Osho –
Dhammapada: The Way of The Buddha (Volume 3)
Chapter 7. He
is the charioteer
He is the charioteer.
He has tamed his horses,
Pride and the senses.
Even the gods admire him.
Yielding like the earth,
Joyous and clear like the lake,
Still as the stone at the door,
He is free from life and death.
His thoughts are still.
His words are still.
His work is stillness.
He sees his freedom and is freed.
The master surrenders his beliefs.
He sees beyond the end and the beginning.
He cuts all ties.
He gives up all his desires.
He resists all temptation.
And he rises.
And wherever he lives,
In the city or the country,
In the valley or in the hills,
There is great joy.
Even in the empty forest
He finds joy
Because he wants nothing.
Man is a seed of great potential:
man is the seed of buddhahood. Each man is born to be a buddha. Man is not born
to be a slave but to be a master. But there are very few who actualize their
potential. And the reason why millions can't realize their potential is that
they take it for granted that they already have it.
Life is only an opportunity to
grow, to be, to bloom. Life in itself is empty; unless you are creative you
will not be able to fill it with fulfillment. You have a song in your heart to
be sung and you have a dance to be danced, but the dance is invisible, and the
song - even you have not heard it yet. It is deep down hidden in the innermost
core of your being; it has to be brought to the surface, it has to be
expressed.
That's what is meant by
'self-actualization'. Rare is the person who transforms his life into a growth,
who transforms his life into a long journey of self-actualization, who becomes
what he was meant to be. In the East we have called that man the buddha, in the
West we have called that man the christ. The word 'christ' exactly means what
the word 'buddha' means: one who has come home.
We are all wanderers in search
of the home, but the search is very unconscious - groping in the dark, not
exactly aware what we are groping for, who we are, where we are going. We go on
like driftwood, we go on remaining accidental.
And it becomes possible because
millions of people around you are in the same boat, and when you see that
millions are doing the same things that you are doing, then you must be right -
because millions can't be wrong. That is your logic, and that logic is
fundamentally erroneous: millions can't be right.
It is very rare that a person
is right; it is very rare that a person realizes the truth.
Millions live lives of lies,
lives of pretension. Their existences are only superficial; they live on the
circumference, utterly unaware of the center. And the center contains all: the
center is the kingdom of God.
The first step towards
buddhahood, towards the realization of your infinite potential, is to recognize
that up to now you have been wasting your life, that up to now you have
remained utterly unconscious.
Start becoming conscious; that
is the only way to arrive. It is arduous, it is hard. To remain accidental is
easy; it needs no intelligence, hence it is easy. Any idiot can do it - all the
idiots are already doing it. It is easy to be accidental because you never feel
responsible for anything that happens. You can always throw the responsibility
onto something else: fate, God, society, economic structure, the state, the
church, the mother, the father, the parents... You can go on throwing the
responsibility onto somebody else; hence it is easy.
To be conscious means to take
the whole responsibility on your own shoulders. To be responsible is the beginning
of buddhahood.
When I use the word
'responsible' I am not using it in the ordinary connotation of being dutiful. I
am using it in its real, essential meaning: the capacity to respond - that's my
meaning. And the capacity to respond is possible only if you are conscious. If
you are fast asleep, how can you respond? If you are asleep, the birds will go
on singing but you will not hear, and the flowers will go on blooming and you
will never be able to sense the beauty, the fragrance, the joy, that they are
showering on existence.
To be responsible means to be
alert, conscious. To be responsible means to be mindful.
Act with as much awareness as
you can find possible. Even small things - walking on the street, eating your
food, taking your bath - should not be done mechanically. Do them with full
awareness.
Slowly slowly, small acts
become luminous, and by and by those luminous acts go on gathering inside you,
and finally the explosion. The seed has exploded, the potential has become
actual. You are no longer a seed but a lotus flower, a golden lotus flower, a
one- thousand-petaled lotus flower. And that is the moment of great
benediction; Buddha calls it nirvana. One has arrived. Now there is no more to
achieve, nowhere to go. You can rest, you can relax - the journey is over.
Tremendous joy arises in that moment, great ecstasy is born.
But one has to begin from the
beginning.
After a three-day drinking
bout, Tooley and Bragan registered at a hotel and asked for twin beds. However,
in the darkness they both got into the same bed.
"Hey!" yelled Tooley.
"I think a homo has crept in bed with me."
"There's a queer in my
bed, too," called Bragan.
"Let's throw the fairies
out," called back the first.
A terrific wrestling match
ensued and finally Tooley went sailing out of the bed. "How did you make
out?" he called from the floor.
"I threw my guy out,"
said the other Irishman. "How about you?"
"He threw me out."
"Well, that makes us even.
Get into bed with me."
This is how man is: in
darkness, utterly unconscious; doing things, not knowing why; simply doing
because there is an unconscious urge to do. Now, this is not only a mystic
hypothesis about man. Sigmund Freud, Gustav Jung, Alfred Adler and others, the
modern researchers into the psyche of man, have also come across the same fact.
Freud says man lives
unconsciously, although the mind is so cunning that it can find reasons,
motives. At least it can create a facade as if you are living a conscious life
- and that is very dangerous because you can start believing in your own
facade. Then your life is gone, then you will not be able to use this
tremendously valuable opportunity.
People go on doing unconscious
things - although they suffer, although they are immensely miserable, still
they go on doing the same things which bring misery to them. They don't know
what else to do. They are not there, they are not present; hence they can't do
anything. They are trapped in the unconscious instincts.
Hennessy, loaded to the gills,
was lurking on a dark and deserted street corner. Soon a man came walking by,
and Hennessy sprang out of the shadows, a gun in his hand.
"Stay where you are!"
he slobbered. Then he pulled a bottle out of his pocket. "Here,"
Hennessy ordered, "take a drink of this."
Too terrified to resist, the
poor schnook took the bottle and drank deeply. "Wow!" he exclaimed.
"That stuff tastes awful!"
"I know," gurgled the
crocked Irishman. "Now you hold the gun and force me to drink some."
The stuff that you are
drinking, that stuff that you call your life, is really awful! But you go on
forcing yourself, doing the same repetitive acts again and again - not knowing
what else to do, not knowing where else to go, not knowing that there are other
alternatives possible, that there are alternative life-styles possible. And the
greatest alternative is the religious dimension.
The religious dimension simply
means the dimension of being conscious, of being alert, of living a life with
self-remembrance. Let me add that by self-remembrance I don't mean
self-consciousness. Self-consciousness is a false phenomenon; it is another
name of ego. Self-remembering is a totally different phenomenon; it is the
cessation of the ego.
In self-consciousness there is
no consciousness, there is only self; in self-remembering there is no self, only
remembering.
Buddha's whole methodology is
that of self-remembering: SAMMASATI. It has been translated as
right-mindfulness or right awareness. What is RIGHT awareness? Can awareness
also be wrong? Yes, there is a possibility: if awareness becomes too much
focused on the object it is wrong awareness. Awareness has to be aware of
itself, then it is right awareness.
When you look at a tree, at a
mountain, at a star, you can be conscious - conscious of the tree, conscious of
the mountain, conscious of the star - but you are not conscious of the one who
is conscious of all these things. This is wrong awareness, focused on the
object. You have to unfocus it from the object, you have to help it turn
inwards. You have to bring it to your own interiority, you have to fill your
subjectivity with its light.
When one is full of light, not
showing other things in the light but only showing the light itself, then it is
right awareness and that is the door to nirvana, to God - to self-
actualization.
By birth you are only given an
opportunity. There is no inner necessity that you will really become, that your
potential will be realized, that you will really attain to beinghood. Only the
opportunity is given, then it is up to you. You will have to find the way, you
will have to find the master, you will have to find the right situation. It is
a great challenge.
Life is a great challenge to
know oneself. If this challenge is accepted, you really become man for the
first time; otherwise you go on existing on a subhuman level.
And it is not only the worldly
people who are living an unconscious life. The so-called religious are not in
any way different.
Father Duffy was sent to a
small Eskimo village in the coldest part of Alaska. Several months later, the
bishop paid him a visit. "How do you like it up here among the
Eskimos?"
"Just fine," replied
the priest.
"And what about the
weather?" asked the bishop.
"Ah, as long as I have my
rosary and my vodka I don't care how cold it is."
"I am glad to hear it.
Say, I could go for a bit of vodka myself right now."
"Absolutely," said
Father Duffy. "Rosary! Would you bring us two vodkas?"
The worldly, the otherworldly,
are not really different. There is only one difference that makes a difference
and that is of awareness, alertness. And the awareness can be practiced
anywhere: you need not go to the mountains, you need not go to the monasteries,
you need not renounce the world.
In fact, in the world it is
easier to practice awareness than anywhere else. This is my own experience, and
not only my personal experience but my observation of thousands of sannyasins,
too. The easiest way to become aware is to be in the world and practice it,
because the world gives you so many opportunities. A monastery cannot give you
so many opportunities. Living in a mountain cave, what opportunities do you
have to be alert? You will be more and more asleep there, more and more dull.
Intelligence will not be required, hence you will lose all sharpness of
intelligence. And awareness will not be required; there will be no challenge
for it. It is only in challenges that life grows; the greater the challenge,
the greater the opportunity. And the world is really full of challenges. Hence
to my sannyasins I say: never renounce.
Rejoice in the world! In the
past we have renounced too much and the result has been nil. How many buddhas
have we produced in the past? They can be counted on the fingers. Only rarely,
very rarely, a man became a Buddha, Christ or Krishna. Out of millions and
millions of seeds only one seed sprouted? That is not much. It has been a sheer
wastage of great human potential, and the reason has been the escapist attitude
of the religions.
I affirm life, I rejoice in
life. And I would like you all to be deeply, intensely, passionately in life,
with one condition only: alertness, watchfulness, witnessing. And I know the
difficulty arises, because you will be living with millions of sleepy people -
and sleep is contagious; just as awareness is. Awareness, too, is contagious;
hence the significance of being with a master.
The master cannot give you the
truth. Nobody can give the truth to anybody else; it is untransferable. The
master cannot take you to the ultimate goal, because there you will have to
arrive alone, nobody can accompany you. You cannot reach there by imitating the
master, because the more you imitate somebody, the falser you become. How can
you arrive to truth by becoming false?
Then what is the function of a
master? Then what is the use of searching for a master?
Then why be a disciple at all?
Still there is a reason, and the reason is that awareness is as contagious as
sleepiness. If you sit with a few people who are all feeling sleepy you will
start feeling sleepy.
A famous Sufi story says:
There was a fruit seller. He
had a very cunning fox who used to watch his shop.
Whenever he had to go out he
would tell the fox, "Be alert. Sit in my place and just watch. Watch every
activity that goes on around here. Don't allow anybody to steal anything. If
somebody tries to steal, make noises - I will run out of the house
immediately."
One day Mulla Nasruddin was
passing. He heard the shopkeeper talking to the fox, saying all these things,
"Be alert, watch every activity that is going on around, and if you see
that something is against us or somebody is trying to steal the fruits, make a
noise immediately and I will come out."
Mulla Nasruddin was very much
tempted. The shopkeeper went in. Nasruddin sat in front of the shop and just
started pretending he was falling asleep; with closed eyes he started dozing.
For a moment the poor fox
thought, "What to do? Should I make a noise? But sleep is not an activity
- in fact it is just the opposite - and the master has said that if some
activity goes on around... This is not activity: this man is falling asleep,
and what can a man who is asleep do, what harm?" But the fox was not aware
that Mulla was trying a Sufi strategy! By pretending to be falling asleep, by
dozing with closed eyes, slowly slowly he managed to make the fox fall asleep.
Then he stole the fruits.
When the master came back, the
fruits were gone... and the fox was snoring! He shook the fox and asked,
"What is the matter? Didn't I tell you if any activity happens you have to
make a noise so that I can come? But I never heard any noise."
The fox said, "But there
was no activity happening. Just one man came; he sat in front of the shop and
started dozing. Now, sleep is not an activity, is it? Sleep is
inactivity."
Simple logic! A poor fox and
simple logic.
"Then what happened to
you?" the owner asked.
The fox said, "That I
don't know, what happened to me. But the more I watched the man dozing, somehow
I started dozing myself and it was impossible to remain awake. I don't know
when I fell asleep."
If a few people are dozing and
you are sitting with them, you can see the point: the vibe of sleep reaches to
you. And similar is the case... although a little difficult because sleep is
downhill and awakening is uphill. It is a little harder task. But to be with a
man who is awake, who is a buddha, is bound to make you alert - just being with
the master.
We are affected continuously by
people around us. We may be absolutely oblivious of the fact that whatsoever we
think has been given by others to us; whatsoever we feel, even that, too, has
been given to us by others. The child learns by imitation. Even our emotions
may be just borrowed, not only our thoughts; our sentiments may be just
borrowed.
People even can die just
because of a borrowed idea. What is a motherland? - an idea which we go on
stuffing in the heads of small children. And we go on telling them that to die
for the motherland is to be a great man, is to be a martyr; to die for the
motherland is the greatest virtue.
In the past they used to say
the same thing about religions, churches: "To die for the church, to die
for your religion, is the sure way to enter into paradise. Instantly you are
uplifted into paradise if you die for your religion." Kill others for your
religion and it is not sin; die for your own religion and it is not suicide. Killing
is not murder, committing suicide is not suicide! Once these ideas have been
implanted in your being, imprinted in your being, they start functioning from
there.
Three boys, a Catholic, a Jew,
and a black kid, were sitting on a curb. A priest and a rabbi saw the boys.
The Catholic priest recognized
one of the kids as a member of his parish, so he said, "Sonny, what are
the two biggest things in your life?"
He said, "Father, the two
biggest things in my life are the Catholic church and my priest."
The rabbi looked down and
recognized the Jewish kid from his congregation. He said, "Son, what are
the two biggest things in your life?"
"Rabbi, the two biggest
things in my life are my congregation and my rabbi."
Both members of the clergy left
smugly satisfied. Then the little colored kid looked at his two buddies and
said, "Say, ain't neither one of you little mama's boys never had no girls
nor watermelon yet?"
We learn from others. It may be
your idea of God, it may be the priest, the rabbi - or the watermelon! It is
all the same: we learn from others.
In the close intimacy with a
master, two things happen: one is his contagious awareness, his contagious
love, his contagious compassion; and second, a great unlearning. Whatsoever you
have learned from sleepy people, whether it is about the watermelon or about
the rabbi - there is not much difference between watermelons and rabbis! What
you have learned from the established church and the state and the educational
system, which are all serving vested interests, which are all serving the past,
the dead past, which are not in your service... Remember, they are to exploit
you, they are to reduce you to machines - efficient, but machines are machines,
whether efficient or not efficient. Their function is to make you slaves of the
society - and the society is ill, the society is insane, the society is
pathological.
Two things happen in the
affinity of the master: the first, his contagious awareness; and the second: a
process of unlearning. He starts destroying all that you have learned. He
cannot give you the truth, I repeat, but he can take away the lies. And that is
one of the most essential things; without it, the truth can never happen to
you. Truth is going to happen to you in your aloneness, but before it can
happen all the blocks have to be removed: the blocks of lies that have been
placed in the way of truth.
The master can take away your
lies. His function is negative in that way, and positive in being contagious.
His vibe can touch and wake you up. He can be a sunray entering through the
window in your bedroom, falling on your face, and telling you that, "It is
morning, now get up!" making it very difficult for you to sleep. Yes, the
master can make it difficult for you to sleep and difficult for you to imitate
and difficult for you to learn from those who are really your enemies and not
your friends.
If these two things are
possible, your life starts moving, you are no longer stuck. Your seed has
fallen into the right soil: now in the right time the sprout will come. Soon
there will be spring and you will see your own flowers. And the flowers of
consciousness are the greatest flowers there are.
The sutras:
He is the charioteer.
He has tamed his horses,
Pride and the senses.
Even the gods admire him.
The moment your potential
becomes actual, the moment you are a realized soul, even gods admire you. Even
gods are far behind, because even gods have not yet become buddhas. They are
also living unconscious lives - maybe living in heaven. What you call angels in
Christianity are called gods in Buddhism. The angels living in heaven, even
they are not buddhas; they are as asleep as you are. The only difference is in
their situation: they are in paradise and you are on earth. But the difference
is not in their psychology; as far as their inner being is concerned it is as
dark as yours.
Hindus have never been able to
forgive Buddha, because he said that even gods admire a buddha, even gods
worship a buddha.
The story is told that when
Buddha became a buddha, when Gautama Siddhartha became enlightened, became a
buddha, gods came from paradise to worship him. They touched his feet and they
showered celestial flowers and they played celestial music.
Hindus have never been able to
forgive Buddhists for this story - gods worshipping a man? But see the point:
the gods are not worshipping a man, the gods are worshipping awareness, the
gods are worshipping buddhahood. Gods are not worshipping Gautama Siddhartha
the man, but the flame that has happened into his heart. That flame is eternal light,
that flame is divine. And even gods are yet far far away from it; they have to
attain it.
The idea of a buddha is higher
than the idea of gods. Buddhism is the only religion of the world which has
given man such dignity; no other religion has dignified man so highly. Buddhism
is the religion of man.
A Buddhist poet, Chandidas, has
said: sabar
upar manus satya, tahar upar nahin - the truth of man is the highest
truth, there is no higher truth than that.
But the truth of man does not
mean the body of man, the bones and the blood and the marrow, no. The truth of
man means the flame which is not yet lit in you. Once it is lit you are
transported into a totally different world. You have become part of the whole,
you are no longer separate. The way to reach to this actualization is: he is the
charioteer. He becomes a conscious master. His body is a chariot, he
drives it where he wants to, not vice versa. The unconscious man is driven by
his body.
Just watch yourself: your body
goes on driving you. Just a moment before you were not hungry, and you pass by
the side of a restaurant, and the smell of food... and suddenly you start
feeling hungry. The body is deceiving you, because just a moment before you
were not hungry at all, there was no hunger. This hunger is the body driving
you towards food. You were not even thinking of food just a moment before, and
the smells coming from the bakery - and suddenly a great desire, a great
hunger, has arisen in you. It is the body driving you; you are not the
charioteer. The chariot has become the master. This is the ordinary situation.
He has tamed his horses... Senses
are called the horses. In the ancient days in India there were chariots with
five horses. Great kings used to move in chariots with five horses. Those who
were the greatest, those who were called chakravartins - the world rulers - they used
to move in chariots with seven horses. Five horses represent the five senses...
and your five senses are continuously influencing you. A man who wants to be
really conscious has to start by becoming alert of these things.
If you take your dinner at a
particular time every day, and you see the clock and it is time... The clock
may have stopped, the clock may not be right, the clock may be one hour ahead,
but if it is time, immediately there is hunger. Now, this hunger is false,
created by the senses, created by the body - and you are going to be driven by
these senses your whole life?
All over the world, seekers of
truth have become aware of this phenomenon and they have reacted in two ways;
one is right, the other is wrong. The wrong way is to start fighting with your
senses and your body. By fighting you will never win. By fighting you will
become weaker, you will be dissipating energy. By fighting you will become
repressive - and that which is repressed will take revenge sooner or later.
Whenever it will find any opportunity to take possession of you, it is bound to
take possession of you - and with a vengeance!
You can fast for three days,
you can force your body to fast, but if it is repression, the fourth day the
body will take revenge - you will eat too much, for a few days you will eat too
much. In fact, if you had lost any weight in those three days, you will gain
more weight within a week. The body has taken the revenge, the body has taught
you a lesson.
Fighting is not the way - not
the way of the buddhas. Fighting is stupid; it is your own body, you need not
fight with it, you have just to be more watchful of it. If some watchfulness
starts crystallizing in you, you will be surprised that the body starts
following you. It no longer commands you, it no longer orders you: it becomes
obedient to you.
When the master has arrived,
the servants immediately fall in line. But the master is asleep, that's why the
servants are pretending to be the masters.
He is the charioteer. He has tamed his
horses... They have not to be killed or destroyed but tamed. They
are beautiful animals! If tamed they can be of tremendous value, they can be of
great service to you.
A buddha is not one who
destroys his senses, but is one who makes his senses more clear, more clean,
more sensitive - but he remains the master. A buddha sees far more than you
see, his eyes are far more receptive, because there is no smoke in his eyes, no
clouds in his consciousness.
He sees the same green trees,
but the trees are far greener for him than they are for you.
He smells the same perfume but
it is far more for him than it is for you. He sees the same beauty, but it
gives him great ecstasy. It may not give you any ecstasy at all; you may bypass
it. You may not even see the nazunia flower by the side of the road. What to
say of the nazunia - you may not even see a roseflower. You are so much
occupied, your senses are so full of information; they are not empty and available.
Your senses are not very sensitive.
The buddha does not kill them,
but many saints have been doing that stupidity. There have been Christian
saints in Russia - a long tradition - who used to cut off their genital organs;
the nuns used to cut off their breasts. Ridiculous, stupid! What more stupidity
can you expect than this? How can you be a master by cutting off your genital
organs? - because sexuality is not there, sexuality is in the head. And, of
course, you cannot cut off your head. And even if you cut it off, it is not
going to make any difference; you will be born again with a far filthier head!
Now we know - scientific
research has proved it beyond doubt - that sexuality has nothing to do with the
genital organs; it is not there. The genital organs are triggered by the head;
in the brain there are centers. Pavlov and B.F. Skinner's work has been of
tremendous value in this field. I don't agree with their behavioristic
approach, but what they have researched can be used by the mystics, can be used
by the seekers of truth, by the explorers of their inner being, in a very
valuable way.
Skinner has found that in the
brain there are centers - centers for food, centers for sex, centers for
everything. You touch with an electrode the sex center in the brain, and
immediately you have an orgasm. A great joy arises in you as if you have made
love to a woman. Skinner was experimenting with rats; he fixed an electrode in
the sex center in the brain of the rat and he taught the rat how to push a
button if he wants an orgasm.
He was surprised what the rat
did; he had never thought that rats are so sexual. The rat completely forgot
about food, about everything. Even if there was danger, even if a cat was
brought, the rat was unafraid. Who cares? He was continuously pushing the
button, continuously... six thousand times! Until the rat fell utterly
exhausted, almost dead, he went on pushing, because each push and there was an
orgasm.
Now sooner or later this is
going to happen to you too! It will be far easier, far more comfortable -
because to have a woman or to have a man is such a conflict. You can just have
a small, matchbox-sized computer in your pocket - nobody will ever know what
you are doing! You can go on moving your rosary and with the other hand you can
push the button, and people will think that the ecstasy is happening because of
the rosary. And your face will glow... But if it becomes possible you will be
in the same situation as the rat: you will die by pushing your button too much,
you will forget everything else.
Genital organs have nothing to
do with sex; everything is contained in the brain. Your hunger has nothing to
do with your stomach; that too is contained in the brain. That's why at the
right time, looking at the clock, suddenly the hunger. And the smell of the
bakery does not go into the stomach, remember, it goes into the brain. It
triggers a certain center in your brain, it pushes a button in the brain, and
suddenly you are hungry. Now, destroying your body is not going to help,
starving your body is not going to help. Even committing suicide is not going
to help. Only one thing can help, and that is awareness.
If you become aware... awareness
is not a part of the brain. Awareness is behind the brain, awareness is capable
of seeing the brain.
You will be surprised to know
that whatsoever modern psychological methods have been able to discover was
discovered thousands of years before by the mystics in the East. Buddha was
perfectly aware of the brain centers, Patanjali was perfectly aware of the
brain centers. And the only way is to find something which is beyond the brain
and move to that beyond and remain there. There is your mastery; from there you
are the charioteer, from there all the horses are in your hands. And then they
are beautiful!
Senses are not ugly - nothing
is ugly. Even sex has its own beauty, its own sacredness, its own holiness. But
if you are rooted and centered in your beyond, in your consciousness, then
everything has a different meaning, a different context. Then eating has its
own spirituality.
The Upanishads say: annam brahma
- food is God. The man who had said this must have tasted God in food. And the
tantrikas in the East have been saying it for centuries, that sex has the
greatest potential to realize samadhi. It is the closest point - the sexual
orgasm is the closest to the spiritual orgasm, hence you can learn much from
it. In sexual orgasm time disappears, ego disappears, mind disappears. In
sexual orgasm, for a moment the whole world stops.
The same happens in the spiritual
orgasm on a far bigger scale. The sexual is momentary and the spiritual is
eternal, but the sexual gives you a glimpse of the spiritual.
Senses have to be tamed, not to
be destroyed, remember ...pride and the senses.
Even the gods admire him. Tame the
senses, tame the pride. If the pride masters you, it is ego; if you are the
master, then it is only self-respect. And every person of integrity has
self-respect. Self-respect is not egoistic, not at all. Self-respect simply
means, "I love myself, I respect myself, and I will not allow anybody to
humiliate me. I will not humiliate anybody and I will not allow anybody to
humiliate me. I will not create slavery for anybody and I will not be a slave
to anybody either."
That is pride tamed. Then it
has become a servant and it is beautiful.
Yielding like the earth,
Joyous and clear like the lake,
Still as the stone at the door,
He is free from life and death.
The man who has become awakened
becomes yielding
like the earth. He loses all rigidity. He is not like a rock; he is
like soft earth. And only the soft earth can be fertile, can be creative. The
rock remains impotent; it creates nothing, nothing grows on it, nothing can
grow in it. The rock remains utterly empty. But the yielding earth - soft,
humble, surrendering, receptive, womblike - can give birth to new experiences,
can give birth to new visions, new songs, new poetries. The awakened person is
not rigid.
In the words of Lao Tzu, he is
not like the rock but like water. His way is the way of water - the watercourse
way.
Joyous and clear like the lake...
The man who is awakened, who is alert, becomes clear; all his confusions are
gone. Not that he has been able to find solutions, no, but because all his
questions have disappeared. Not that he has found the answers - there is no
answer to be found. Life is a mystery and remains a mystery; life cannot be
demystified. And because he knows the mystery of life and now there are no
longer any questions and no longer any conflicting answers, he is very clear,
he is clarity itself, and he is joyous.
Why is he joyous? - because now
he knows that the whole kingdom of God is his. Now he knows that he is not an
outsider here, that he belongs to existence and the existence belongs to him.
He has become part of this infinite celebration that goes on and on. He is a
song in this celebration, a dance in this celebration.
Still as the stone at the door... Yielding
like the earth and still like the rock, silent, unmoving... He is free from life and death.
And he is not only free from death, remember: the moment you are free from
death you are free from this life also - this so-called life. Then there is
another life... Buddha does not name it, he will not give it any definition; he
simply leaves it there. He leaves the sentence incomplete, because he knows
anything said will destroy the beauty of it. Anything said will give it a
limitation, and it is unlimited. Anything said is bound to be inadequate.
So he says only one thing: he
is free from this life and this death. The life that you have known and the
death that happens every day - this life and this death both disappear for the
awakened one. Time disappears, and life and death are two sides of time. Then
he is eternity. He becomes one with the whole; you cannot find him as a
separate entity anywhere.
Where is Gautama the Buddha
now? Now he is in the air you breathe and in the water you drink and in the
birds that go on singing and in the trees and in the clouds. Where is Buddha
now? He has become the universe! The dewdrop has become the ocean, but the
dewdrop has disappeared as a dewdrop. Now there is no life and death for the
dewdrop; it exists no more - how can there be a life for it? It exists no more,
so how can it die? It has gone beyond the duality of life and death.
His thoughts are still.
His words are still.
This is a tremendously
important statement. His thoughts are still. That is simple and can
be understood, because a man who is alert need not think.
Thinking is needed because we
cannot see. If a blind man wants to go out of this hall he will have to think;
he will have to ask somebody; he will have to plan where to move, where are the
steps, where is the door, and he will grope with his stick. But if a man has
eyes he need not ask, he need not think. He simply gets up, he simply starts
moving towards the door. He gets out of the door, not thinking about it at all.
But the blind man cannot afford not to think. And this is how the sleepy man
has to think - the sleepy man is blind.
The man with awareness has
inner eyes, has insight. He can see, and because he can see he need not think.
Seeing is enough. Thinking is a poor substitute for seeing. His thoughts are
still... But even more important is the statement: his words are
still. It is a contradiction in terms: "His words" means
he speaks. Buddha spoke; otherwise we would not have these tremendously
significant sutras. For forty-two years he was speaking continuously - day in,
day out, year in, year out; morning, afternoon, evening he was speaking. But he
says: his
words are still.
If you are really attuned, if
you are really silent in the presence of the master, you will see: his words are
still. His words carry a silence around them, his words are not
noisy. His words have a melody, a rhythm, a music, and at the very core of his
words is utter silence. If you can penetrate his words you will come across
infinite silence.
But to penetrate the words of a
buddha, the way is not analysis, the way is not argument, the way is not
discussing. The way is falling in rapport with him, becoming attuned with him,
being in a synchronicity with him. It happens: a moment comes between the
disciple and the master when the very heart of the master and the heart of the
disciple beat in the same rhythm, when the breathing of the master and the
breathing of the disciple are in the same rhythm. When the master breathes out,
the disciple breathes out; when the master breathes in, the disciple breathes
in. Everything becomes so attuned.
In that attunement, in that
at-onement, one enters into the very core of the master's words. And there you
will not find any sound, any noise; there you will find absolute silence. And
to taste it is to understand the master. The meaning of the word is not
important, remember, but the silence of the word. The meaning can be understood
by anybody who understands language, that is not difficult; but the silence can
be understood only by the disciple, not by the student.
The student listens to the
word, understands its meaning, and that's that. He will understand the
philosophy of Buddha, but he will not understand the Buddha himself.
He will understand his
theories, but he will miss his being.
The disciple may not be able to
say what his master's teaching is, he may not be able to reproduce his
philosophy, he may be at a loss. If you ask him, "What is the teaching of
your master?" he may become dumb. But he understands the master - not what
he says but what he is.
There is a very beautiful
story:
When Buddha died, all the
enlightened disciples gathered together to write down the message of the
Buddha, because now the master is gone and for the coming generations the
treasure has to be collected.
There were great enlightened
disciples, but nobody could exactly reproduce it. A few of them were absolutely
silent; when they were asked they shrugged their shoulders. A few said,
"It is impossible, it can't be done." A few others said, "We
would not like to commit any mistakes, and mistakes are bound to happen,
because what we have seen in the man is impossible to express in
language." In fact, not a single enlightened disciple was ready to compile
the philosophy of the Buddha.
Then Ananda was approached. He
was the only one who had lived with Buddha for forty-two years and was not yet
enlightened. He had remembered all, everything; he had the whole collection,
word for word. His memory must have been just extraordinary. But there was a
problem. The problem was: can you believe in the words of an unenlightened
person about an enlightened person?
Those who are enlightened are
not ready to say anything; the one who is ready to reproduce the whole
philosophy, word for word, from the beginning to the end, from the first
statement that Buddha made to the last... but he is not enlightened. Can you
rely on his memory? Can you rely on his interpretation? Now, this is really an
insoluble problem: those who know, those who can be relied upon, are not ready
to say anything, and the one who is ready to say cannot be relied upon - he is
not enlightened himself.
Then the whole gathering told
Ananda, "Do one thing - don't waste a single moment.
Bring your total energies and
become as alert as possible. If you can become enlightened before your death,
then something is possible. We will not collect your statements unless you are
enlightened. You remember - you are the only one who remembers absolutely - but
we cannot trust it."
How can you trust a blind man's
report about someone who had eyes and was talking about colors, light,
rainbows, flowers? How can you believe in the report of a blind man? It is
absurd, it cannot be believed!
So the congregation prayed to
Ananda, "You are the only hope. If you can become enlightened we will be
able to accept whatsoever you say, but we will not be able to accept it unless
you become enlightened."
Ananda had lived for forty-two
years with Buddha, but because Buddha was so close to him he had started taking
him for granted. It happens. It happens here too. Many of you who are close to
me can start taking me for granted. Ananda was very close, the closest one; he
was not much concerned about his enlightenment. Whenever he was told he said,
"I am not worried about it. Buddha is going to take care of me. I have
been serving him for forty-two years - is he not compassionate enough to help
drag me out of the darkness? He will do it. And what is the hurry? Why be in
such a haste? It can happen tomorrow, it can happen the day after tomorrow.
Buddha is there."
And for forty-two years he had
been postponing and believing deep down in his heart that, "Buddha will do
it. Although he says nobody can make anybody else enlightened, I know he can do
it. I know miracles have been happening around him. And at least, if not for
anybody else, for me he is going to make an exception. I have served him so
much. And then he is always there; if today I miss, tomorrow; if tomorrow I
miss, the day after tomorrow. Where is he going? He is always there."
The day Buddha died, he said to
Ananda, "Ananda, now I will not be here tomorrow.
So make haste, hurry! Now no
more postponing."
And it happened that after
Buddha's death, when the congregation prayed to Ananda, for twenty-four hours
he sat with closed eyes. This was for the first time in his whole life. In
fact, there was so much happening around Buddha that it was impossible to close
the eyes. The whole day so many things were happening and Ananda was too
occupied. Now Buddha was gone and nothing was happening anymore, there was
nothing to see. He closed his eyes and for twenty-four hours, for the first
time, he sat in silence.
He became enlightened within
twenty-four hours. This had not happened in forty-two years; it happened in
twenty-four hours. When he became enlightened, when all the enlightened
disciples recognized his aura, his light, his luminousness, then they said,
"Now Ananda can be allowed to come in the assembly. He can relate and we
will compile."
That's how all the Buddhist
sutras have been compiled.
But only an enlightened person
can be trusted. Why? - because he can see. And he can see into the words and
find the silence - which is the real message. If you listen to the meaning, you
are a student; if you listen to the silence, you are a disciple. And if you
completely forget who is talking and who is listening, you become one with the
master - - you are a devotee.
These are the three stages: the
student, the disciple and the devotee. The student understands the meaning of
the words, the disciple understands the silence of the words, and the devotee
becomes the silence itself. HIS THOUGHTS ARE STILL. HIS WORDS ARE STILL.
His work is stillness.
His whole work is stillness, he
creates stillness. He creates devices to create stillness.
He sees his freedom and is freed.
The master surrenders his beliefs.
Once you become enlightened all
that you have believed before becomes ridiculous, irrelevant, absurd, nonsense.
It is like the belief of the blind man in light. Whatsoever he had believed
before, whatsoever he had thought in his blindness that light is... once his
eyes open he will have to drop all his beliefs about light. Not a single word
out of those beliefs is going to be true. It is impossible for the blind man to
conceive what light is.
What to say about light? - the
blind man cannot even conceive anything about darkness either, because to see
darkness you need eyes as much as to see light. The blind man knows nothing of
darkness and nothing of light.
Once you become awakened all
your beliefs in gods, heaven, hell, karma, reincarnation, this and that, they
all become simply rubbish. The master surrenders his beliefs...
He sees beyond the end and the beginning.
Now there is no need to believe
- he can see beyond the beginning and beyond the end.
He can see the whole through
and through. Seeing is the goal.
In India we don't have an
equivalent word for philosophy. We have a totally different word for it, that
is darshan. Ordinarily it is
translated as 'philosophy'; it is not.
Philosophy means something of
the mind; darshan simply means insight, vision, seeing. In the East we have
called the greatest ones, the seers. We have not called them prophets, we have
not called them philosophers, we have called them seers - they have seen. The
East has always believed in seeing, not in thinking.
To translate 'darshan' into
English is very difficult. To call it philosophy is to be unfair; it destroys
the whole beauty of the word 'darshan'. So I translate it with 'philosia'.
Philosophy means love for
knowledge: 'sophia' means knowledge, 'philo' means love.
Philosia means love for seeing
- 'sia' means seeing. Once you have seen, all beliefs wither away like dry
leaves falling from the trees.
He cuts all ties.
He gives up all his desires.
He resists all temptation.
And he rises.
Now a totally new law starts
functioning: the law of levitation. Ordinarily things fall downwards, but the
man of awakening rises upwards. Everything in him starts rising upwards,
soaring upwards. He has to cut all ties, because those ties are with the earth.
He has to give up all desires,
because those desires are the ties that keep him tethered to the earth.
He resists all temptation. Many
times the old mind will try to assert itself.
Many many times the mind will
make efforts to bring you back to the earth.
Kahlil Gibran says: When a
river comes closer to the sea, it waits for a moment, looks backwards - all
those joys, the mountains, the virgin snows where it originated, the forests,
the solitude of the forests, the birds, their songs, the people, the plains,
thousands of experiences, the long journey... And now the moment has come to
disappear into the ocean. The whole past pulls backwards. The whole past says,
"Wait!
You will be lost forever. You
will never be the same. Without your banks, how can you be? You will lose your
definition."
Exactly the same happens when
you come closer to buddhahood: when all is being lost, all ties, all desires,
great temptations arise. There is no Devil to tempt you; it is your own mind,
your own past experiences. Your whole loaded past tries to pull you backwards,
but now nothing can pull you backwards. The call has been heard, the invitation
has arrived.
He cuts all ties. He gives up all his
desires. He resists all
Temptation. And he rises.
And wherever he lives,
In the city or the country,
In the valley or in the hills,
There is great joy.
And not only that he is joyous:
wherever he is he brings a climate of joy. Joy surrounds him.
It is said that wherever Buddha
would move, trees would bloom out of season, rivers would start flowing in the
summer season when there was no water. Wherever Buddha would move there would
be peace, silence, love, compassion, all around. This is really so; not that
trees will bloom out of season - these are metaphors - but whenever there is a
buddha something mysterious starts happening. People start blooming out of season,
joy spreads, great waves of joy.
When you enter into the
buddhafield you enter into a totally different world: the world of blessings,
the world of benedictions.
Even in the empty forest
He finds joy
Because he wants nothing.
And he is everywhere joyous,
because the only thing that destroys your natural capacity of rejoicing is your
desiring mind. The desiring mind makes you a beggar.
Once all desires have been
dropped you are the emperor. Joy is a natural state of your being.
Just let there be no desire and
see. When there is no desire there is no mind. When there is no desire there is
no turmoil. When there is no desire there is no past, no future.
When there is no desire you are
utterly contented herenow. And to be contented herenow is joy.
And whenever such a man moves,
wherever he moves, he brings his climate with him.
A buddha is in the spring
season all the year round. And fortunate are those who come in some way close
to him, blessed are those who become associated with him, because they also
share his joy, his benediction, his wisdom, his love, his light.
Enough for today.
