Not creating delusions is enlightenment.
BodhidharmaRead
As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you'll never see that your own mind is the Buddha.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The essence of enlightenment lies within ourselves, not external to us.
This quote by Bodhidharma emphasizes the idea that true enlightenment and wisdom are not found by searching externally for guidance or truth. Instead, it encourages individuals to look within themselves to recognize their own inherent potential and understanding, suggesting that our mind holds the key to enlightenment, akin to the qualities of a Buddha.
Themes
EnlightenmentSelf-DiscoveryMindBuddhaWisdom
In practice
Example use cases
In a meditation workshop, this quote could inspire participants to focus on self-awareness.
More from Bodhidharma
All quotes βThe Way is basically perfect. It doesn't require perfecting.
BodhidharmaRead
Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.
BodhidharmaRead
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.
BodhidharmaRead
Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
BodhidharmaRead
The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.
BodhidharmaRead
Similar quotes
The love of posterity is the consequence of the necessity of death. If a man were sure of living forever here, he would not care about his offspring.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids - and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
Ralph EllisonRead
Nothing is more disgusting than the crowing about liberty by slaves, as most men are, and the flippant mistaking for freedom of some paper preamble like a Declaration of Independence, or the statute right to vote, by those who have never dared to think or to act.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
And they can appreciate, through personal experience, that the really decisive battleground of American freedom is in the hearts and minds of our own people... Each day we must ask that Almighty God will set and keep His protecting hand over us so that we may pass on to those who come after us the heritage of a free people, secure in their God-given rights and in full control of a Government dedicated to the preservation of those rights.
Dwight D. EisenhowerRead
Clay is moulded to make a vessel, but the utility of the vessel lies in the space where there is nothing. . . . Thus, taking advantage of what is, we recognize the utility of what is not.
LaoziRead
We're always attracted to the edges of what we are, out by the edges where it's a little raw and nervy.
E. L. DoctorowRead