FROM THE EARLY ROOTS!

Bodhidharma (c. 440 AD - 528 AD)

Source: The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma,

The essence of the Way is detachment. And the goal of those who practice is freedom from appearances.

 When we're deluded there's a world to escape. When we're aware, there's nothing to escape.

If you use your mind to study reality, you won't understand either your mind or reality. If you study reality without using your mind, you'll understand both. . . . The mind and the world are opposites, and vision arises where they meet. When your mind doesn't stir inside, the world doesn't arise outside. When the world and the mind are both transparent, this is true vision. And such understanding is true understanding.

Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.

If you know that everything comes from the mind, don't become attached. Once attached, you're unaware. But once you see your own nature, the entire Canon becomes so much prose. It's thousands of sutras and shastras only amount to a clear mind. Understanding comes in midsentence. What good are doctrines? The ultimate Truth is beyond words. Doctrines are words. They're not the Way. The Way is wordless. Words are illusions. . . . Don't cling to appearances, and you'll break through all barriers. . . .

We do not see things as they are.  We see them as we are.