Love & Passion Quote by Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma’s line lands like a Zen slap: not soothing, not “progressive,” and definitely not interested in your personal brand. “Once you see your nature” points to kensho-style recognition of mind’s basic condition - the direct seeing that precedes doctrine, identity, or consolation. After that, “sex is basically immaterial” isn’t a denial that bodies exist; it’s a demotion of the category. Sex becomes one more label the mind clings to, mistaking a contingent feature for a self.

The intent is strategic. Bodhidharma is trying to cut through the spiritual bureaucracy of his era (and ours): debates about purity, social roles, and status were often disguised as moral seriousness. His move is to relocate authority from rule-following to awakening. If you’ve actually seen your nature, your attachments - including attachment to gendered hierarchy or gendered selfhood - lose their power to organize reality.

The subtext is also a warning: if sex still feels ultimate, the “seeing” hasn’t happened yet, or it’s been converted into another identity badge (“enlightened person who’s above it all”). Zen is suspicious of that move. “Immaterial” doesn’t mean irrelevant to ethics or relationship; it means it cannot deliver the metaphysical security people bargain for when they cling to fixed identities.

Context matters: Bodhidharma, framed as a founding patriarch, speaks with the authority of someone policing the border between teaching and performance. The line strips away excuses and credentials. Stop negotiating with the particulars. Wake up, and the rest falls into its proper, smaller place.