Osho –
Dhammapada: The Way of The Buddha (Volume 6)
Chapter 9. Mind
is a fraud
Let go of anger, let go of pride.
When you are bound by nothing,
You go beyond sorrow.
Anger is like a chariot careering wildly.
He who curbs his anger
Is the true charioteer.
Others merely hold the reins.
With gentleness overcome anger,
With generosity overcome meanness,
With truth overcome deceit.
Speak the truth,
Give whatever you can,
Never be angry.
These three steps will lead you
Into the presence of the gods.
The wise harm no one,
They are masters of their bodies
And they go to the boundless country,
They go beyond sorrow.
Those who seek perfection
Keep watch by day and night
Till all desires vanish.
Listen, atula, this is not new,
It is an old saying.
They blame you for being silent,
They blame you when you talk too much
And when you talk too little.
Whatever you do they blame you.
The world always finds a way to praise
And a way to blame.
It always has and it always will.
But who dares blame the man
Whom the wise continually praise,
Whose life is virtuous and wise,
Who shines like a coin of pure gold?
Even the gods praise him,
Even brahma praises him.
Be aware of the anger of the body,
Master the body,
Let it serve truth.
Be aware of the anger of the mouth,
Master your words,
Let them serve truth.
Be aware of the anger of the mind,
Master your thoughts,
Let them serve truth.
The wise have mastered body, word and mind,
They are the true masters.
The first sutra:
Let go of anger, let go of pride.
When you are bound by nothing, you go
beyond sorrow.
The most important thing to be
understood is that Buddha is not saying, "Repress anger, repress
pride." And he is not saying, "Drop anger, drop pride," either.
He is using the words let go of anger, let go of pride. The key is
in the words 'let go'.
There are people who are full
of anger, possessed by anger, possessed by pride. They are insane. Insanity is
the climax of pride and anger. And there are people who are afraid of anger and
pride; hence they repress them. But a repressed insanity is far more dangerous,
because it accumulates. Then you are sitting on a volcano. It can erupt any
moment. It will destroy you. It will destroy others who are related to you. It
is poison.
If one has to choose between
the two, expressing or repressing, then expressing is far better, because at
least the poison never accumulates. It is thrown in mild doses, homeopathic
doses. But if you accumulate, it is no longer homeopathy, it becomes allopathy.
Then the doses are big and, sooner or later, your repressed anger will be so
powerful that you will not be able to keep it repressed anymore. Then it simply
explodes and you are absolutely helpless.
Humanity has been taught by the
priest, the politician, the pedagogue down the ages to repress anger. The
society is not concerned with you, it is concerned only with your outer
appearance. What happens to your inner world is nobody's business; whether you
suffer, live in hell inside, that is left to you. Just keep a beautiful
appearance, learn etiquette, behave in a cultured way and if you are carrying a
hell that is your problem.
But the person who is carrying
a hell within, howsoever cultivated he becomes, sophisticated, cultured, he
remains a wild animal within. Scratch him a little bit and his humanity will
disappear, his character will disappear and you will find just the opposite
kind of man inside. That's what happens when somebody drinks too much. A very
cultured man, once he is intoxicated, starts being very uncultured. That is his
truer self. Alcohol has not created it; it has only removed the barriers, it
has only removed the rocks that were repressing it.
In the East there has been a
secret tradition of tantrikas who go on practicing meditation - and side by
side they go on taking drugs in greater and greater amounts for a certain
reason. They are not interested in drugs, they are interested in meditation.
But they go on increasing the amount of the drug slowly slowly, so that they
can remain alert with the drug. It takes a long time, it is a very subtle
process of awakening.
In the hands of the fools it
will be destructive, it will be suicidal. Hence it is a sacred tradition. Only
the master gives it to the disciple - and very rarely. If he finds some
disciple of such integrity, then only does he give this process: "Meditate
and go on increasing the amount of the drug so slowly that it never overpowers
you and your watchfulness remains intact."
But the drug will start
removing all rocks and it will bring up all that you have repressed down the
ages in your many lives. Watching it you will be allowing it to disappear. That
is the magic of watching. If you watch something, either it is going to
disappear totally from your being, or it is going to be dissolved into your
being. If it is something natural, spontaneous, it will be dissolved into your
being. That too is beautiful. If it is something not part of your being,
extraneous - has come from the outside, is a parasite on you - it will
evaporate.
The real definition of good and
bad can only be this: the good is that which grows with meditation,
watchfulness, and the bad is that which disappears as you grow in watchfulness,
as you grow in awareness. Awareness has to be the decisive factor. When you
become aware of your anger there happens a let-go, because anger is not part of
your natural being, neither is pride. They start evaporating. As the sun of
awareness rises in you, they start evaporating like dewdrops in the early
morning sun.
And the second thing to
remember: Buddha makes these two statements together, let go of anger, let go of pride.
Why? There is a reason: pride is ego, "I am superior, I am holier, I am
greater, I am something special, I am." Ego is the root cause of anger. If
you think you are superior, higher, holier, special, you will be constantly
angry, because the world is not going to accept it. In fact everybody else also
thinks in the same foolish way. And when there are so many great people,
conflict is bound to arise. And everybody is trying to prove that, "I am
greater than you." How can you avoid conflict? And that conflict brings
anger. It is ego hurting, it is ego feeling the wound, it is unsatisfied ego
that creates anger. And nobody's ego can be satisfied, that is impossible.
Even a man like Napoleon could
not feel his ego absolutely satisfied, for the simple reason that he was not
very tall - only five feet five inches. And that was always heavy on him,
because he had many servants, guards who were very much taller than himself.
And whenever he would see a
tall person he would become angry. He would not be able to control himself.
The great Russian leader,
Lenin, had very small legs. His torso was bigger, his upper body was bigger;
his lower body was very small, disproportionate. That kept him always angry.
Even if somebody looked at his feet - which was natural, because they were so
disproportionate that anybody looking would notice - he would become angry
immediately. Anybody looking at his feet would create anger.
He used to sit on a big chair -
so big that his feet wouldn't touch the ground - so nobody would think that he
had small feet. But people had become aware of his big chair; they would look
more closely and that would again create anger, because they would see that his
feet were not touching the ground at all. Now, to be the dictator of the
greatest country in the world, Soviet Russia, the largest country in the world
and yet feeling hurt for a very stupid reason... that you have small legs!
You cannot have all and
everything. You can arrange to have a few things, but a few other things will
be missing. You may be tall, but you may be ugly. Any small thing is enough to
hurt the ego. You may be very tall and very handsome, but unintelligent - you
may have a very mediocre mind. You may have a very intelligent mind, but a very
ill body. You may have a very strong body, a very good physique, but you don't
have any intelligence. You can't manage all. You may have intelligence, a
beautiful body but no money. The world is vast and there are a thousand and one
things and nobody can manage to have it all - nobody has ever been able to.
And the ego is bound to be
wounded; the ego is very sensitive, very fragile, because it is very false. It
is ego that creates the space in which anger arises. Hence Buddha says, let go of anger,
and immediately adds, let go of pride. Because unless you let go of
the ego you will not be able to let go of anger. Anger is a by-product. And one
has to see very clearly the causes of things. Your minds are so jumbled up, in
such a mess, you don't know what is the cause and what is the effect.
A woman used to come from a
faraway village to the city each year to give birth to a child. When she came
for the seventeenth time the doctor said, "We always wait for you. You are
the only one we can depend on that each year you will be here. When will you be
coming the next year?"
She said, "I'm not coming
anymore, because we have just discovered what is the cause of it all."
Seventeen children and they
have just discovered the cause of it all! She said, "I am not coming
anymore."
But that too is early. You may
have lived thousands of lives and you have not yet been able to find the
cause... why this anger? Our minds are in such a mess that you cannot make head
or tail of it. You cannot sort it out. Everything is so mixed up with
everything else: causes pretending to be effects, effects pretending to be
causes, things which are not related at all have become accidentally associated
with each other.
Betty Engrove, the singer,
switched on her radio one morning and tuned in on two stations at once: one
broadcasting calisthenic exercises and the other giving out cooking recipes.
Here is what she heard:
"Hands on hips, place one
cup of flour on your shoulder. Touch your toes and mix them in one half cup of
milk, repeat six times. Inhale one half teaspoon of baking powder, lower the
legs and mash two hard boiled eggs, exhaling into a bowl and breathe naturally.
Lie flat on the floor and roll in the white of an egg until it comes to a boil.
In ten minutes lift your head from the fire and scrub briskly with a rough
towel. Bend your knees, shake powdered sugar on them and serve it with
soup."
And your mind is tuned to so
many stations, not just two! All kinds of things are going on inside the mind.
One day just sit down and write whatsoever is coming into the mind. And don't
cheat, just write exactly whatsoever comes in and you will be surprised that
this is your mind, this is where you have been living your life from. You will
find it absolutely insane.
It is good that we don't have
windows in the head, otherwise other people would look inside and they would be
surprised; they would not be able to believe that this is you.
You also will not be able to
believe that this is what your mind is.
But this is the reality. People
never look inside. In fact, as if unconsciously, they suspect that if they look
inside they will find insanity there. It is better not to look; avoid, keep the
mind in the dark and remain occupied with something in the outside world.
People keep themselves busy without business for the simple reason that it
helps them not to look in. They have become alienated from their own minds.
If you look in, in the
beginning of course it is going to be a chaos; but if you start watching the
chaos, slowly slowly things start settling and you will be able to see what are
the causes and what are the effects. Once you have known the causes, you are on
the right track. Many people are fighting with the effects. You can never win,
you are bound to lose. Effects are only symptoms. You cannot fight with anger,
because it is only an effect - the cause is ego.
You cannot fight with causes
either; unless you find that this is the ultimate cause.
Anger is an effect; for anger,
ego is the cause. But if you go deep down, watching your ego you will be
surprised, it is also in its own turn an effect - an effect of unawareness.
Unawareness is the cause.
You can go on from anywhere -
from greed, from lust, from anger, from jealousy, from possessiveness and you
will always come to the ultimate cause: unawareness.
So the only way to get rid of
this mess, this chaos, is to be aware. And once you are aware you need not
repress anything, you need not even drop; things start dropping on their own,
they start disappearing on their own. That's what Buddha means when he says: let go of anger,
let go of pride. when you are bound by nothing, you go beyond sorrow.
And these are the two things which are keeping you tethered in an insane state.
These are the two things which are creating all your sorrow and misery. Ego,
hidden behind, goes on working, poisoning you. Anger is either expressed, then
it poisons your relationships with people, or it is repressed, then it poisons
your own being.
And slowly slowly, you find
yourself in such a state in which many people would like to die; many people
contemplate suicide for the simple reason that life is so painful and death
seems to be a relief. Millions of people around the earth contemplate suicide -
many of them try, many of them succeed too. And those who don't contemplate
suicide contemplate murder; they think that others are creating their trouble,
so destroy others.
Either they want to destroy
others, or they want to destroy themselves, because they find no joy in life.
When you don't find joy in life, when you are not blissful, you become
destructive, either a sadist or a masochist.
When your life is full of joy,
unbounded joy, it is creative, then great creativity is born in you. Then you
do something to contribute to the evolution of humanity, to the evolution of
the whole universe. You add some beauty to it, you share your celebration with
it. You make at least a few flowers bloom.
You leave the world in great
contentment, because creativity brings contentment. You leave this world
joyously, because it has been such a beautiful opportunity to grow, to mature,
to become aware. It has been such a joy to create a few things and share those
things with people; otherwise you live in sorrow and you die in sorrow.
Anger is like a chariot careering wildly.
He who curbs his anger is the true
charioteer.
Others merely hold the reins.
If you look at people or at
yourself, you will find that anger is as if it is a chariot without a driver.
Just the other day I was
reading a book:
A man has lived in the desert
and he writes of many experiences he had there. He tried one experiment:
There were no roads, there were
no people, no trees, no rocks, no hills; just a desert, spread out for
thousands of miles. And for centuries it had been so infertile, it had become
hard. It was not a sand desert, the crust was very hard.
He was driving his car,
suddenly a whimsical idea arose in him. He moved to the seat next to the
driver's - he was the only one in the car. He left the driver's seat and let
the car run on its own, because there was no road, no people, there was no fear
of any accident. The car started moving. It was a rare experience. Then he
jumped out of the car.
Greater ideas came to his
mind... and the car was still going on. Then he ran after the car, jumped in
again, took out his bicycle and went exactly opposite to the car on his bicycle
till the car was just a speck far away on the horizon. It was still moving,
going nowhere, still going.
Then he again bicycled towards
the car. It was strange. He writes it was thrilling that the car was still
moving, going nowhere.
Reading his notes, I suddenly
remembered Buddha's sutra: anger is like a chariot careering wildly. He who curbs
his anger is the true charioteer. Others merely hold the reins. They
may not even be holding the reins - they may be simply sitting there. The car
is running on its own. Your body is running on its own, your mind is running on
its own. You are not needed at all. You can jump out of the window, take your
bicycle, go away from the car and it will still be moving. And one day you can
come back to meet yourself.
Yes, this has been tried.
People down the ages have tried out-of-the-body experiences; they are exactly
the same. You can try it. If you go a little deeper into meditation, one day
you can find a way to get out of the body, to run in the room. Even running is
not needed, you can float in the air, look at the body lying down there,
sleeping, snoring; you can listen to the snoring. Everything is functioning
perfectly well, the engine is humming, you can come close to the heart and
listen to the beat. The body is breathing.
You are not needed at all. You
can escape from the window, go around the neighborhood, come back, enter into
the body, you are still fast asleep. It makes no difference, as if the body
does not care much whether you are in or out.
The body is a very complicated,
subtle mechanism; it is automatic, it does not need you.
You have not done anything,
that's why you are not needed.
If you become a real charioteer
then you will be needed. If you are a meditator you will be needed. Then there
are a few things the body cannot do. It cannot meditate on its own - that is
impossible. It can snore, it can sleep on its own, but it cannot be aware on
its own. For awareness you are needed.
Remember it: only that thing is
worth doing for which YOU are needed. Things which can be done without you are
nonessential things. To devote your whole life to them is to miss the whole
point.
"Take me to the railway
station," said the drunk, stumbling into a waiting taxi.
"Look mate, we are at the
railway station," said the cabby.
"Thanks," murmured
the drunk, handing over a five-dollar bill. "And next time, don't drive so
bloody fast."
The taxi had not moved even an
inch. Your life may remain exactly where it was when you were born. It may not
move even an inch. Millions die exactly as they are born. No growth happens, no
flowering comes to their lives. Whether they are or are not simply makes no
difference. They come and go like shadows. Their life is not worth calling
life; they simply vegetate.
A farmer munching on a cookie
was watching a big rooster chasing a hen and gaining ground at every lap. The
farmer threw a piece of cookie in front of the racing pair.
The rooster came to a sliding
stop and gobbled up the tidbit.
"Gosh," said the
farmer, "I hope I never get that hungry."
But the rooster, the lion, the
tiger, the dog, the cat and you, are not in any way different - unless something
of buddhahood starts arising in you. The rooster is dominated by his hunger, by
his lust; so are you.
B.F. Skinner, the modern
prophet of the behaviorist school of psychology, says that man is a machine.
And about ninety-nine point nine per cent of people he is correct. George
Gurdjieff used to say that man is a machine. And he was not a behavioral
psychologist.
He was one of the greatest
spiritual giants who has ever walked on the earth. But still he used to say
that not everybody has got a soul. It is very rarely that a person has a soul.
And I can understand B.F.
Skinner. It is impossible for him to come across a buddha and to study a
buddha. He studied rats and you; and he finds no difference. The instincts
possessed by the rat are the same instincts possessed by man. Of course man is
a little more complicated, true, a more complicated machine, that's all; a
computer.
One day I was reading a
fictitious story about the future, when scientists will be able to make
mechanical men, robots. They look exactly like men, except that they have no
soul. But from the outside you can't see any difference: they talk, they make
love, they eat, they get tired and they go to sleep. And if you meet a robot -
who looks exactly like a man - how are you going to judge whether he is a
robot? Are you holding the hand of a robot or a man? Only once in a while will
you be able to know: when the battery runs down and the robot starts,
"Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr." Otherwise there is no difference.
You were making love to the robot
and the robot says, "Grrrr, grrrr, grrrr." Then suddenly you become
aware that this is not a man! But up to now he was perfectly alright. He was
reciting great poetry, discussing great ideas, philosophy, quoting Socrates and
Aristotle and he was hugging you and telling you, "I love you, and I will
love you forever."
And these are all recorded
things that he has been saying to every woman he meets.
The moment he sees a woman
something triggers in him and he starts talking poetically and saying, "I
love you and I will die without you."
I have heard of a psychoanalyst
who was very much puzzled. He was in love with a woman, but the woman was a
little strange. Whenever he would say to her, "I love you," she would
look down.
He asked her, "What is the
matter? Whenever I say, 'I love you,' are you feeling ashamed, embarrassed or
what? Why do you start looking down?"
She said, "I look down to
see whether you really mean it. ... Because I can't trust your mind. I can only
trust your body."
It is very difficult to lie
through the body. One can learn it, actors do that - but very few are actors.
Otherwise it is a very difficult art to make the body lie. The mind is
perfectly at ease in lying; it can say things which it doesn't mean. But the
body is still far more authentic, far more true. What irony, that the body
seems to be more authentic and your mind seems to be simply a fraud!
You can attain to the soul only
by becoming more watchful of all that is happening in your body and in your
mind. Unless and until the witness arises in you, you are a robot.
Sheela has written a question
to me: "When I go away from you, I am such a rat, but when I come back to
you I become just a mouse."
I know what she means. People
think there is much difference between rats and mice; there is not much. The
mouse is just a sophisticated rat, college-educated, a hypocrite.
The rat is far more authentic,
the rat is whatsoever he is. The mouse has a facade. But there is not much
difference between the rat and the mouse. There is not much difference between
the mouse and man, and there is not much difference between man and the
machine.
The difference arises - the
only difference that makes a difference - in meditation.
Before it, you can never have
any differences. All differences are only formal.
That's why psychologists study
rats, particularly white rats, because they are simple people and it is easier
to understand them. Once you have understood the mind of the rat, you have
understood the mind of man too. They infer all their knowledge about man
through studying rats. It is really a condemnation of man that rats supply
information about you. And that information works, it is perfectly applicable
to you - you behave in the same way.
That information will not be
applicable to a Buddha, to a Jesus, to a Krishna. But where is B.F. Skinner
going to find a buddha? And even if he can find a buddha, who is going to study
whom? The buddha will study Skinner, not vice versa. Skinner will not be able
to study a buddha; he will not have the right context, he knows only how to
study rats.
A buddha will be absolutely
incomprehensible to him. And when something is incomprehensible, the ego simply
denies it. That is the ego's way of protecting itself.
The incomprehensible, the
mysterious has to be denied, overlooked, bypassed. One does not take note of
the incomprehensible, because to take note of the incomprehensible means you
are taking note of the limitation of your mind, and that hurts the ego.
Hence, buddhas are born once in
a while, but nobody takes note of them. That is the difference between the
Eastern and the Western psychology. Western psychology is based on the
understanding of rats. Eastern psychology is not based on the understanding of
rats or even on the understanding of man.
Eastern psychology is rooted in
the psychology of the buddhas. We think from the highest and then we come
downwards. First we think of the ultimate and from there we infer about those
who are on lower ranks - it is respectful.
Trying to observe the lowest
and inferring about the higher is humiliating; it is ugly and it is going to be
wrong. It is like studying a seed and inferring about a flower. Now, studying a
seed, how can you infer about a flower? You can dissect the seed, you can look
into it; you will not find any color and you will not find any beauty and you
will not find any fragrance. Although it contains them all, but they are still
in the unmanifest.
And if you decide by the seed
about the flower and you say that the flowers don't have any fragrance - can't
have, because when it is not in the seed, how it can be in the flower? And the
flowers are not beautiful, because the seed is not beautiful... then everything
has to be reduced to the lowest denominator; then the flower has to be simply
denied - that it is just poetic imagination and nothing else. That's what has
been done about buddhas. The materialists go on denying their existence, they
say it is poetic imagination. Such people have not existed, cannot exist; it is
impossible for them to exist, because the seed does not show any sign of them.
The psychology of the buddhas
starts from the other extreme. It starts from the highest:
it studies the flower and then
infers about the seed. Because the flower has fragrance, it says the seed must
have it; it is unmanifest. The flower is beautiful, the seed must have beauty
in it, covered, hidden. The flower has color, the seed must have it, just
waiting for its right time, for the spring, to explode into color, into
fragrance, into beauty. Now this is the right way to understand man: not
through rats, not even through ordinary man, but through buddhas.
This is the difference between
the Eastern and the Western approach. The Western approach has reduced man to a
very ugly phenomenon. The Eastern psychology has raised man to the height of
the gods. And then the very process of both the psychologies becomes different.
Western psychology goes through analysis, thinking - that is its method.
Eastern psychology follows the method of no-mind, of meditation; not of
analysis, not of thinking, but of silence. Because to see the beauty of the
flower you need silence, not analysis; beauty can never be understood through
analysis. The dance of the flower in the wind, in the sun, in the rain, cannot
be understood by the head; the heart has to be open for it.
With gentleness overcome anger...
This sutra is also tremendously
important. Now Buddha is saying... Anger contains energy. You cannot simply
throw it away. It is your energy. Throwing it away will make you weak. Energies
are not to be thrown away, but to be transformed. With gentleness overcome anger... Let
your anger be transformed into gentleness.
With generosity overcome meanness, with
truth overcome deceit.
He is saying that meditation is
an alchemical process - it is not morality, it is alchemy.
It is the science of the soul.
Through meditation anger slowly slowly disappears, and its energy becomes
available and becomes gentleness.
You will be surprised to know
that if you suffer from great anger you have great potential for gentleness.
Anger simply shows that you have great energy. A man without anger is impotent,
he has no energy. A man who cannot be angry cannot be gentle either. With generosity
overcome meanness. Don't repress meanness, don't destroy meanness,
but with generosity transform it into a generous consciousness, into sharing.
With truth overcome deceit.
Don't fight with darkness, bring light in. That is the essence of this sutra.
Don't fight with the negative, bring the positive in. And the positive comes
through watchfulness - the negative is already there. Your society prepares you
for the negative, your society needs you to be negative. Your society wants you
to be angry, full of anger, so that you can be forced into war, into crusades: religious,
political, ideological conflicts; so you can be manipulated into killing
people.
Or, you can be manipulated into
becoming martyrs; destructive to yourself.
Millions of Christians have
died, Mohammedans have died, killing each other for the simple reason that so
much anger is repressed, it needs some outlet. You will be surprised to know
that Buddhism is the only religion in the world which has not shed blood, the
only religion in the world which has converted millions of people without coercion
of any kind.
Christianity has converted
thousands of people, but with coercion. In the beginning it was by the sword.
Mohammedans have converted millions of people, but it is through the sword,
forcibly, violently. This is not conversion, this is something absolutely ugly
and irreligious.
Now the sword is no longer
used, because to use the sword directly will be condemned all over the world,
so subtle means of coercion are used. In poor countries you can go with bread
and butter, with clothes, with better facilities for life and you can convert
people. Christian missionaries are doing this all over the world, particularly
in the poor countries. It is not a conversion to Christ - it is not at all a
conversion - it is simply purchasing people with bread and butter. People are
starving - whosoever can give them food, they are ready to go with him.
Buddhism is the only religion
in the world which has really converted people without the sword, without bread
and butter, without any coercion, positive or negative; which has simply
converted through its understanding of people, bringing them more light,
bringing them more understanding of their minds, their bodies.
And this is of great
importance. Never fight with the negative. Your society prepares you for the
negative. Transform the negative into the positive; transformation is possible.
The medium that has to be used is meditation. Just become more watchful of all
your mind things - anger, greed, meanness; otherwise you can cultivate, you can
deceive others and you can deceive yourself, but you will remain mean. A miser
can donate, giving charity, but he is giving with calculation. His miserliness
is there. Now he is opening a bank account in the other world. He wants to have
a bank balance there too.
A blind man was standing in a
bus queue, when his neighbor was startled to see a dog calmly cock his leg and
piss all down the blind man's trousers.
When the blind man realized
what was happening, he put his hand into his pocket and produced a bar of chocolate
that he held downwards for the dog.
"That's a very charitable
thing to do," said his neighbor.
"Oh," replied the
blind man, "I am just finding out where his mouth is so I can kick him in
the balls."
So don't be deceived about what
people are doing on the outside, deep inside they may be calculating something
else. Their act may be generous, but their motive is the real thing that
matters; not the act, but the intention.
A man picked up a woman in a
bar one night and took her home to his apartment.
When they got there, she
started to disrobe, but he stopped her, saying, "No, let us just sit here
on the couch together, and if you will keep both of your hands on my head while
you are here, I will give you twenty dollars."
The girl thought this a little
unusual, but did as he requested. Finally, she could not restrain her curiosity
any longer and asked, "But what kind of a thrill do you get out of having
my hands on your head?"
"No thrill," he
answered. "I just get a sense of security knowing that your hands are on
my head and not in my pocket - for twenty dollars it is worth it."
The people who are miserly will
remain miserly, even in their sharing. If you look deep down you will find they
are trying to bargain for something, there is some business hidden in it. The
priests go on telling people, "If you give to poor people here, you will
get a thousandfold in the other world" - a thousandfold, it is like a
lottery! And who would not like to have it? Give a little bit here and you will
get a thousandfold there.
Priests have been cheating
people, because people are mean, because people are miserly; otherwise priests
would disappear from the world. If people are really generous there will be no
need for the priests, nobody can exploit generous people.
They give for the sheer joy of
giving. They don't think that giving is a means to some end. If you think
giving is a means to some end you miss the whole point. Unless giving becomes a
joy in itself, you don't know what it is.
Speak the truth, give whatever you can,
never be angry.
These three steps will lead you into the
presence of the gods.
Speak the truth, whatsoever the
cost. It is going to cost you much, because the world lives in lies. People are
brought up in such a way that truth never crosses their paths.
And they are forced to believe
in something which their society, their church, their state wants them to
believe in; it is not a question of truth. People love lies, because lies are
very consoling. And people love lies because others are also believers in the
same lies - and you feel part of others, you feel a kind of belonging, you
don't feel alone.
The man of truth feels alone. A
Socrates, a Pythagoras, a Heraclitus find themselves alone, very alone. In this
world if you say the truth and you live the truth, you will have to live alone.
You will not find many people who would like to be with you. You will not find
great company in the world. You will find few people who are lovers of truth.
And you will always be in
danger, because your truth will be a dangerous thing for those who live in
lies. They will not tolerate you. You will become an unbearable phenomenon for
them. They will be bent upon destroying you.
But still, even if life is
sacrificed, truth is worth it. A moment of truth is more valuable than a
hundred years of life, because a moment of truth makes you part of eternity,
part of God.
Speak the truth, give whatever you can.
It is not a question that you have to give money or you have to give this and
that; whatever you can, whatever you have - if you have a song, sing the song,
share it. If you can dance, dance and share it. Give whatever you can. And, never be angry,
because people may not accept your gift. Don't get angry about that. People may
never thank you, they may not feel grateful to you. On the contrary, they may
feel offended by you.
It has always been so; they
were offended by Jesus, they were offended by Buddha.
Why? - because those people
look so different from the ordinary, that people become aware of their own
ordinariness and it hurts. They bring great treasures to share - but it hurts,
because they have that great treasure and we don't have anything. People will
not be thankful to you, in fact they will never be able to forgive you. They
may crucify you, they may stone you to death.
Hence Buddha reminds you again:
remember, don't expect anything, otherwise anger will be natural. If you expect
even gratefulness from people and they don't show any gratefulness - on the
contrary, they show great ungratefulness - you may feel angry.
Beware, your joy is in giving.
It is not for you to be worried about whether what you give is accepted or is
not accepted; is accepted with gratefulness or is accepted indifferently.
You do good to people, they may
do bad to you... still, don't be angry. Remember this is how things are, this
is how people are. Remembering it will help you not to become enraged.
The wise harm no one... but the
fools enjoy harming others. And who is wise?
Not the one who knows much, but
the one who understands much. The wise is not one who has all the scriptures at
the tip of his tongue; the wise is one who has seen his own reality, and seeing
it has become aware of the universe and its beauty and its intelligence. The
wise is one who has seen the wisdom of existence; he is not knowledgeable, but
he is absolutely innocent. How can he harm anyone? - that is impossible,
because he can't see others as different from himself. He sees the whole as
one.
Beware of knowledgeable people,
beware of the so-called experienced, they are not wise.
Two women were sitting in the
doctor's waiting room, comparing notes on their various disorders.
"I want a baby more than
anything in the world," said the first, "but I guess it's
impossible."
"I used to feel just the
same way," said the second, "but then everything changed. That's why
I'm here; I'm going to have a baby in three months."
"You must tell me what you
did!"
"I went to a faith
healer."
"But I have tried that. My
husband and I went to one for nearly a year and it didn't help a bit."
The other woman smiled and
whispered, "Try going alone next time, dearie!"
The experienced people, the
people who have lived life... they appear wise; they are not wise, they are
only mature fools. And mature fools are more dangerous than the immature fools,
because the mature fool has all the arguments to support his foolishness, all
his experience is at his disposal.
The professor of criminal law
was concluding his final lecture before the holidays.
"Remember, gentlemen, if you
have an affair with an underage girl, with or without her consent, it is rape!
If you have an affair with a girl of age without her consent, that is rape; but
if you have an affair with a girl of age with her consent, Merry
Christmas!"
These people are wise in a way,
wise in the ways of the world; they can give you good advice, but they are not
wise in the sense Buddha uses the word. They are as foolish as you are, just a
little bit more experienced. And foolishness does not disappear with experience.
"I am looking for
adventure, excitement, beautiful women," cried the young man to his father
as he prepared to leave home. "Don't try to stop me! I'm on my way."
"Who is trying to stop
you?" yelled the father, "take me along!"
The wise harm no one, they are masters of
their bodies and they go to the boundless country, they go beyond sorrow.
As you become a witness, as you
become aware, you simply come to know that you are not the body, not the mind,
not even the heart. You are simply a watcher, different from all that surrounds
you. The body is your outermost boundary; the mind a little more inner, the
heart still more inner, but at the innermost core you are just a consciousness.
Knowing this you become
detached from your own body, your mind, your heart; and that detachment brings
mastery. Not that you become destructive to the body - you take every care of
it, it is a beautiful instrument, it is a great gift of God. But now you know
that it is only the house you live in. Just as you take care of your house, you
take care of your body; it is the temple.
Your consciousness is your
reality; you become disidentified, and to be disidentified is to be the master.
Those who seek perfection keep watch by day
and night till all desires vanish.
Buddha expects only one thing
from you: keep watch day and night till all desires vanish. Make your
watchfulness so integrated, so powerful, so strong and so unwavering that it
helps all the desires to evaporate, vanish. Desires are not to be dropped, but
allowed to evaporate. Let go of anger, let go of pride. When you are bound by
nothing, you go beyond sorrow.
Listen, atula, this is not new...
Atula is a disciple of Buddha.
Buddha is saying to Atula: listen, atula, this is not new...
It is an old saying.
They blame you for being silent, they blame
you when you talk too much and when you talk too little.
Whatever you do they blame you.
Why does Buddha suddenly
address Atula? He was addressing all his sannyasins, and out of nowhere he
suddenly addresses Atula. You may not be able to see the point immediately.
Atula may be the one who was not listening, who was hearing, but not listening.
And when you are in communion with a buddha, he knows perfectly well who is
listening and who is only hearing. This happens here every day. When new people
come, it is so clear that they are only hearing, not listening. As you live
here a little longer, slowly slowly you start listening.
Listening is a totally
different phenomenon than hearing. Hearing is physiological.
Because you have ears, so you
can hear. Listening is a deep phenomenon. You listen only when you are in
absolute silence. Those who have been here long enough are falling into that
silence.
Atula must have been hearing
only, must have been a new disciple; hence Buddha specifically mentions his
name, listen, atula... And it is also
possible that Atula was thinking that Buddha was saying something very new,
very strange. In fact what buddhas say is, in a way, the eternal truth, as
ancient as the Himalayas; and in another way it is as fresh as the flower that
has blossomed just this morning, as fresh as the dewdrops and as old as the
Himalayas.
And all the buddhas in the past
have said the same thing; maybe in different languages, with different
expressions, in different ways. "There is nothing new under the sun."
It is a truth - but only half. The other half is, "There is everything new
under the sun."
Because truth has the capacity
to renew itself continuously, to be reborn again and again. So buddhas always
speak the ancientmost truth, and yet they speak the most rebellious truth
possible.
Buddha says: this is not new,
atula, it is an old saying. People are such that they will always
find reasons to blame you. They blame you for being silent - if you are silent
they will blame you: "Why are you silent?" If you are talking too
much they will blame you: "Why do you talk so much?" If you talk too
little, they will blame you: "Why do you talk so little?"
Whatever you do, they blame
you, because by blaming you their egos feel satisfied.
Nobody looks at his own faults
and everybody is capable of seeing the faults of others; not only seeing them,
but magnifying them as much as possible.
Mother called upstairs,
"Caroline, please stop that shouting and screaming. Why can't you play
quietly like Tommy, who is not making a sound?"
"He's not supposed to make
a sound," said Caroline. "We're playing our family. He's Daddy, after
getting home late for dinner, and I'm you."
It is very simple to see
others' faults, because one wants to see the faults of others. If they are not
there, then one invents them. Your ego can live only by feeling superior; so
you make every possible use of others' faults to feel superior. Blaming others
is nothing but a strategy of the ego to feel superior. Beware of it.
The world always finds a way to
praise and a way to blame. It always has and it always will. Yes, sometimes it
praises too, but it praises only when you are helping other people's ego - then
it praises you. For example, if you say to the Hindus that their religion is
the greatest religion in the world, they will praise you.
How can they praise me?
Impossible! Because I am simply saying the truth: that no religion is greater
than any other religion; that all religions are in the same trap of the
priests. You may call the priest the shankaracharya, you may call the priest
the pope, it does not matter. All the religions are in the grip of politicians.
Hindus and Christians and Mohammedans, they are all no longer religions, but
just politics - power politics hiding behind the name of religion. No religion
is greater than any other, superior to any other. In fact, a really religious
person is neither Christian, nor Hindu, nor Mohammedan. He is simply religious.
Indians will praise you if you
praise India: if you say that this is the greatest land in the world, the most
spiritual land in the world - then their egos are puffed up, they will praise
you. They will blame you to puff up their egos, and they will praise you if you
puff them up. The whole game is of the ego.
But who dares blame the man whom the wise
continually praise, whose life is virtuous and wise, who shines like a coin of
pure gold?
Don't be worried about the
praise and the blame of the ordinary masses, of the crowd.
Yes, if you have to pay
attention, then pay attention to the wise. If they say that something is wrong
with you, listen carefully, because they are trying to help you. They have no
egos to fulfill from your faults. They are just like mirrors; they reflect your
face.
If you have an ugly face, don't
destroy the mirror; simply try to change your face.
And the wise ones praise too,
but they praise not to puff up your ego. In fact they praise you only when they
see that you are becoming a nobody; their praise showers like flowers on you.
When you are becoming a nobody, when you are becoming a nothingness, you are
coming closer and closer to the divinity hidden within you.
Even the gods praise him, even brahma
praises him.
A person who is praised by the
wise, by the enlightened ones, is praised by the gods, is praised by the whole
universe - by the creator himself, by Brahma. Their praise is worth... even if
a single buddha smiles at you, it is enough. The whole world may condemn you;
don't be worried about it. If all the blind people of the world gather together
and praise your beauty, will you be happy about it? They can't see, they have
no eyes to see; you will not be very happy by being praised by the blind.
In India we have a saying that
the best couple is when the husband is deaf and the wife is blind. The husband
can go on doing whatsoever he wants - fooling around - and the wife can go on
saying whatsoever she wants; the husband is deaf and the wife is blind.
The saying says it happens only
very rarely, with the blessings of God. It doesn't happen ordinarily. But what
is the point of being praised by blind people? They can't see. And why be
worried by their condemnation? They can't see your faults either.
But a buddha, an enlightened
one, if he praises you, that means he has seen ego disappearing. If he finds
fault with you, that simply shows he is trying to help you so you can drop the
fault.
Be aware of the anger of the body, master
the body, let it serve truth.
Anger has three layers. The
first layer is the anger of the body. Be aware of the anger of the body. You may not
have watched it: that the body accumulates anger, that the body has its own
ways of accumulating anger. When you feel angry you gnash your teeth, you
clench your fists - why?
In fact, in the East there have
been devices to help you. Those are temporary helps, but of great value because
they can make you aware of many things. When you feel angry, just gnash your
teeth, clench your fists and you will be surprised: that as you gnash your
teeth and clench your fists and just fight with the air - a shadow boxing -
within five minutes the anger is gone. Something has happened, something has
been released.
Now, Postural Integration,
Rolfing, and methods like that are becoming very much aware that your repressed
angers, sexuality, greed and all kinds of poisons accumulate in the body, in
the muscles. By deep massage those poisons can be released. Rolfing is really a
great contribution. Deep massage of the body can be of great help. It can make
you aware that your body is carrying many things; and your body drives you into
things which you may not have gone into if the body was not driving you there.
Be aware of the anger of the body, Buddha
says, master
the body, let it serve truth.
How to master the body? The
first thing is to learn relaxation. Buddha taught his disciples how to relax.
In the East, particularly, in the science of yoga, there is a special posture, shavasana. This is the posture: lie down
on the ground as if you are dead.
Let the body slowly slowly die.
Start from the feet. In fact, communicate with your body; say to the feet,
"Die, please die." And then go on upwards.
A psychoanalyst had told one of
his patients, "All that you need is relaxation, so from tonight you start
relaxing. Start from the feet; say to your toes, 'Toes relax, feet relax,' and
go on upwards, talking to each limb and then finally, tell your mind to
relax."
The man went home. He was very
much thrilled by the idea; the whole day he waited for the night. The night
came, he was lying on the bed. He had taken a good, hot shower as the
psychiatrist had suggested, was feeling a little relaxed lying down on the bed.
He started: "Toes relax,
feet relax, legs relax, thighs relax," and so on, and so forth.
He was just coming to the mind
to say, "Mind relax," and his wife came out of the bathroom
absolutely naked, ready to go to sleep. Suddenly the man shouted, "Wake
up!
Everybody wake up!"
This won't help. Hence Buddha
does not say to relax, to go to sleep, because then you can wake up and you can
call everybody else to wake up. He says, "Feel dead. Let the body die for
the moment, as if you are just a corpse." You cannot do anything. An ant
starts crawling on you; you can't do anything.
And it is really a great
experience, to feel like a corpse, and the ant crawling on your face or a
mosquito biting; but you can't do anything, you are simply a watcher. It is a
rare experience to go through it. Slowly slowly, you become a master by
relaxing your body. The more tense your body is, the more it is a master of
you.
Be aware of the anger of the mouth...
And when you have learned how
to relax the anger of the body, the rage of the body, then start becoming aware
of what you say. Sometimes, unconsciously, you say a word.
You were not aware of the
implications of the word. You may not have ever thought that it would create
such trouble for you.
A young man arranged for his
fiancee to meet his parents over cocktails at a swanky hotel. After his family
left, the girl asked if she had made a good impression on them.
"Well, frankly,
darling," he said, "my mother told me privately that she found you a
little vulgar."
"But did you tell her that
I went to one of the best finishing schools?" she asked.
"Yes, of course I
did."
"And did you tell her of
my interest in art and culture?"
"Certainly."
"And did you tell her how
important my family is in the neighborhood?"
"Naturally, I did,"
he replied.
"Then what is this
'vulgar' crap all about?" the delicate young lady asked.
People go on saying things, not
really aware of what they are saying. In fact, their minds are like gramophone
records. They simply repeat.
Now science has discovered that
holes can be made in your head and electrodes can be put in; certain points can
be pushed and a very strange thing happens. For example, an electrode is pushed
into your brain at a certain center and you start saying something for no
reason at all. Nobody has asked it, there is no context for it, but you start
saying it. Then the electrode is taken out and you stop saying it. Again the
electrode is pushed in; you start the same thing again from the very beginning
- again the same sentences, the same words. It can be done a hundred times and
each time you will do it again, as if the electrode is nothing but a needle on
the gramophone record.
Your mind is a great recording
mechanism. You have recorded all kinds of things and you go on saying them,
thinking that YOU are saying; that is not true. Unless you are really watchful,
YOU are not saying things. Your mind goes on repeating old patterns and you go
on getting into old problems, again and again. Be aware of the anger of the mouth...
Master your words, let them serve truth.
Be aware of the anger of the mind...
And finally, slowly, first the
body, then the word, then the mind.
Master your thoughts let them serve truth.
The wise have mastered body, word and mind,
they are the true masters.
If you can watch the body, the
mind and all their functionings, you will become so separate from them that you
can master them.
You can master something only
when you have a distance from it. If you are identified with it you cannot
master it. And Buddha says one who is master of his own self is the master of
the whole existence; he has entered into a different plane of life. You are
slaves, he is a master; you are machines, he is a real man; you function
unconsciously, he functions consciously.
And to function consciously is
to go beyond all sorrow, is to go beyond all misery, is to go beyond all
anguish, is to go into the beyond. Other religions call that beyond
"God"; Buddha calls it simply "the beyond." Prepare for the
beyond... Become masters of your own beings.
Enough for today.