Not creating delusions is enlightenment.
To go from mortal to Buddha, you have to put an end to karma, nurture your awareness, and accept what life brings.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The journey to enlightenment requires releasing past actions, expanding consciousness, and embracing life's flow.
This quote by Bodhidharma highlights the transformative process of becoming enlightened or achieving a higher state of being, commonly illustrated by the transition from a mortal state to that of a Buddha. It emphasizes the need to let go of the burdens of karma, which are the consequences of past actions, while cultivating greater awareness and acceptance of life as it unfolds, suggesting that true understanding comes from inner growth and resilience in the face of lifeβs challenges.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote is perfect for a motivational speech about personal growth and mindfulness.
More from Bodhidharma
All quotes βThe Way is basically perfect. It doesn't require perfecting.
Buddhas move freely through birth and death, appearing and disappearing at will.
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.
Freeing oneself from words is liberation.
The Dharma is the truth that all natures are pure.
Similar quotes
In our country are evangelists and zealots of many different political, economic and religious persuasions whose fanatical conviction is that all thought is divinely classified into two kinds - that which is their own and that which is false and dangerous.
An iceberg is water striving to be land; a mountain, especially a Himalaya, especially Everest, is land's attempt to metamorphose into sky; it is grounded in flight, the earth mutated--nearly--into air, and become, in the true sense, exalted. Long before she ever encountered the mountain, Allie was aware of its brooding presence in her soul.
You are free; you are free to go to your temples, you are free to go to your mosques or to any other place or worship in this State of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed - that has nothing to do with the business of the State.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Human beings cannot be willed and molded into non-existence.
Day to day and doing the work and getting to that honest point - that, for me, is always about - and always will be as long as I do this - refining and refining and refining and refining the truth... constantly being as truthful and honest and raw and real as you can be.