Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma
Bodhidharma was a Buddhist monk who lived during the 5th or 6th century. He is traditionally credited as the transmitter of Chan Buddhism to China, and regarded as its first Chinese patriarch. 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. In Japan, he is known as Daruma...
NationalityIndian
ProfessionLeader
CountryIndia
karma believe fall
Unless you see your nature, you shouldn't go around criticizing the goodness of others. There's no advantage in deceiving yourself. Good and bad are distinct. Cause and effect are clear. But fools don't believe and fall straight into a hell of endless darkness without even knowing it. What keeps them from believing is the heaviness of their karma. They're like blind people who don't believe there's such a thing as light. Even if you explain it to them, they still don't believe, because they're blind. How can they possibly distinguish light?
believe fall teaching
. . . 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.
space enlightenment trying
Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space.
karma wisdom memories
To find Buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha. If you don't see your nature, invoking buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless. Invoking buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory, keeping precepts results in good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings-but no Buddha.
nature practice causes
Unless you see your nature, all this talk about cause & effect is nonsense. Buddhas don't practice nonsense.
land mind pure
If your mind is pure, all buddha-lands are pure.
mind
The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind.
mortals
Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals.
mind looks use
If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won't see the Buddha.
conditions mortals
As mortals, we're ruled by conditions, not by ourselves.
dust affliction shapes
Our true buddha-nature has no shape. And the dust of affliction has no form.
wise people sublime
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.
crush ideas wish
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.
success mind conditions
But while success and failure depend on conditions, the mind neither waxes nor wanes.