In order to see a fish you must watch the water Bodhidharma More Quotes by Bodhidharma More Quotes From Bodhidharma When you don't understand, you depend on reality. When you do understand, reality depends on you. Bodhidharma dependsreality As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha Bodhidharma somewhere-elsemindlong Once you stop clinging and let things be, you'll be free, even of birth and death. You'll transform everything. Bodhidharma transformationbirthattachment Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen. Bodhidharma mindlyingthinking . . . 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 teachingbelievefall 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. Bodhidharma understandingoppositesreality 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 break-throughunderstandingtruth All know the way, but few actually walk it. Bodhidharma buddhisminspireway 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 aliveworrypast The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion. Bodhidharma ignorant-massespassionanger 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 usemindreality The mind's capacity is limitless, and its manifestations are inexhaustible. Seeing forms with your eyes, hearing sounds with your ears, smelling odors with your nose, tasting flavors with your tongue, every movement or state is all your mind. Bodhidharma eyesoundmind To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss. Bodhidharma blisssuffering 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. Bodhidharma karmamatterheaven Those who worship don't know, and those who know don't worship. Bodhidharma worshipknowsinspiring The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way. Bodhidharma taodoctrineway When we're deluded there's a world to escape. When we're aware, there's nothing to escape. Bodhidharma deludedworld An Awakened person is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad. Bodhidharma dharmameditationfortune Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature. Bodhidharma naturemindlife The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances. Bodhidharma attachmentessencepractice
