Status Updates From The Zen Teaching of Bodhidh...

"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. "

Wake-up Sermon

"The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.


Whoever hears and believes this teaching embarks on the Great Vehicle and leaves the three realms. The three realms are greed, anger, and delusion."

"In India, the twenty-seven patriarchs only transmitted the imprint of the mind. And the only reason I've come to China is to transmit the instantaneous teaching of the Mahayana: This mind is the buddha."

"But once you see your nature, you're a buddha even if you work as a butcher.

But butchers create karma by slaughtering animals. How can
they be buddhas? "

"People who see that their mind is the buddha don't need to shave their head. Laymen are buddhas too. "

"If, as in a dream, you see a light brighter than the sun, your remaining attachments will suddenly come to an end and the nature of reality will be revealed."

"The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions."

"The Way is basically perfect. It doesn't require perfecting. The Way has no form or sound. It's subtle and hard to perceive. It's like when you drink water: you know how hot or cold it is, but you can't tell others."

"If you know that everything comes from the mind, don't become attached. Once attached, you're unaware. "

"The true Way is sublime. It can't be expressed in language. Of what use are scriptures? "

"Your mind is basically empty. All appearances are illusions. Don't hold on to appearances .

And the buddha is the path. And the path is zen. But the word zen is one that remains a puzzle to both mortals and sages."

The Buddha wasn't mistaken. Deluded people don't know who they are.

Neither life nor death can restrain this mind. Nothing can. It's also called the Unstoppable Tathagata, the Incomprehensible, the Sacred Self, the Immortal, the Great Sage. Its names vary but not its essence. Buddhas vary too, but none leaves his own mind.

At every moment, where language can't go, that's your mind."

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

"Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help. If, though, by the conjunction of conditions, someone understands what the Buddha meant, that person doesn't need a teacher."

"If you don't understand by yourself, you'll have to find a teacher to get to the bottom of life and death."

"This mind is the buddha says the same thing."

"Trying to find a buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space. Space has a name but no form. "

Bloodstream Sermon


"Everything that appears in the three realms comes from the mind. Hence buddhas of the past and future teach mind to mind without bothering about definitions."

1. "When you meet with adversity don't be upset, because it makes sense."

2. As mortals, we're ruled by conditions, not by ourselves. (...)Those who remain unmoved by the wind of joy silently follow the Path.

3. When you seek nothing, you're on the Path.

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

"To enter by practice refers to four all-inclusive practices: suffering injustice, adapting to conditions, seeking nothing, and practicing the Dharma"

Outline of Practice

"Many roads lead to the Path,1 but basically there are only two: reason and practice."

"Those who turn from delusion back to reality, who meditate on walls, the absence of self and other, the oneness of mortal and sage, and who remain unmoved even by scriptures are in complete and unspoken agreement with reason."

"Of course, zen, as meditation, had been taught and practiced for several hundred years before Bodhidharma arrived. "

"Bodhidharma's approach to zen was unique. As he says in these sermons, "Seeing your nature is zen .... Not thinking about anything is zen .... Everything you do is zen."

"In his Transmission of the Lamp, Tao-yuan says that soon after he had transmitted the patriarchship of his lineage to Hui-k'o, Bodhi- dharma died in 528 on the fifth day of the tenth month, poisoned by a jealous monk."

"Despite the sudden popularity of Buddhism in China, Bodhidharma found few disciples."

"Coming from India, he undoubtedly instructed his disciples in some form of yoga, but no early records mention him teaching any exercise or martial art."

"It was here, on Mount Sung's western Shaoshih Peak, that Bodhidharma is said to have spent nine years in meditation, facing the rock wall of a cave about a mile from the temple. Shaolin later became famous for training monks in kung-fu, and Bodhidharma is honored as the founder
of this art as well."

" ...Bodhidharma must have already been in the North by 490 and must have been reasonably conversant in Chinese by then."

"In any case, Bodhidharma crossed the Yangtze-according to legend, on a hollow reed and settled in the North."