QuoteProject
People of this world are deluded. They're always longing for something - always, in a word, seeking.
Bodhidharma
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote suggests that human beings are often misled by their desires and constantly seek something beyond their grasp.

Bodhidharma's quote reflects on the nature of human existence, highlighting how people are often trapped in a cycle of longing for things they believe will bring them fulfillment. This perpetual seeking can lead to a sense of dissatisfaction and delusion as one chases after desires that may never lead to true happiness or contentment.

Themes

DesireLongingDelusionHappinessContentment

In practice

Example use cases

In a lecture about mindfulness, one might use this quote to illustrate the dangers of constant desire.

More from Bodhidharma

Not creating delusions is enlightenment.
BodhidharmaRead
The 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

How much more of the mosque, of prayer and fasting?_x000D_ _x000D_ Better go drunk and begging round the taverns._x000D_ _x000D_ Khayyam, drink wine, for soon this clay of yours_x000D_ _x000D_ Will make a cup, bowl, one day a jar._x000D_ _x000D_ When once you hear the roses are in bloom,_x000D_ _x000D_ Then is the time, my love, to pour the wine;_x000D_ _x000D_ Houris and palaces and Heaven and Hell-_x000D_ _x000D_ These are but fairy-tales, forget them all.
Omar KhayyamRead
Death does not trouble me. I have no fear of supernatural punishments, of course, nor could I enjoy an eternal life in which there would be nothing left for me to do, the task of living having been accomplished.
B. F. SkinnerRead
See! those fiendish lineaments graven on the darkness, the writhed lip of scorn, the mockery of that living eye, the pointed finger, touching the sore place in your heart! Do you remember any act of enormous folly, at which you would blush, even in the remotest cavern of the earth? Then recognize your Shame.
Nathaniel HawthorneRead
Bad evangelism says: I'm right, you're wrong, and I would love to tell you about it
Timothy KellerRead
Upon my word," said Dantes, "you make me shudder. Is the world filled with tigers and crocodiles?" "Yes; and remember that two legged tigers and crocodiles are more dangerous than the others.
Alexandre DumasRead
You have a diasporic black world, and the only way to put it back together again is symbolic. It's like Humpty Dumpty. Whoever could edit the 'Encyclopedia Africana' would provide symbolic order to the fragments created over the past 500 years. That is a major contribution.
Henry Louis GatesRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.