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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 ARE 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.
All the statements above this sentence cannot be authentically said to be from Bodhidharma. But this sentence, THEY PRACTICE NOTHING AT ALL ...
The people who are practicing all these things recorded before, are practicing nothing, because if the world is only a dream land, then whether you are a thief or a great man of charity, makes no difference. In a dream, if you are a thief or a man of charity, will it make any difference when you wake up? Will you feel good that you were such a great man of charity? Or will you feel ashamed that in the dream you were a thief? Both were dreams, soap bubbles; they don't mean anything.
Knowing Bodhidharma, I can say exactly what are his words. THEY PRACTICE NOTHING AT ALL -- the people who are practicing the above mentioned things ... THIS IS WHAT IS MEANT BY PRACTICING THE DHARMA.
Bodhidharma is saying: Knowing this -- that whatever you are practicing is nothing at all -- THIS knowing, this understanding is called 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." This is pure Bodhidharma. WHEN YOU SEEK NOTHING, YOU ARE ON THE PATH.
So it is going to be a continuous effort to draw lines, between what exactly are Bodhidharma's statements and what are statements by the writers of these books, these notes. But I can say it with authority, because this is my own understanding and experience too: I agree with Bodhidharma on each and every point. In other words, Bodhidharma agrees with me on each and every point.
Scholars
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