Bodhidharma Quotes

What is important in meditation is the quality of the mind and the heart.It is not what you achieve, or what you say you attain, but rather the quality of a mind that is innocent and vulnerable.

He who would be serene and pure needs but one thing, detachment.

You'll never find peace of mind until you listen to your heart.

You cannot turn your brain off or stop your thoughts, but you can try while meditating not to become too invested in them. This is called transcendental meditation, which is the kind I practice.

To realize that you are not your thoughts is when you begin to awaken spiritually.

Yogis have human emotions, but the thing is not to let anger and doubt become an obsession.

Reductionism and elimination make one feel clever, but what happens when the meditator drops her fixation on feeling clever?

Meditation is the straight flight of the mind to the Kingdom of Heaven present in the heart of everyone.

Whenever you meditate, there are glimpses. Then the mind comes in and says, 'Be happy! Look, I have done it.' And immediately the contact is lost.

No matter how many times I tell you this, you're still thinking, thinking, judging, judging, coming to conclusions, trying to work out your life. You have to let go. Totally, absolutely, completely. You have to let go so completely that you will feel no body, no mind, no pain, nothing.

This is what meditation is all about, just becoming a watcher. Failure comes, success comes, you are praised, you are condemned, you are respected, you are insulted - all kinds of things come, they are all dualities. And you go on watching. Watching the duality, a third force arises in you; a third dimension arises in you. The duality means two dimensions: one dimension is happiness; another is unhappiness. Watching both, a depth arises in you: the third dimension, witnessing, sakshin.

Holding on to anything blocks wisdom.

He who gives up action falls. He who gives up the reward rises. But renunciation of fruit in no way means indifference to the result.

Jnana teaches that the world should be given up, but not on that account to be abandoned. To be in the world but not of it-is the true test of the sannyasin.

The perfect man employs his mind as a mirror.

Meditation, witnessing, silently sitting and looking at the mind, will be of much help. Not forcing, simply sitting and looking. Not doing much, just watching as one watches birds flying in the sky. Just Lying down on the ground and watching, nothing to do, indifferent. Not your concern really, where they are going; they are going on their own.

Centering prayer is a training in letting go.

Attachment to views is the greatest impediment to the spiritual path.

When nothing upsets you, you are at the beginning of the path. When you desire nothing, you are halfway on the path; when nothing becomes everything, you are perfected.

If it means something, take it to heart. If it means nothing, it's nothing. Let it go.

Wishes and fears are illusions, Dil Bahadur, not realities. You must practice detachment.

Free from passion and desire, you have stripped the thorns from the stem.

Just a little detachment from the ego is needed.

Calmness is the criterion of spiritual progress. Plunge the purified mind into the Heart. Then the work is over.

By the practice of meditation, you will find that you are carrying within your heart a portable paradise.