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Book Name: Bodhidharma The Greatest Zen MasterPrevious     Next
 

are here, I am not going to come back!"

I said, "It is up to you. Without me you will be in difficulty."

Bodhidharma is saying, BUDDHAS DON'T SAVE BUDDHAS. Buddhas simply make every effort to wake people to their own reality, but it is not a question of saving. They are buddhas already, nothing has to be added. This is one of the greatest contributions of Buddhism and Jainism. But again and again that disciple is bound to commit mistakes; he is simply helpless. This sentence he has put exactly as it should be.

But again he starts: 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 WILL NEVER SEE THAT YOUR OWN no-MIND IS THE BUDDHA. He is saying mind, I am reading no-mind.

AND DON'T USE A BUDDHA TO WORSHIP A BUDDHA. Again, this statement I can say with absolute authority, comes from Bodhidharma. DON'T USE A BUDDHA TO WORSHIP A BUDDHA. Just as a buddha cannot save another buddha, so it is absolutely idiotic that one buddha should worship another buddha. Buddhism is against worship.

The last words of Gautam Buddha were, "Don't make my statues, don't make my temples, because my whole life I have been teaching you that you are a buddha, and you don't have to worship another buddha." And particularly if a stone buddha is being worshiped by a living buddha; this is sheer absurdity.

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.

These statements must be coming directly from Bodhidharma because it is beyond the capacity of the disciple to say such great things. Bodhidharma is saying that buddhas don't follow any discipline except their own awareness. They don't follow any scriptures except their own light. Neither do they follow anything nor do they break anything. They do neither good nor evil. They simply act out of spontaneity which is beyond good and evil.

Buddhas are not puritans or moralists. They act out of pure consciousness and their actions are not decided by any ideals, by any precepts,

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