are 69 of his quotes:

The mind is always present. You just don't see it.

Bodhidharma

As mortals, we're ruled by conditions, not by ourselves.

Bodhidharma

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

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

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

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

When we're deluded there's a world to escape. When we're aware, there's nothing to escape.

Bodhidharma

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.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

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

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

Bodhidharma

Words are illusions.

Bodhidharma

All phenomena are empty.

Bodhidharma

Your mind is nirvana.

Bodhidharma

Your nature is the Buddha.

Bodhidharma

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....

Bodhidharma

... 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.

Bodhidharma