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THE SUBLIME AND LET THEIR BODIES CHANGE WITH THE SEASON. ALL PHENOMENA ARE EMPTY. THEY CONTAIN NOTHING WORTH DESIRING. CALAMITY FOREVER ALTERNATES WITH PROSPERITY. TO DWELL IN THE THREE REALMS IS TO DWELL IN A BURNING HOUSE. TO HAVE A BODY IS TO SUFFER. DOES ANYBODY WITH A BODY KNOW PEACE?
FOURTH, PRACTICING THE DHARMA. THE DHARMA IS THE TRUTH THAT ALL NATURES ARE PURE. BY THIS TRUTH, ALL APPEARANCES ARE EMPTY. DEFILEMENT AND ATTACHMENT, SUBJECT AND OBJECT DON'T EXIST. THE SUTRAS SAY, "THE DHARMA INCLUDES NO BEING BECAUSE IT'S FREE FROM THE IMPURITY OF BEING. AND THE DHARMA INCLUDES NO SELF, BECAUSE IT'S FREE FROM THE IMPURITY OF SELF." THOSE WISE ENOUGH TO BELIEVE AND UNDERSTAND THIS TRUTH ARE BOUND TO PRACTICE ACCORDING TO THE DHARMA. SINCE THE EMBODIMENT OF THE DHARMA CONTAINS NOTHING WORTH BEGRUDGING, THEY GIVE THEIR BODY, LIFE AND PROPERTY IN CHARITY, WITHOUT REGRET, WITHOUT THE VANITY OF GIVER, GIFT OR RECIPIENT, AND WITHOUT BIAS OR ATTACHMENT. AND THEY TAKE UP TRANSFORMING OTHERS TO ELIMINATE IMPURITY BUT WITHOUT BECOMING ATTACHED TO FORM. THUS, THROUGH THEIR OWN PRACTICE, THEY'RE ABLE TO HELP OTHERS AND GLORIFY THE WAY OF ENLIGHTENMENT. AND AS WITH CHARITY, THEY ALSO PRACTICE THE OTHER VIRTUES. BUT WHILE PRACTICING THE SIX VIRTUES TO ELIMINATE DELUSION, THEY PRACTICE NOTHING AT ALL. THIS IS WHAT'S MEANT BY PRACTICING THE DHARMA. THOSE WHO UNDERSTAND THIS DETACH THEMSELVES FROM ALL THAT EXISTS AND STOP IMAGINING OR SEEKING ANYTHING. THE SUTRAS SAY, "TO SEEK IS TO SUFFER. TO SEEK NOTHING IS BLISS." WHEN YOU SEEK NOTHING, YOU'RE ON THE PATH.
I have a very soft corner in my heart for Bodhidharma. That makes it a very special occasion to speak about him. Perhaps he is the only man whom I have loved so deeply that speaking on him I will be almost speaking on myself. That also creates a great complexity, because he never wrote anything in his life. No enlightened being has ever written. Bodhidharma is not an exception, but by tradition these three books that we are going to discuss are attributed to Bodhidharma.
The scholars reason that because there is no contrary evidence -- and for almost one thousand years, these books have been attributed
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