Osho –
Dhammapada: The Way of The Buddha (Volume 3)
Chapter 1. Knowledge
is not knowledge
The wise man tells you
Where you have fallen
And where you yet may fall -
Invaluable secrets!
Follow him, follow the way.
Let him chasten and teach you
And keep you from mischief.
The world may hate him
But good men love him.
Do not look for bad company
Or live with men who do not care.
Find friends who love the truth.
Drink deeply.
Live in serenity and joy.
The wise man delights in the truth
And follows the law of the awakened.
The farmer channels water to his land.
The fletcher whittles his arrows.
And the carpenter turns his wood.
So the wise man directs his mind.
The wind cannot shake a mountain.
Neither praise nor blame moves the wise
man.
He is clarity.
Hearing the truth,
He is like a lake,
Pure and tranquil and deep.
Knowledge is not knowledge. It
has the appearance of knowledge, hence it deceives many. Knowledge is only
information. It does not transform you; you remain the same.
Your accumulation of information
goes on growing. Rather than liberating you, it burdens you, it goes on
creating new bondages for you.
The so-called man of knowledge
is far more foolish than the so-called fool, because the fool at least is
innocent. He is ignorant, but he has no pretensions of knowing - that much
truth is his. But the man of knowledge is in a far greater mess: he knows
nothing but he thinks he knows. Without knowing, to believe that one knows is
to remain forever rooted in ignorance.
Knowledge is a way for ignorance
to protect itself - and it protects itself very cunningly, very efficiently,
very cleverly. Knowledge is the enemy although it appears as the friend.
This is the first step towards
wisdom: to know that you don't know, to know that all knowledge is borrowed, to
know that it has not happened to you, it has come from others, that it is not
your own insight, your own realization. The moment knowledge is your own
realization, it is wisdom.
Wisdom means that you are not a
parrot, that you are a man, that you are not repeating others but expressing
yourself, that you are not a carbon copy, that you have an original face of
your own.
Knowledge makes you a carbon
copy, and to be a carbon copy is the ugliest thing in the world. That is the
greatest calamity that can happen to a man - because knowing not and yet
believing that you know, you will remain always ignorant and in darkness.
And whatsoever you do is going
to be wrong. You may be able to convince even others that you know, you may be
able to strengthen your ego, you may become very famous, you may be known as a
great scholar, a pundit, but deep down there is nothing but darkness. Deep down
you have not yet encountered yourself, you have not yet entered in the temple
of your being.
The ignorant is in a far better
situation. At least he has no pretensions, at least he is not deceiving others
and himself. And ignorance has a beauty - the beauty of simplicity, the beauty
of uncomplicatedness. To know that "I don't know" immediately brings
a great relief. To know, to experience, one's utter ignorance fills one with
great wonder - the existence is transformed into a mystery.
And that's what God is all
about. To know the universe as a miracle, as a mystery, as something
unbelievable, as something impenetrable - as something before which you can
only bow down in deep gratitude, you can only surrender in awe - is the
beginning of wisdom.
Socrates is right when he says:
I know only one thing - that I don't know at all.
To be wise is not to be
knowledgeable. To be wise means to realize something of your consciousness -
first within and then without; to feel the pulsation of life within you and
then without. To experience this mysterious consciousness that you are, first
one has to experience it in the innermost core of one's being, because that is
the closest door to God.
Once you have known it within,
it is not difficult to know it without. But remember: the wise man never
accumulates knowledge - his wisdom is spontaneous. Knowledge always belongs to
the past, wisdom belongs to the present. Remember these distinctions. Unless
you understand the difference very clearly between knowledge and wisdom, you
will not be able to understand these sutras of Gautama the Buddha. And they are
tremendously important.
Knowledge comes from the past,
from others, from scriptures. And Buddha has said:
My transmission of truth is
beyond the scriptures. What I am saying, what I am imparting, what I am
communing, is not written anywhere, has not been spoken anywhere - in fact,
cannot be spoken at all, cannot be written at all. It is transferred in deep
silence between the master and the disciple: it is a love affair. Wisdom is
contagious. It is not taught, remember; you can receive it but it cannot be
given to you.
You can be open and vulnerable
to it, you can be in a state of constant welcoming, and that's how a disciple
sits by the side of the master - ready to drink, ready to allow the master to
penetrate his very heart. In the beginning it is painful, because the master's
consciousness penetrates you like a sharp arrow - only then it can reach to
your very core. It hurts.
Knowledge satisfies the ego;
wisdom destroys the ego completely; hence people seek knowledge. It is very
rare to find a seeker who is not interested in knowledge but is interested in,
committed to, wisdom. Knowledge means theories about truth; wisdom means truth
itself. Knowledge means secondhand; wisdom means firsthand.
Knowledge means belief: others
say and you believe. And all beliefs are false! No belief is ever true. Even if
you believe in the word of a buddha, the moment you believe it is turned into a
lie.
Truth cannot be believed;
either you know or you don't know. If you know, there is no question of belief;
if you don't know, there is again no question of belief. If you know, you know;
if you don't know, you don't know. Belief is a projection of the tricky mind -
it gives you the feeling of knowing, without knowing. The Hindu, the
Mohammedan, the Christian, the Jew, the Jaina, the Buddhist - they all believe.
To believe is cheap, it is very
easy - nothing is at stake. You can easily believe in God, you can easily
believe in immortality of the soul, you can easily believe in the theory of
reincarnation. In fact, they remain just superficial; deep down you are not affected
by them, not at all. When death will knock at your door you will know your
beliefs have all disappeared. The belief in the immortality of the soul will
not help you when death will knock at your door - you will cry and weep and you
will cling to life. When death comes you will forget all about God; when death
comes you will not be able to remember the theory - and the complicated
implications of it - about reincarnation.
When death knocks you, it
knocks down all the structure of knowledge that you had built around yourself -
it leaves you absolutely empty... and
with the awareness that the whole life has been a wastage.
Wisdom is a totally different
phenomenon: it is experience, not belief. It is existential experience, it is
not "about." You don't believe in God - you know. You don't believe
in the immortality of the soul - you have tasted it. You don't believe in
reincarnation - you remember it; you remember that you have been here many
times. And if this has been so in the past, this is going to be so in the
future. You remember you have been in many bodies: you have been a rock, you
have been a tree, you have been animals, birds, you have been man, woman... you have lived in so many forms. You see the
forms changing but the inner consciousness remaining the same; so you see only
the superficial changes but the essential is eternal.
This is seeing, not believing.
And all the real masters are interested to help you to see, not to believe. To
believe, you become a Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan. Belief is the profession of
the priest.
The master first has to destroy
all your belief - theist, atheist, Catholic, communist. The master has to
dismantle all your structure of belief so that you are left again as a small
child - innocent, open, ready to inquire, ready to plunge into the adventure of
truth.
Wisdom arises within you, it is
not a scripture. You start reading your own consciousness - and there are
hidden all the Bibles and all the Gitas and all the Dhammapadas.
A great scholar once bought a
parrot. When he got it home he told it, "I am going to teach you to
talk."
"Don't bother,"
answered the bird. "I can talk already."
He was so amazed that he took
it to the university. "Look! I have got a fantastic talking parrot here...
" But the parrot would not talk, even though the scholar kept insisting
that it could.
People bet him ten-to-one that
it could not, and he lost the bet. Nothing would induce the parrot to speak. On
the way home, followed by the jeers of his friends, the man cuffed the parrot
and said, "You fool - look at the amount of money you lost me!"
"It is you who are the
fool," said the parrot. "Take me back to that university tomorrow and
you will get one hundred-to-one and win!"
Yes, parrots are far more
intelligent than your professors. Parrots have more insight than your pundits,
scholars, academicians. If you want to know the real fools you will have to
visit a university - all kinds of pretenders, full of gibberish. Not knowing
what they are really doing, but they go on doing things. Not knowing what they
are teaching, but they are teachers; they go on writing great treatises.
Mulla Nasruddin had a nameplate
on his home. Everybody wondered about his degrees that he had put on the
nameplate. On the nameplate he had written: Mulla Nasruddin, B.S., M.S., Ph.D.
Everybody was intrigued! Finally the neighborhood people gathered and they
said, "Nasruddin, as far as we know you have never been to any university.
What to say about any university? - you have never been to any school. In fact,
you cannot read and you cannot write! From where have you got these
degrees?"
He said, "Do you know what
these degrees mean? B.S. is a short form."
"Short form of what?"
they asked.
He said, "Think it over...!"
Then they understood. "B.S. is a short form of something which is
unmentionable," he said. "And M.S. means 'more of the same.' And
Ph.D. means..."
Think over it, meditate over it.
Can you infer what Ph.D. means? You remember B.S., its meaning, you remember
M.S., more of the same, and then what about Ph.D.? I leave it to you! If you
meditate you will find, and that will make you a little wise. If you cannot
find it, tomorrow you can ask in the questions!
Following more than fifty years
of atheism, scientists in Russia began to be curious about what religion might
be. A group of them took a book of holy quotations and decided to have it
decoded by an analogical computer. They opened the book and took the first
phrase they saw, typing it out onto the keyboard. The phrase was: "The
spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." They crowded around the
printout as the words began to appear.
As they read the message their
astonishment increased: "The vodka is ready, but the meat is
devitalized."
"No wonder religions used
to mystify people," they muttered to one another.
Then one of them had an idea.
He tapped out the book's title, Unconsidered
Trifles, onto the decoder. Out came the translation: "Neglected
puddings."
"You see!" he
shouted. "You have got the wrong book - this is one about the abuses of
cookery."
They are still seeking an
authentic religious text. The mind of the knowledgeable man is like a computer.
He goes on interpreting things not knowing exactly what he is doing; he is not
conscious enough to do it... But I cannot continue further because I see you
are all thinking about Ph.D.! Ph.D. means "piled high and deep" - now
be finished with it so we can go further on...
The Buddha says:
The wise man tells you
Where you have fallen
And where you yet may fall -
Invaluable secrets!
Follow him, follow the way.
The wise man tells you where you have
fallen... The first lesson in a mystery school is the original fall
of man. It has nothing to do with Adam and Eve and their original fall. That
story is simply a condensed parable about the whole humanity.
Each child falls in the same
way. It is not something that happened in the past, in the old biblical days;
it is not something that happened in the Garden of Eden. That is a poetic
expression. It happens whenever a child is born. It happens again and again. It
is happening every day.
The parable is that God has
prohibited Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. It is one of the
most beautiful parables ever invented by the masters, by the real knowers - not
to eat from the tree of knowledge. And what are your universities? - - trees of
knowledge. And what is your education? - a tree of knowledge.
God had prohibited them to eat
from it, so that you can remain innocent, because only the innocent heart can
know. The moment you become full of knowledge, knowing stops. In fact, you have
found a substitute for knowing - your knowledge becomes the substitute. Then
there is no need to know! You go on clinging to the knowledge and it goes on
giving satisfaction to your ego.
But the moment Adam and Eve ate
from the tree of knowledge, they fell - they fell from their original
innocence, they fell from their childlike life. Before that there was poetry in
their life, before that there was beauty in their life, before that there was
ecstasy in their life - before that there was wonder and awe. Before that each
and everything was extraordinary, because the whole existence was full of
mystery; they were surrounded by a mysterious universe. The rainbow and the sun
and the moon and the stars... it was all unbelievable. They were in constant
surprise.
The moment they became
knowledgeable all that wonder disappeared. Knowledge kills wonder, and in
killing wonder it destroys your spirit of knowing, inquiry. Knowledge
demystifies the universe - and a universe demystified is a universe without
God. A universe demystified is a universe without poetry, without love, without
music. Then the sound of the raindrops does not come to your heart as a message
from the other shore. Then the wind passing through the pine trees leaves you
unmoved, and the fragrance of the flowers does not create poetry in you. The
colors of a butterfly are ignored. A rainbow remains unseen. You become too
much attached to very mundane things: money, power, prestige. You become ugly
because your whole existence becomes ordinary; it loses sacredness, it becomes
profane. You transform the temple of God into a marketplace.
That is the original fall - but
it happens every day, remember. Don't believe the Christians who say that it
happened only once - it happens with each child. The moment you start the child
on the journey of becoming knowledgeable, you are helping him again towards the
original fall.
The function of a wise man is
to tell you where you have fallen. You have fallen because of knowledge; that
is the original fall. You can rise back to those clear, innocent moments; you
can enter into paradise again - but you will have to renounce knowledge.
There are people who renounce
the world but they don't renounce their knowledge; there are people who go to
the mountains, who renounce the marketplace, but they carry the mind with
themselves - and the mind is the marketplace. The marketplace exists in the
mind! It exists nowhere else. They may move to the Himalayas, they may sit in
beautiful silent caves, but their mind goes on and on in the same old pattern.
A man who has gone to the caves
in the Himalayas still remains a Christian, a Buddhist, a Hindu. Now, to be a
Hindu is to remain attached to a certain knowledge that has been given to you -
that is one of the ways of falling. To be a Mohammedan is another way of
falling, to be a Christian still another way of falling.
Christianity is a certain kind
of knowledge, so is Hinduism, and so are the three hundred other religions of
the earth. They all claim to know, they all claim their scriptures are divine,
written by God himself - and only their scriptures are divine and all other
scriptures are false.
Buddha says scriptures as such
are false, knowledge as such is false. Jesus is right, but Christianity is not
right. Mahavira is right, but Jainism is not right. With Mahavira there is
knowing; Jainism is knowledge. Knowledge is the fall of knowing. Knowing is
individual: knowledge is a commodity, a social phenomenon - you can sell and
purchase it, it is available in the libraries, in the universities. Soon you
will be able to carry small pocket computers with you; you will not need to go
through all the tortures of the schools and colleges and universities. You can
have a small computer full of all the knowledge available in the world. A small
computer can contain all the libraries of the world and is always at your
service: just push a button and whatsoever you want to know the computer will
tell you.
That's what your mind has been
doing in the past; now machines can do it in a far better way. Your mind is
also nothing but a machine, it is a biocomputer. Remember, it is not your soul;
remember, it is not your consciousness; remember, it is not your reality, your
authentic individuality. It is a social by-product.
If you are born in a Hindu
family you attain to Hindu knowledge, and it is certainly different from
Christian knowledge. If you are born in Russia you will have communist
knowledge - Das Kapital and the Communist Manifesto, Marx, Engels,
Lenin: the unholy trinity. If you are born in China you will have the red book
of Mao Zedong - that's the Bible. Now the whole of China is being fed with
stupid statements of Mao Zedong. He is not a wise man, he is not enlightened.
He has not even known himself - what revolution does he know? what rebellion
does he know? - because even the first rebellion, the basic rebellion, has not
happened.
The basic rebellion, the basic
revolution, consists in dropping knowledge so that you can again enter into the
Garden of Eden.
The wise man tells you where you have fallen and where you yet may fall...
Not only does he tell you about the past, where you have been falling again and
again, he makes you aware of the future also. There are many pitfalls, you can
go astray any time.
For example, I am telling you
that all knowledge is stupid, that you need not cling to the Bible or to the
Vedas or to the Koran. You love me, you trust me - you may drop your clinging
to the Koran, to the Bible, to the Gita, but you can start clinging to MY
statements, you can start making a Bible out of my ideas. You are back in the
same trap; you are back, from the back door. Again you are the same person. Now
you don't have the Bible but now you have me.
The wise man tells you... Where you yet may fall.
The last statement of Gautama
the Buddha to his disciples was: Be a light unto yourself.
They were crying and weeping,
naturally - the master was leaving and they had lived with the master for
almost forty years; a few older disciples had lived with him the whole time.
These forty years were of tremendous joy, of great experiences. These forty
years had been the most beautiful time possible, humanly possible. These forty
years had been days of paradise on earth. And now the master is leaving! It was
natural, they started crying and weeping.
Buddha opened his eyes and
said, "Stop crying and weeping! Have you not listened to me yet? Why are
you crying?"
His chief disciple, Ananda,
said, "Because you are leaving, because our light is leaving.
We see, we feel darkness
descending upon us. I have not yet become enlightened and you are leaving. If I
could not become enlightened while you were alive, what is the hope for me now
when you will be gone? I am in great despair, my anguish is incalculable, I
have wasted these forty years. I have been following you like a shadow, it was
tremendously beautiful to be with you, but now you are leaving. What is going
to happen to us?"
Buddha said, "You are
crying because you have not heard me yet. I have been telling you again and
again: Don't believe in me - but you have not listened. Because you have
believed in me, and now I am dying, your whole structure is falling apart. Had
you listened to me, had you created a light into your being rather than
becoming knowledgeable through me, if you had experienced your own self there
would have been no need to cry.
"Look at Manjushree!"
he said - Manjushree was another disciple of Buddha, one of the greatest. He
was sitting under a tree just close by, with closed eyes, so serene, so quiet,
so utterly blissful, that Buddha said, "Look at Manjushree! Go and ask him
why he is not crying."
They asked Manjushree. He
laughed and said, "What reason is there to cry? Buddha has helped me to
know my own light. I am thankful, I am grateful, but there is no darkness
descending. And how can Buddha die? I know I cannot die - how can Buddha die?
He will be here. Just as a river disappears in the ocean he will disappear into
the cosmos.
But he will be here! He will be
spread all over the cosmos. It is going to be something tremendously beautiful.
Buddha was confined to a small body; now his fragrance will be released, he
will permeate the whole of existence. I am tremendously happy that now Buddha
will be spread all over space. I will be able to see him rising in the sun and
I will be able to see him flying in a bird and I will be able to see him in the
waves of the ocean... and I will be able
to see him everywhere.
"He is simply leaving his
body. It was a confinement. And how do I know it? I know it because I have
known my own soul. I listened to him and you have not listened to him - -
that's why you are crying."
Buddha said, "Let me
repeat again: Appa Dipo Bhava - be a
light unto yourself."
Then he closed his eyes and
disappeared into the cosmos. But his last statement was also his first
statement. In fact that was his whole message - the whole of his life he was
repeating the same message again and again and again.
The wise man tells you where you have
fallen and where you yet may fall - invaluable secrets! Follow him, follow the
way.
When Buddha says, "Follow
me," he does not mean imitate him. When he says, "Follow me," he
does not say let him be a model to you; make your life according to his life -
no, not at all. "Following" him has a totally different meaning.
There is a Zen story:
A Zen mystic was celebrating a
certain festival which is celebrated only on your master's birthday. But people
were puzzled. They asked him, "As far as we know you have never had any
master. We have also heard rumors that you had approached a great master,
Bokuju, many times, but he always refused to accept you as a disciple. Not only
that, he used to chase you out of his hut. We have also heard that because of
your continuous persistence, he had beaten you a few times, and once he had
thrown you, physically, out of the window of his hut. He never accepted you, he
never initiated you - why are you celebrating this day? This is to be
celebrated only on your master's birthday."
And the mystic said, "Yet,
he was my master. His refusal, his throwing me out, his constant rejection, was
his initiation. He was saying, 'Be a light unto yourself - there is no need to
follow me.' Because of his continuous refusal I became enlightened sitting
under a tree. There was nobody to cling to.
"The only beautiful man
that I have known was Bokuju. If he had allowed, I would have become a shadow
to him. If he had allowed, I would have become another Bokuju. I have loved the
man, I would have imitated him in detail: I would have eaten the same things, I
would have walked the same way, I would have said the same things... I would
have been a carbon copy of him.
"But he was great, he was
my master - he refused. He knew where the pitfall is. The moment he looked into
my eyes he knew my future, that if he allows I am going to be a pseudo
phenomenon, I will never be an authentic individual. Knowing this he was very
hard on me. But now I know his hardness was because of his compassion. It is
because of him that I became enlightened. Hence I am celebrating this day - it
is my master's birthday."
Somebody asked him, "But
your life-style does not show any indication of Bokuju. Your statements are
utterly different - not only different but sometimes contradictory to his
statements. How can you say that he was your master and you are his
follower?"
And the mystic said, "Yes,
I say he was my master although he never initiated me formally. But formal
initiation is immaterial, irrelevant. And I still say that I am his follower,
though I cannot prove it by any documents - but there is no need to prove to
anybody. I know, that's all. I am his follower!"
The people insisted, "How
can you say that?"
And the mystic said, "He
never followed his master; I never follow him. That was his basic
characteristic: he never followed his master. And I never follow him - that's
how I follow him. I am a follower and he was my master."
Invaluable secrets! Yes, these
are invaluable secrets. The life of a real seeker is not an ordinary life. It
cannot be confined to a certain pattern, it cannot be confined to a certain
style of life - Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan. The life of a real seeker is the
life of freedom.
And when Buddha says:
FOLLOW HIM, FOLLOW THE WAY... he does not mean to become a
carbon copy, he simply means: try to understand his life. Watch, analyze,
meditate, and then let your meditation, your watchfulness, your witnessing,
become the way.
And following the wise man is
really not following the wise man himself, but the way - the way that has made
him wise.
What is that way that makes one
wise?
Two things... first the negative: drop knowledge. And second
the positive: enter into meditation.
A whole band of saints was
being admitted to heaven, and the doors swung open just enough to let each one
in.
As soon as one was in, without
any ceremony the doors closed and then opened for the next who went in without
any hesitation, as if he was quite expecting to be admitted.
Right at the end came a scholar
with a reverend beard and majestic gait, large turban and confident look. As he
stepped forward, the gates swung open and trumpets sounded while tremendous
applause broke out from an assembled multitude. A shining figure came forward
to escort him within.
"This is most
gratifying," said the scholar to himself, "to know that the learned
no longer will have to give themselves airs and graces. Here, at least, our
importance is recognized."
To the apparition he said,
"Why all this ceremony?"
"Well," said the
angel, "it is something of an occasion - you see, this is the first time
that we have had an academic among us."
It is almost impossible for the
knowledgeable to enter into heaven. It must have been an occasion! Hence saints
were not received with great ceremony, but the academician, the scholar, the
pundit, was received with great ceremony. It was so rare.
It is very rare, in fact it is
impossible... This story must be an
invention. Scholars are not known to enter into heaven; to be a scholar is to
be in the original fall. And to follow a life pattern from the scriptures is
bound to be erroneous, because who is going to interpret? Your stupid mind will
go on interpreting, and you will follow your own interpretation. You will be
going in circles, you will remain the same.
A man was limping as he walked
down a street, and wincing with pain.
A doctor stopped him and said,
"If I were you I would get yourself seen to - you need your appendix
out."
So he had his appendix out.
Presently he went to another doctor claiming that he still had the same
trouble, so he was put on a course of tranquilizers. This did not help and he
went to a hospital where they prescribed him a diet and remedial exercises.
Some weeks later he had to go
to another surgeon because those medicines were not helping at all. The surgeon
said, "Your tonsils have to be removed... " so the tonsils were
removed. And this way he went on going from one doctor to another, from one
surgeon to another, and parts of the body were slowly slowly disappearing. But
the problem remained the same!
Then one day he was strolling
in the marketplace and one of the doctors saw him. He said, "Glad to see
you - you look better! You look perfect!" said the physician. "How
did it happen? Who helped you finally? - because we had all failed. Was it my
service that helped you?"
"Service my eye!"
said the patient. "Both the pain and the limp went away the moment I took
that nail out of my shoe!"
Sometimes things are very
small, but if you go to knowledgeable people they look with magnifying glasses;
they magnify everything. They are clever and efficient in creating problems,
because they know the solutions. Their solutions are useful only if they create
problems.
Go to any expert, and
immediately he will tell you so many problems that you were never aware of. He
has to, because his whole expertise depends on your having many problems, and
the more complicated they are, the more happy he is because now he has an
opportunity to show his knowledge, his skill.
The real problem may be very
small. The real problem is REALLY small! The problem is that you live in the
head. Come down from the head to the heart. The head can become knowledgeable,
the heart can never become knowledgeable. The heart can become wise.
The heart knows in a totally
different way. Its knowing is direct, immediate - it is not logical, it is
intuitive. It is not inference, it is not a conclusion after a long
argumentation. It is a simple vision! One simply knows...
The heart is not a process of
knowing: it is the opening of an eye.
Let him chasten and teach you
And keep you from mischief.
The mind is mischievous. It
goes on befooling you; it plays so many mischiefs upon you that you are not
aware of. The first mischief is: the wise man shares his wisdom and you
immediately jump upon it and reduce it into knowledge. The second mischief is:
the wise man helps you to be yourself and you start hard work in imitating the
wise man - you try to be like him.
The wise man wants you only to
have insight into things so that you have your own light. But you don't want
insight, you want clear-cut instructions. You don't want to see yourself, you
want to be guided. You don't want to accept your responsibility towards
yourself; you want to throw the whole responsibility on the shoulders of the
master, on the shoulders of the wise man. Then you feel at ease. Now he is
responsible; if something goes wrong, he is responsible. And everything is
going to be wrong, because unless you take your responsibility nothing is ever
going to be right.
Nobody can put you right except
you yourself.
The master simply teaches you
to be a master of yourself - that is the true function of a master. He does not
want you to depend on him. But the mind goes on playing these mischiefs. The
mind wants you to depend. The mind is always in search of a father figure or a
mother figure; you want somebody to hold your hand. You want somebody to guide,
to lead.
The master can only indicate.
He is a finger pointing to the moon. But the mind plays a mischief: it clings
to the finger - you may even start sucking the finger.
A Zen master, Nan Yin, used to
say to his disciples, "Please don't bite my finger - look at the
moon!"
But people are childish. Just
like small children suck on their thumbs and believe that they are getting
nourishment, grown-up children suck on the fingers of the masters and think
they are being nourished. Beware of the mischief of the mind!
And the mind always tells you,
"This is simple, to believe in the master. You need not work hard - what
is the point of working hard? Just look: Albert Einstein discovered the theory
of relativity, now nobody else needs to discover it again and again. Once he
has discovered you can read it in the books. It took years for him; for you it
may take only hours to understand it. Why bother to discover it again?"
That is true about outer
knowledge, that is true about the outside, objective world; but it is not true
abut the subjective, inner world. There one has to discover again and again.
Buddha discovered, but that
discovery is of no use to you. Jesus knew, but that cannot become your knowing.
Mohammed understands, but there is no way to transfer it to you. These people
can only indicate how they have attained; they can share their whole journey
with you. But then you have to move on your own.
The mind is always for the
shortcut; and the mind is always for the easier, for the cheaper way. And those
are the things which drive you again and again into wrong paths. Beware! Mind
always gives you sugarcoated poison. But it tastes sweet only in the beginning;
in the end it is going to poison you. Wisdom may not taste so sweet in the
beginning - it in fact never tastes so sweet, it is bitter - but it purifies you.
Knowledge is sweet in the
beginning, wisdom is sweet in the end. And whatsoever proves sweet in the end
is the true thing.
The story is told about a man
who died and was met by an angel who said to him, "During your life you
were always of a mind to believe that things over here could not really be as
bad as you thought. Would you like to see heaven and hell and choose your own
destination, just as you have always chosen in your earthly life?"
Of course he agreed, and the
angel opened a door marked "Hell." Inside there were revelers and
people dancing and drumming; a constant debauch seemed to be going on, men and
women cavorting, demons and spirits prancing about. It all seemed very active
and interesting.
Then the angel threw open the
door marked "Heaven." Inside it were rows of saintly people sitting
and lying around in a state of aseptic bliss. But it all seemed rather cold,
dull and dead.
"I will take the first
one," said the man, because he did not want to spend all eternity doing
nothing.
They went back to the first
door and the angel opened it. He found himself pitchforked into a cavern full
of flames and grime, soot and fumes, with demons lashing the inmates and a
constant roar of thunder. Painfully and breathlessly he struggled to his feet and
stopped a passing devil: "I was taken on a tour and opted for hell, but it
was not anything like this!"
The demon grinned: "Oh,
but you were only visiting at the time. That was simply for the tourists!"
The mind can allure you, it can
give you sweet dreams in the beginning - but only in the beginning. Once you
are trapped, once you are in it, once you have chosen, you will suffer. That's
how millions of people are suffering.
Buddha says: let him chasten and teach you and keep
you from mischief.
The world may hate him
But good men love him.
And remember: a wise man is
always hated by the world, is bound to be hated by the world. His presence is a
disturbance to those who are fast asleep and snoring, because he goes on
shouting "Wake up!" He goes on telling you that whatsoever you are
doing is all illusory. He goes on shaking you, shocking you into awareness, and
you may be dreaming sweet dreams, beautiful dreams. He goes on pulling you out
of your dreams and your sleep, and your sleep may be comfortable, safe, secure.
And he does not allow you rest; he gives you great work to do upon yourself.
The ordinary humanity has
always hated a wise man - he may be a Buddha or a Socrates or a Zarathustra or
a Lao Tzu, it doesn't matter who, but down the ages the wise man has been hated
by the ordinary people, by the masses, by the crowds. The wise man has been
loved only by a few seekers of truth, a few lovers of truth, a few good men.
Remember it!
Do not look for bad company
Or live with men who do not care.
Find friends who love the truth.
That is the meaning of a
spiritual commune: find friends who love the truth - because
alone you may not be able to gather that much courage to go into the uncharted
sea. But when you see many are going, a great courage may arise in your heart.
It is there, lying dormant; it may become active. Hence a commune is needed -
Buddha created a SANGHA, a commune - where seekers can gather together, where
lovers of truth can hold hands with each other, where meditators can share
their experiences with each other, where people can feel that they are not
alone, where they can create an alternative society.
And that's exactly what I am
trying to do here: create an alternative society - the society of the friends
of truth, the society of the seekers, the society of people who can feel a deep
communion with each other, of love, of trust, because this is going to be an
arduous journey and a long journey, and you will have to pass through many
deserts and many mountains and many oceans.
Alone you may not be able to
gather that much courage, alone you may feel hopeless.
But when you see many people
dancing, singing, rejoicing in their journey, great courage arises in your
heart, great trust arises in yourself. You become confident that it is possible
in this life to be a buddha.
Do not look for bad company... What is "bad company"? People who
are not interested in truth. ...Or live with men who do not care. And avoid
people who are indifferent to truth, because they are going to waste their life.
To be with them you will have to be like them. To be with them you will have to
behave in their ways.
Find people who are in a love
affair with existence. That will help your search tremendously; you will be
immensely benefited.
Drink deeply... And when you
have found a wise man, a master, a buddha, when you have found a community of
seekers of truth, a sangha, then drink deeply, then don't be miserly, then
don't hold back. You have been thirsty for lives and lives. When the time
arrives, don't allow your old habit patterns to prevent you - drink deeply,
unhesitatingly, courageously. Go ahead!
Drink deeply.
Live in serenity and joy.
To be with a master is really
to be a drunkard. A master is sharing his wine! A master is sharing some inner
juice that has started flowing in his being. The source is inexhaustible; you
can drink as much as you want - you cannot exhaust it. To be with a master is
to learn how to drink him, how to eat him, how to digest him. To be a disciple
is really to be a cannibal! The master has to be eaten, drunk, digested, so he
starts flowing in your blood, in your bones, in your marrow... so that he becomes part of your being. Drink deeply.
Live in serenity and joy.
And when you are around a
master, don't be sad and don't be serious. That is not the way to commune with
a master. You are bridged only by rejoicing. Of course, your joy has to be very
serene, calm, cool. Real joy is not feverish, it is cool, it is very silent. It
sings a song, but the song is that of silence. It does not shout, it whispers.
Live in serenity and joy -
because the more serene you are, the more you are available to the master. And
the more joyous you are, the more you are close to the master. These are the
ways of being closer.
Many sannyasins ask me,
"How to be close to you, Beloved Master?" Be serene, be joyous... and you are close! Be sad, be serious, and you
are far, far away. Physically you may be close, but if you are sad you are not
close. Physically you may be thousands of miles away, but if you are in joy,
rejoicing that you have a master, rejoicing that you have found a buddha,
rejoicing that the earth is not yet abandoned by God, that he goes on sending
his messengers, rejoicing that Christ still walks on the earth, that Mohammed
is not dead but is born in another form, rejoicing that consciousness still
blooms and becomes a lotus like a buddha... and you have found a lotus!
You are fortunate, you are
blessed. Rejoicing in it brings you closer and closer to the master. It is a
spiritual closeness; it has nothing to do with physical closeness.
The wise man delights in the truth
And follows the law of the awakened.
And if you live joyously, in
deep serenity, if you drink without holding yourself in any way back, if you go
wholeheartedly with the master, you start becoming wise.
The wise man delights in the truth...
Then whenever you hear truth, whenever
you see truth, you delight. Your delight is immense. Your delight is not of
this earth, it is something of the beyond.
...And follows the law of the awakened.
And slowly slowly you become aware of the law of the awakened. Aes Dhammo
Sanantano! The world is not a chaos, it is a cosmos. The universe is
not accidental; there runs through and through in it a certain law. Buddha
calls that law dhamma - he calls that law God. His approach is tremendously
scientific. He does not preach any God who sits on a golden throne in the sky
and dominates and controls the world, and gets jealous and gets angry - if you
don't follow him he throws you into hell; if you follow him, if you praise him,
if you bribe him through prayers and priests, then he rewards you in heaven
with beautiful women who never age, who are stuck at the age of sixteen. Buddha
does not believe in any God who rewards or punishes. His approach is
scientific.
He says God means the ultimate
law that keeps the whole universe together. The universe is a garland - you see
the flowers but you don't see the thread running through the flowers; it is
hidden. That thread is God, and that God is known only by the awakened, by the
buddhas.
Drink deeply from the master,
absorb his being, absorb his presence... melt into his presence. Let his warmth and
compassion help to melt the ice of your ego. Become one with him. Drop duality.
Be bridged.
This is the meaning of
disciplehood, this is what sannyas is all about, and slowly slowly you will
start seeing what is true and what is false. To know the false as false is to
know the truth as the truth; to know darkness as darkness is the beginning of knowing
light as light. And when love for truth arises in you, it is not far away when
you will become enlightened in your own light, when you will be awakened.
Before that happens, follow the
law of the awakened, be in tune with the awakened, be in harmony with the
awakened - because it is a synchronicity.
Listening to beautiful music
you feel like dancing. It is not caused by music, because all those who are
hearing the music may not feel like that; so it is not the law of cause and
effect, it is a totally different law. Carl Gustav Jung has called it the law
of synchronicity; he has given it a beautiful name. It has been known down the
ages, but he is the first who has rediscovered it in the West.
In the East we have called it satsang:
to be in tune with the master, to be so attuned that his being starts sinking
in you, that you start overlapping. Then something starts happening in you
which has never happened. The master is not doing it, you are not doing it -
there is nobody who is doing it - it is simply happening. Just like listening
to music you feel like dancing; being in tune with the master you feel an
awakening happening to you.
The farmer channels water to his land.
The fletcher whittles his arrows.
And the carpenter turns his wood.
So the wise man directs his mind.
Once some fragments of wisdom
have happened to you, direct your mind towards the awakened. The disciple is
continuously directing his mind towards his master - even after the disciple
becomes enlightened he continues to direct his mind.
Sariputta became enlightened -
he was one of the great disciples of Buddha. When he became enlightened he was
very afraid to go in front of Buddha. Why? - because he knew now Buddha will
tell him to go and spread the word; he will have to leave the master.
It is said that for many days
he was hiding from the master, but finally Buddha inquired, "Where is
Sariputta? - because he has become enlightened, and you cannot hide a light.
Bring him, fetch him wherever he is!"
He was hiding in a cave. He was
brought forcibly. He said, "I don't want to go. I know what he is going to
do to me. He will say, 'Now you go, roam, wander, preach. Now you have become
awakened, wake up others!' And I don't want to leave the master.
How will I live without his
constant presence?"
But he had to leave. When he
came to Buddha, Buddha said, "Now go to the east and spread the word. You
have attained, now share it." And when the master orders, it has to be
followed.
With tears in his eyes he
touched the master's feet, went towards the east. But every morning the first
thing he would do, he would get up, bow down towards the west where the master
was dwelling.
People would ask him,
"Sariputta, you are now yourself a buddha in your own right - what are you
doing? Why do you go on bowing down every morning towards the west?"
He said, "It doesn't
matter whether I am enlightened or not. It is irrelevant, it is not the point.
My master is dwelling in the west; although I am far away, I am still nourished
by his presence. I can drop my enlightenment but I cannot drop my master.
Enlightenment is nothing
compared to the attunement with the master."
... The wise man directs his mind -
to truth, to the ultimate law of existence, to the awakened people. And when
you direct your mind towards the awakened people, or towards the law of
existence, slowly slowly the old mad mind starts settling, the old chattering
disappears. You become more and more silent and serene and tranquil. You become
a silent lake, all waves gone, not even ripples to be found. Only then is truth
reflected in you.
The wind cannot shake a mountain.
Neither praise nor blame moves the wise
man.
And then you are like a
mountain: nothing can shake you. And then praise or blame are not in any way
different to the wise man - they are all alike. Whether the ignorant person,
the unawakened person, praises you or blames you, what difference does it make?
Both come from his sleep. It is like a man in a dream shouts - blames, or
praises you. Will you take any note of it? Will you differentiate between the
two? A man in a dream may condemn you or may praise you - you know he is
dreaming, he is asleep. It doesn't matter! There is no difference. What he is
saying is all nonsense. When he wakes up he will laugh at it all himself, it
will look so ridiculous.
Hence, you can praise the
buddha, you can condemn him - millions will condemn him, very few will praise
him - but it makes no difference to him. He remains like an unmoving mountain,
an immovable mountain.
He is clarity.
Hearing the truth,
He is like a lake,
Pure and tranquil and deep.
He is not only clear - Buddha
says he is clarity, clarity itself. To be clear is a very ordinary thing; once
in a while you are also clear. Once in a while you can rise to a certain
clarity. But the mind is always there to play mischief again; again you will
fall.
You can jump for a moment and
you are beyond the law of gravitation - but for how long? A few seconds at the
most, and you are back again under the same law of gravitation.
To be clear is a momentary
phenomenon.
The wise man, the awakened man,
is not only clear - he is clarity. You cannot take it away from him. He is
clear through and through. He is utterly clear. All the weeds have been taken
out of him - he is only roses and roses, a row of roses. He has become pure
light, pure capacity to see. His vision is no longer clouded, his sky is
without clouds.
He is like a lake, pure and tranquil and
deep. His consciousness becomes a lake, and in that lake are
reflected all the stars and all the suns and all the moons and the whole sky...
and the whole truth, the whole
existence. In his silent lake of consciousness is reflected that which is, and
that is another name for God - that which is.
Meditate over these sutras; not
only meditate - imbibe their spirit. Buddha is sharing his invaluable treasures
with you, invaluable secrets... Follow him, follow the way.
Enough for today.
