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Bodhidharma Quotes:

Bodhidharma Quotes

51 Enlightened Bodhidharma Quotes to Zen up your Mind

According to Wikipedia Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th 0r 6th century.





He is credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China. According to Chinese legend, he also began the physical training of the monks of Shaolin Monastery that led to the creation of Shaolin Kung fu. Learn more about Bodhidharma click here.

Here are 51 Enlightened Bodhidharma Quotes to Zen up your mind.

1: “Your mind is nirvana.” ~Bodhidharma

2: “For as long as you're subject to birth and death, you'll never attain enlightenment.” ~Bodhidharma

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

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

5: “Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.” ~Bodhidharma

6: “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



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

8: “To seek is to suffer. To seek nothing is bliss.” ~Bodhidharma

9: “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

10: “A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.” ~Bodhidharma

11: “Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.” ~Bodhidharma

12: “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

13: “A Buddha is an idle person. He doesn't run around after fortune and fame.” ~Bodhidharma

14: “Every suffering is a buddha-seed, because suffering impels mortals to seek wisdom. But you can only say that suffering gives rise to Buddhahood. You can’t say that suffering is buddhahood. Your body and mind are the field. Suffering is the seed, wisdom the sprout, and buddhahood the grain.” ~Bodhidharma



15: “Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.” ~Bodhidharma

16: “Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.” ~Bodhidharma

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

18: “Those who worship don't know, and those who know don't worship.” ~Bodhidharma

19: “Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.” ~Bodhidharma

20: “Deluded people don't realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.” ~Bodhidharma

21: “To have a body is to suffer, as long as you're enthralled by a lifeless form, you're not free.” ~Bodhidharma

22: “At every moment where language can't go, that's your mind.” ~Bodhidharma

23: “According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings.” ~Bodhidharma

24: ***“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

25: “All know the way; few actually walk it.” ~Bodhidharma



26: “Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help.” ~Bodhidharma

27: “Vast emptiness, nothing holy.” ~Bodhidharma

28: “When the mortal mind appears, buddhahood disappears. When the mortal mind disappears, buddhahood appears. When the mind appears, reality disappears. When the mind disappears, reality appears. Whoever knows that nothing depends on anything has found the Way. And whoever knows that the mind depends on nothing is always at the place of enlightenment.” ~Bodhidharma

29: “Poverty and hardship are created by false thinking.” ~Bodhidharma

30: “Once you see your true nature, sex is basically immaterial.” ~Bodhidharma

31: “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

32: “Everything sacred, nothing sacred.” ~Bodhidharma

33: “Life and death are important. Don't suffer them in vain.” ~Bodhidharma

34: “Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.” ~Bodhidharma

35: “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





36: “The mind is the root from which all things grow if you can understand the mind, everything else is included. It’s like the root of a tree. All a tree’s fruit and flowers, branches and leaves depend on its root. If you nourish its root, a tree multiplies. If you cut its root, it dies. Those who understand the mind reach enlightenment with minimal effort.” ~Bodhidharma

37: “As mortals, we're ruled by conditions, not by ourselves.” ~Bodhidharma

38: “Freeing oneself from words is liberation.” ~Bodhidharma

39: “But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes” ~Bodhidharma

40: “The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion." ~Bodhidharma

41: “Reality has no inside, outside, or middle part.” ~Bodhidharma

42: “The farther away you are from the truth, the more the hateful and pleasurable states will arise. There is also self—deception.” ~Bodhidharma

43: “The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.” ~Bodhidharma

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

45: “The Way is basically perfect. It doesn't require perfecting.” ~Bodhidharma

46: “People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something else they are always, in a word, seeking.” ~Bodhidharma

47: “All know the way of prosperity only few walk it.” ~Bodhidharma

48: “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

49: “Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit.” ~Bodhidharma

50: “Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path” ~Bodhidharma

51: “People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something - always, in a word, seeking” ~Bodhidharma








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