Bodhidharma Quotes

“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

To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.

— Bodhidharma

“Everything sacred, nothing sacred.”

— Bodhidharma

Poverty and hardship are created by false thinking.

— Bodhidharma

“Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.”

— Bodhidharma

The farther away you are from the truth, the more the hateful and pleasurable states will arise. There is also self-deception.

— Bodhidharma

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. All phenomena are empty. They contain nothing worth desiring.

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

All know the way of prosperity only few walk it.

— Bodhidharma

“The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure. By this truth, all appearances are empty.”

— Bodhidharma

“A Buddha doesn't observe precepts. A Buddha doesn't do good or evil. A Buddha isn't energetic or lazy. A Buddha is someone who does nothing, someone who can't even focus his mind on a Buddha. A Buddha isn't a Buddha. Don't think about Buddhas.”

— Bodhidharma

“To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings.”

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

“Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial.”

— Bodhidharma

“If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha.”

— Bodhidharma

“To find a Buddha all you have to do is see your nature.”

— Bodhidharma

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

— 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

“Worship means reverence and humility it means revering your real self and humbling delusions.”

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity.

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

“To have a body is to suffer.”

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

“All phenomena are empty.”

— Bodhidharma

If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure.

— 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

“Your nature is the Buddha.”

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

“Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.”

— Bodhidharma

“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.”

— 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

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

— Bodhidharma

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

— 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

“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 ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way.”

— Bodhidharma

“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.”

— Bodhidharma

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

— Bodhidharma

“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.”

— Bodhidharma

Someone who seeks the Way doesn't look beyond himself.

— Bodhidharma

“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.”

— Bodhidharma

“Without the mind there is no Buddha. Without the Buddha there's no mind.”

— Bodhidharma

“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

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

— Bodhidharma

When you don't understand, you depend on reality. When you do understand, reality depends on you.

— Bodhidharma

“Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space.”

— Bodhidharma