Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher’s help.

Bodhidharma

The Way is basically perfect. It doesn’t require perfecting.

Bodhidharma

The mind is the root from which all things grow if you can understand the mind, everything else is included.

Bodhidharma

The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

The ignorant mind, with its infinite afflictions, passions, and evils, is rooted in the three poisons. Greed, anger, and delusion.

Bodhidharma

The essence of the Way is detachment.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

The Buddha is your real body, your original mind.

Bodhidharma

People of this world are deluded. They’re always longing for something – always, in a word, seeking.

Bodhidharma

Our nature is the mind. And the mind is our nature.

Bodhidharma

Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path.

Bodhidharma

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

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

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

Bodhidharma

To give up yourself without regret is the greatest charity.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

To have a body is to suffer.

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

Whoever knows that the mind is a fiction and devoid of anything real knows that his own mind neither exists nor doesn’t exist.

Bodhidharma

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

Words are illusions.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

You can’t know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.

Bodhidharma

Your nature is the Buddha.

Bodhidharma

Once you see your nature, sex is basically immaterial.

Bodhidharma

Your mind is nirvana.

Bodhidharma

As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you’ll never see that your own mind is the Buddha.

Bodhidharma

Not suffering another existence is reaching the Way.

Bodhidharma

A Buddha is someone who finds freedom in good fortune and bad.

Bodhidharma

According to the Sutras, evil deeds result in hardships and good deeds result in blessings.

Bodhidharma

All phenomena are empty.

Bodhidharma

All the suffering and joy we experience depend on conditions.

Bodhidharma

And the Buddha is the person who’s free: free of plans, free of cares.

Bodhidharma

As long as you’re enthralled by a lifeless form, you’re not free.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

Buddha means awareness, the awareness of body and mind that prevents evil from arising in either.

Bodhidharma

Buddhas don’t practice nonsense.

Bodhidharma

Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.

Bodhidharma

But deluded people don’t realize that their own mind is the Buddha. They keep searching outside.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

Freeing oneself from words is liberation.

Bodhidharma

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

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

Bodhidharma

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

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

Bodhidharma

Life and death are important. Don’t suffer them in vain.

Bodhidharma

Not engaging in ignorance is wisdom.

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

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

Bodhidharma

The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.

Bodhidharma

Mortals liberate Buddhas and Buddhas liberate mortals.

Bodhidharma

Neither gods nor men can foresee when an evil deed will bear its fruit.

Bodhidharma

Not creating delusions is enlightenment.

Bodhidharma

Delusion means mortality. And awareness means Buddhahood.

Bodhidharma