Mind-Buddha

From Bodhidharma's Bloodstream Sermon

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Trying to find a Buddha or enlightenment is like trying to grab space.

Space has a name but no form. It’s not something you can pick up or put down.

And you certainly can’t grab it. Beyond mind you’ll never see a Buddha.

The Buddha is a product of the mind. Why look for a Buddha beyond this mind?

Buddhas of the past and future only talk about this mind.

The mind is the Buddha, and the Buddha is the mind.

Beyond the mind there’s no Buddha and beyond the Buddha there’s no mind.

If you think there is a Buddha beyond the mind, where is he?

There’s no Buddha beyond the mind, so why envision one?

You can’t know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.

As long as you’re enthralled by a lifeless form, you’re not free.

If you don’t believe me, deceiving yourself won’t help. It’s not the Buddha’s fault.

People, though, are deluded. They’re unaware that their own mind is the Buddha.

Otherwise they wouldn’t look for a Buddha outside the mind.

Buddhas don’t save Buddhas.

If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won’t see the Buddha.

As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you’ll never see that your own mind is the Buddha.

Don’t use a Buddha to worship a Buddha. And don’t use the mind to invoke a Buddha.

Buddhas don’t recite sutras. Buddhas don’t keep precepts. And Buddhas don’t break precepts.

Buddhas don’t keep or break anything. Buddhas don’t do good or evil.

To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature. Whoever sees his nature is a Buddha.

If you don’t see your nature, invoking Buddhas, reciting sutras, making offerings, and keeping precepts are all useless.

Invoking Buddhas results in good karma, reciting sutras results in a good memory; keeping precepts results in a good rebirth, and making offerings results in future blessings-but no buddha.

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

But unless he sees his nature, such a person isn’t a teacher.

Even if he can recite the Twelvefold Canon he can’t escape the Wheel of Birth and Death.

He suffers in the three realms without hope of release.

Long ago, the monk Good Star 21 was able to recite the entire Canon.

But he didn’t escape the Wheel, because he didn’t see his nature.

If this was the case with Good Star, then people nowadays who recite a few sutras or shastras and think it’s the Dharma are fools.

Unless you see your mind, reciting so much prose is useless.

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Kill the Buddha. Worshipping idols will surely keep you in this world.

Submitted April 18, 2021 at 06:09PM by landonisnow https://ift.tt/3dvhNfE