Osho –
Dhammapada: The Way of The Buddha (Volume 11)
Chapter 9. What
mischief!
A master gives up mischief.
He is serene.
He leaves everything behind him.
He does not take offense
And he does not give it.
He never returns evil for evil.
Alas for the man
Who raises his hand against another,
And even more for him
Who returns the blow.
Resist the pleasures of life
And the desire to hurt -
Till sorrows vanish.
Never offend
By what you think or say or do.
Honor the man who is awake
And shows you the way.
Honor the fire of his sacrifice.
Matted hair or family or caste
Do not make a master
But the truth and goodness
With which he is blessed.
Your hair is tangled
And you sit on a deerskin.
What folly!
When inside you are ragged with lust.
The master's clothes are in tatters.
His veins stand out,
He is wasting away.
Alone in the forest
He sits and meditates.
Hank was riding the range,
a-singing and a-humming. Suddenly his horse reared and stopped. In front of
them was a huge snake. Hank drew his gun and was about to fire when the snake
cried, "Don't shoot! If you spare my life I have the power to grant you
any three wishes you make!"
"Okay," said Hank,
figuring he had nothing to lose. "My first wish is a handsome face like
Paul Newman. Second I want a muscular body like Muhammad Ali. And my last wish
is to be equipped like my horse here!"
"Granted!" said the
snake. "When you wake up tomorrow you will have all these things."
Next morning Hank awoke and
rushed to the mirror. Sure enough, he had a face like Paul Newman and to his
delight he saw a pair of massive shoulders and arms like Muhammad Ali. Then
glancing down in great excitement he let out a blood-curdling howl, "My
God, I clean forgot!" he babbled. "Yesterday I was riding
Nellie!"
Man lives almost in a kind of
deep sleep. He is not aware who he is, what he is doing, what he is thinking,
where he is going, why he is going. His whole life is the life of a
somnambulist, a sleepwalker. He is utterly unconscious. Out of this
unconsciousness arise a thousand and one mischiefs; not that he knowingly wants
to do them, he cannot avoid them. It is not a question of his decision to stop
being mischievous; it is a question of his awareness. If he is aware, mischiefs
disappear as darkness disappears when you bring light in. If he is not aware he
may think he is doing something good, he may believe with his whole heart that
he is doing something good, but he will be doing something mischievous. The
total outcome of his life is going to be more chaos in the world.
You can watch the do-gooders:
they all try to help, they all try to serve; they make it a point that their
whole life should be one of service. So many public servants in the world, so
many missionaries, so many social reformers, so many great revolutionaries -
and look at the shape the world is in. Can it be more in a mess? This is the
outcome of all your great efforts, of all your great saints. The tree is known
by the fruit, and all your religions and all your saints and holy men can only
be known by the world that they have helped to create. It is the most ugly
world possible.
Not that God is responsible -
God has made a beautiful world. His world is immensely beautiful: the trees,
the flowers, the rivers, the mountains, the stars. But the world that man has
made, the social structures that man has created are all ugly, violent, utterly
mischievous. But everything bad can be done in the name of good.
Adolf Hitler was not
consciously trying to do evil, remember it. He was not knowingly destructive;
he was thinking he was trying to help humanity. He was thinking he was trying
to bring a better human being into the world - the superman. He believed deeply
in Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy of the superman and he also believed that
the Germans were the really superhuman beings, that they were entitled to rule
the world.
And it was not that he was
deceiving anybody; he was utterly convinced of the fact. It was not a fiction
for him, it was a fact that the German race is the real Aryan race, that the
Nordics are the purest people in the world. He could influence millions of very
intelligent people for the simple reason that he was convinced of what he was
saying and doing. His conviction was hypnotizing. He was not a man of great
intelligence, he was utterly mediocre, but one thing was there: he was
convinced that only through him could the world be made a better place to live
in. By murdering millions of Jews, he was not thinking that he was doing any
violence - he was serving humanity, he was getting rid of the enemies of
humanity. And it was not a question of his befooling anybody - he was so
unconscious that he himself was befooled by his own convictions.
Adolf Hitler did great mischief
- all the politicians do. And they always do it behind beautiful slogans:
socialism, democracy, freedom, equality and whatnot. They are all trying to
improve upon the world, but the total result is more and more confusion and
chaos. The world would be a far better place if we could be alert enough not to
listen to these lunatics. But we are also asleep. What they say appeals to us;
it has a great magnetic quality in it.
In fact, a Buddha is bound to
be misunderstood, not Adolf Hitler; a Jesus is bound to be misunderstood, but
not Joseph Stalin. Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, they speak
the language that you understand. They are just people like you; they live in
the same kind of sleep. Hence there is a communication between you and them
which is missing between you and a Buddha, between you and a Lao Tzu.
Buddha stands on the Everest
and you live in the dark valleys far below. You don't look up, you have
forgotten how to look up. You crawl in the mud. Those who are crawling by your
side can be understood more easily by you. They speak your language, they speak
your idiom; they are perfectly in tune with you. They are not different people.
But a Buddha, a Krishna, a Mohammed, these are different people. They speak a
different language, from a different height, from a different vision - although
they use the same words. But they give different meanings to your words, and
you are going to miss those meanings.
Meditate over this:
"Why won't you,
honey?"
"I'm too tired."
"Ah, come on..."
"Leave me alone!"
"I won't be able to
sleep!"
"Well, I can't sleep
now."
"Please."
"Why - in the middle of
the night?"
"Because I'm hot."
"You get hot at the
damnedest times!"
"You don't love me!"
"Yes, I do..."
"If you loved me you would
do it."
"Well, damn it -
alright."
"What's the matter?"
"I can't find it."
"That feels better."
"It should be - it's all
the way up."
"That's enough; thanks,
dear."
"Next time, open the
damned window yourself!"
And all the time, what were you
thinking?
Buddha says:
A master gives up mischief.
... Because a master gives up
mind. Mind is mischief; there is no other mischief. Mind is the source of all
mischief. A master is a master only because he has ceased to be dominated by
the mind. A master is a master of himself; he is no longer unconscious.
Whatsoever he does, he does it knowingly. Whatsoever he is, he is perfectly
aware about it. His life is not accidental. His every act is rooted in
consciousness, it is intentional.
We live in the mind. The mind
can even become a saint, can pretend to be holy, but it will not be. It is
impossible; it is not in the very nature of the mind to be holy. Just look at
the history of religions - they are full of bloodshed. In fact more crimes have
been committed in the name of religions than in the name of anything else. More
people have been killed, butchered in the name of religion, God, truth,
Christianity, Islam, than in the name of political ideologies even. Religion
tops the list. Religion has been far more mischievous; it has even defeated the
politicians. It could defeat them for the simple reason that the politician
cannot hide himself for very long; sooner or later he is exposed. But the
religious person can hide himself for centuries and you will never know.
The people who crucified Jesus
have not even yet understood that they committed a sin. I have not come across
a single Jew who accepts it consciously, that it was a crime to crucify Jesus.
And it is not that there are not good Jews, not that there are not saintly
Jews, not that there are not learned rabbis... there are very pious people.
Even a man like Martin Buber could not gather the courage to say, "We have
committed a crime in the past." No, that seems impossible. The crime was
on Jesus' part because he tried to declare himself the Son of God. That is the
crime: that he tried to project his image as the messiah, as the messenger of
God. That was the crime and he was rightly punished - Jews are absolutely
convinced of that.
Two thousand years have passed;
I have not come across a single book written by a Jew who can accept that
"We committed a mistake." It seems impossible. They can't see it because
the crime was committed in the name of religion.
Thousands of Christians have
been killed by Mohammedans, and vice versa. And these wars have been called jihads - holy wars. Now, no war is ever
holy, no war is a jihad; all wars are unholy. What excuse you find, that is
another matter; that is just an excuse to fight. You want to fight, you want to
kill and destroy. You find good excuses, beautiful excuses - holy wars... and
millions of people destroyed.
In these holy wars millions of
women were raped; now, that rape is holy. If murder is holy, why not rape? That
too is holy - it is done in the name of religion. Everything that is done in
the name of religion is good.
Your saints, who look so holy
and pious, are the causes of all this nonsense, of all this nuisance in the
world. When are we going to get rid of all this stupidity? Is man not yet
mature enough? Has not the time come yet that we should get rid of all this
foolishness that has remained overwhelmingly powerful down the ages? Is not the
time ripe to disconnect ourselves from the past?
But the only way to disconnect
yourself from the past is to disconnect yourself from your mind because your
mind is the past. Mind means the known, the past. Mind is history, mind is
time. Mind is Christian, Hindu, Mohammedan, mind is Indian, German, Chinese.
And unless you get out of the hold of the mind, whatsoever you do is going to
be mischievous. It may or may not appear mischievous to you - that is another
matter - but it is going to be mischievous. Out of mind nothing good can ever
happen.
Good is a by-product of
meditation, and bad, a by-product of mind.
A man said to Mulla Nasruddin,
"How is your great friend, the lawyer?"
Mulla said, "I'm afraid he
is lying at death's door."
"These lawyers! At death's
door and still lying?"
That's the state of the mind:
it goes on lying even at death's door. In fact, as death comes closer to you
you start lying more and more, you start deceiving yourself with many more
fictions, you start creating myths around you of God, of heaven, of hell. You
start creating dreams and you start living in dreams because your whole life is
shattered. You have wasted the opportunity. You have not been creative, you
have been destructive.
And remember, nobody can be
neutral. Either you create something in life or you destroy; either you live in
the mind or you live beyond the mind. If you live beyond the mind you become
creative. To be in meditation is to be creative. Then whatsoever you do is
beautiful; it brings more glory, more blessings to the world. Otherwise
whatsoever you do is going to make the world more ugly.
The table and the chair were
profoundly in love. They decided to get married and in due course they had a
new arrival.
"What shall we christen
him?" asked the chair.
"Chable," was the
other's logical reply.
Of course the child of a table
and a chair should be called a chable. And that's what people are doing: they
go on producing chables. That seems to be their only productivity: all that
they can do is produce more children.
A woman was telling me, "I
hate my husband! From my very guts," she was saying, "I hate my
husband! I am afraid some day I may kill him, may poison him!"
I said, "If you hate him
so much, then how come you have eighteen children?"
She said, "I was trying to
create such a crowd that he would get lost in it."
People hate and still they go
on reproducing because their productivity knows no other way.
Rena went into the city clerk's
office to report the birth of her sixth child.
"But, miss, this is your
sixth child by the same father," said the clerk. "Why don't you marry
him?"
"Are you jivin'?"
replied Rena. "I don't even like the sonofabitch!"
But people have to do
something; they can't just sit. They have to find something to remain occupied
with. That's how all the mischiefs arise in the world.
Buddha says: a master gives
up mischief.
He is serene.
Serenity is the flavor of
meditation, serenity is the fragrance of meditation. He is so serene, so silent
that he can be absolutely empty, with no desire to do anything. When all desire
to remain occupied disappears, then only can something good happen through you,
then God can happen through you - and good only happens through you when God
happens through you. Good is nothing but God flowing through you.
He is serene.
He leaves everything behind him.
He leaves the past, he leaves
his mind, he leaves his memories, he leaves his tradition. He is not a
conformist, he cannot be a conformist. No master has ever been a conformist;
that would be a contradiction in terms. He is always a rebel. He is pure
rebellion. He dies every moment to the past; he never collects the past. Hence
he remains always fresh, as fresh as the dewdrops in the early morning sun, as
fresh as the lotus leaf, as fresh as the petals of a rose. He is always fresh,
he is always young; he never grows old. He grows up, but he never grows old.
The body of course grows old, but his consciousness remains absolutely fresh;
it never gathers any dust or rust. And he is so serene that he can sit alone for
eternity with nothing to do - still he will be absolutely blissful. He will
enjoy his serenity.
This serenity cannot be
cultivated from the outside; this serenity comes only when you have become a
watcher of the mind, when you have become a witness of the mind and through
witnessing you have transcended the mind. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a
serenity explodes from all directions. It showers on you like flowers and it
goes on showering. Your life then is a life of virtue. It is not a question of
cultivating it, it is not a question of creating it - it is a consequence of
meditation.
This point should be remembered
again and again; never forget it, because it has been forgotten millions of
times. Again and again a buddha comes to remind you but you go on forgetting
it, for the simple reason that a cultivated serenity is cheap. You can look
serene, you can make a serene face; you can act it, you can be a good actor,
you can be very efficient, but that will be nothing but hypocrisy. Deep down
you will be boiling; deep down inside you there will be hell. And from the
outside you have perfumed yourself and inside you are stinking. Inside you are
clinging to all your misery, to your past, to all that is dead, to all that is
rotten, to all that should be burned; you are clinging to it. And those who
cling to dead corpses slowly slowly become dead themselves; those who live with
corpses become corpses themselves. On the surface you may smile, you may laugh;
deep down there are only tears - tears of pain.
But this strange fact about man
has to be understood: that he clings to the past. Even if the past is ugly he
clings to the past, even though he has only suffered. Why does he cling to the
past? - because the past gives him a definition, the past gives him an identity,
the past gives him an idea of who he is.
After six weeks away on
business the married executive entered a West Side brothel in Chicago. He
walked up to the madam, handed her a hundred-dollar bill and said, "I want
the worst screw in the house!"
"But sir," answered
the madam, "one hundred dollars will buy you our best."
"No," demanded the
businessman, "I want the worst available."
"I can't let you do
this," the woman pleaded. "You're entitled to the top of the
line."
"Listen, lady," said
the man, "I'm not horny, just homesick!"
Watch your mind, how you cling
to the past. There is nothing to cling to - just dry bones, skeletons, but you
are holding onto them as if they are your very life. And because you are
holding them, your hands are not empty to hold anything else; because you are
looking towards the past you cannot see the present and you cannot enjoy the
beauty of it, the joy of it. You cannot enter into the present - and the
present is the door to God. The past is no more.
And God is never past, God is
always present. God is never future either, God is always present. You cannot
say "God was," you cannot say "God will be," you can only
say "God is." In fact to say "God is" is a repetition
because God means isness; isness and God are synonymous.
Buddha says: he leaves
everything behind him.
The master cannot be a Hindu,
cannot be a Buddhist, cannot be a Christian. The master is simply a master;
these names are of the slaves. Somebody is a slave in the name of Christianity
and somebody is a slave in the name of Hinduism. These are all slaves; they
don't know what freedom is. They are clinging to such utter nonsense, but they
are clinging so hard that they can't see anything else. Their eyes are full of
the dust of the past. They are blind because of the past; they are blind for no
other reason.
You are not missing God because
you are sinners; you are missing God because you are past-oriented. And God is
available only now... here. God knows only one time, now, and only one place,
here. And you are never now and you are never here; you are always somewhere
else. 'Then' and 'there' are significant words for you; 'now' and 'here' are
almost meaningless to you.
The master lives now and lives
here. He
leaves everything behind him. He goes on destroying the bridges he
has crossed.
He does not take offense
And he does not give it.
He never returns evil for evil.
Obviously, if somebody insults
him he does not take it. You cannot insult a master, that is impossible. How
can you insult a man who does not take it? To insult a man two things are
needed: somebody to insult him and his readiness to take it.
Once Buddha was insulted very
much by a few people. They abused him badly. He listened silently and then he
said, "Have you anything more to say? - because I have to reach the other
village in time. People must be waiting there. If you still have something else
to say, when I come back I will be coming by the same route and I will inform
you and I will keep a special time for you, so you can come and say whatsoever
you like."
Those people were very much
puzzled. They said, "We are not saying something, we are insulting
you!"
Buddha laughed. He said,
"For that you have come a little late. You should have come at least ten
years ago. Now I am not so foolish. You can insult, that is your freedom, but
whether to take it or not that is my freedom. I am not taking it."
And he said to them, "In
the other village which I just passed before yours, people came with sweets to
offer me. I thanked them. I said, 'I don't need sweets and I don't eat sweets.'
What do you think they must have done with the sweets?"
Somebody from the crowd said,
"They must have taken them back home."
Buddha said, "Now what
will you do? You will have to take your insults back home. I don't take your insults
- there is no other way, you have to take them back."
When you feel insulted you have
participated with the person. But you are not conscious, so anybody can push
your buttons. You function like a machine: push the button and you are on; push
the button and you are off. Anybody can enrage you, anybody can make you smile
and laugh, anybody can make you cry and weep. Anybody, any stupid fellow can do
that! One just needs to know where the buttons are - and almost always they are
in the same places. It is very rare to find a person whose buttons are in
different places.
A Polack was driving his
Volkswagen, when suddenly it stopped for some reason. He went to look - maybe
there was some trouble in the engine - but he could not find the engine. So he
thought, "My God, my engine has been stolen!"
Just then another Polack
stopped by his side. He said, "Is there some trouble?"
The first man said, "Yes,
it seems my engine has been stolen."
The man said, "Don't be
worried. This morning I was looking at the back of my car - there is a spare
engine. You can take it!"
Now in a Volkswagen the engine
is not in the usual place; it is at the back, not in the front. But God has not
yet learned anything from the Volkswagen - he still makes the same engine with
the same buttons, maybe a little bit different here and there, just a little
change. Anybody can find... just a little groping and you can find anybody
else's button. If you know your buttons you know everybody else's buttons.
You will be in a difficulty
only with a buddha, because you can go on pushing his buttons and nothing will
happen because he is no more identified with his mechanism. He will watch you
pushing his buttons and he will enjoy the exercise that you are giving him, but
that's all.
He does not take offense and he does not
give it. He never returns evil for evil. He understands humanity so
deeply. By understanding himself he has understood the miserable state of all
human beings. He feels sorry for people; he is compassionate. He does not
return evil for evil for the simple reason that he does not feel offended in
the first place. Secondly, he feels sorry for you; he does not feel
antagonistic towards you.
Once it happened in Baroda:
I was talking to a big crowd.
Somebody sitting just in the front row became so disturbed by what I was
saying, he became so disturbed by it he went out of control, he lost his
senses. He threw one of his shoes at me. At that moment I remembered that I
used to play volleyball when I was a student, so I caught hold of his shoe in
the middle and asked him for the other one. He was at a loss.
I said, "You throw the
other one too! What am I going to do with one? If you want to present something..."
He waited. I said, "Why are you waiting? Throw the other one too, because
this way neither will I be able to use the shoe nor will you be able to use it.
And I am not going to return it, because evil should not be returned for evil!
So you please give the other one too."
He was so shocked because he
could not believe it... first, what he had done he could not believe - he was a
very good man, a scholar, a well-known Sanskrit scholar, a pundit. He was not
expected to behave like that, but it had happened - people are so unconscious.
If I had acted the way he was unconsciously expecting, then everything would
have been okay. But I asked for the other shoe, and that shocked him very much.
He was dazed.
I told somebody who was sitting
by his side, "You pull off his other shoe. I am not letting him off, I
want both the shoes. In fact, I was thinking of purchasing some shoes, and this
man seems to be so generous!" And the shoe was really new.
The man came in the night, fell
at my feet, and asked to be forgiven. I said, "You forget all about it,
there is no question... I was not angry, so why should I forgive you? To
forgive, one first has to be angry. I was not angry, I enjoyed the scene. In
fact, it was something so beautiful that many people who had fallen asleep were
suddenly awakened! I was thinking on the way that it is a good idea, that I should
plant a few of my followers, so once in a while they can throw a shoe so all
the sleepers wake up. At least for a few moments they will remain alert because
something is happening! I am thankful to you."
For years he went on writing to
me, "Please forgive me! Unless you forgive me I will go on writing."
But I told him, "First I
have to be angry. Forgiving you simply means that I accept that I was angry.
How can I forgive you? You forgive me, because I am unable to be angry with
you, unable to forgive you - you forgive me!"
I don't know whether he has
forgiven me or not, but he has forgotten me. Now he writes no more.
Alas for the man, Buddha says,
Who raises his hand against another,
And even more for him
Who returns the blow.
Why alas for the man who raises his hand
against another...? Because he is raising his hand against himself,
because there is no one who is other. All existence is one. When you hit
somebody you are hitting yourself. You are simply being childish. It is the
same reality: I am one of its waves, you are another of its waves. One wave
hitting another wave in the ocean - they are both hitting themselves.
Alas for the man who raises his hand
against another, and even more for him who returns the blow. Why
more for him? - because then he creates a vicious circle. And that's how we are
living, in many many vicious circles. People go on fighting; once something
starts then it seems there is no end to it. You do something in revenge and the
other has to wait for his opportunity to do something against you, then you do
something against him, and so on and so forth. It goes on from one life to
another life, it continues.
The wise person is one, the
master is one, who stops all these vicious circles.
Once a man came and spat on
Buddha's face, he was so angry. Buddha asked him, "Is that all or do you
want to do something more? Please do it and finish it."
The man asked, "What do
you mean - 'Please do it and finish it'?"
Buddha said, "In a past
life I had insulted you and now the time has come when the vicious circle can
be closed. Now you insult me and I will not return anything; I will simply
accept it and close the circle - it is just to close the accounts with you. I
was waiting for you; in fact, the day I came into this town I was hoping that
you would come and you would do something and the accounts could be closed.
This is my last vicious circle; I have closed all others. Now I am out of all
vicious circles. I am thankful to you; otherwise something was hanging in the
air - only one thread, but something was hanging in the air, something
incomplete.
"Now the circle is
complete and I don't want to continue it anymore. Now it is up to me to
continue or not to continue. Now I am the master; up to now you were the
master. By spitting on my face your mastery is gone; now I am the master and I
don't want to continue this vicious circle anymore. This is my last life and I
want to close all accounts with everyone - good accounts, bad accounts, all
kinds of accounts have to be closed - so that I can disappear into the ultimate
with no strings attached to the world. I am immensely happy," Buddha said
to him.
Resist the pleasures of life
And the desire to hurt -
Till sorrows vanish.
Pleasure is dependent on
others, and whatsoever is dependent on others will make you a slave, will
create a bondage. And Buddha's ultimate goal is freedom, nirvana - freedom from
all bondage.
Hence all the awakened ones
have been saying: Search for bliss. Don't waste your time in ordinary
pleasures. In the first place they are momentary; in the second place every
pleasure brings pain. Pain is the other side of the same coin. It brings pain
in the same proportion; the greater the pleasure, the greater the pain. So when
you are enjoying something, be aware: soon the pain will follow; it is
inevitable. Just as the day follows the night and the night follows the day,
pain and pleasure follow each other. They are not separate, they are
inseparable.
First, pleasures are momentary,
they are just soap-bubbles. To waste your precious life for them is simply
stupid, unintelligent. Second, every pleasure brings pain. But people are so
foolish that they never look at the association. They think pain has come from
some other source, they think pleasures can be forever. Again and again they
are ditched by their pleasures into pain; again and again they go on thinking
that there were some reasons why this pleasure was destroyed.
Whether reasons were there or
not is irrelevant; every pleasure is momentary, it is going to disappear, and
in its wake the pain... You can rationalize it; that rationalization will only
help you to continue in the same old rut. But see the fact. Seeing the truth is
a great liberation; seeing that every pleasure is inevitably a bringer of pain,
you will be freed from both.
And third: it is the same
energy that is involved in pleasure which has to move towards bliss. Pleasure
is dependent on others; bliss is totally independent, it is your own. It arises
within your being, it is your self-nature; hence you are not dependent on
anybody. And because it is your self-nature it is forever. There is no
contrary, there is no opposite to bliss.
Happiness is just in between
pleasure and bliss. In happiness something is independent and something is
dependent; it is a mixture of both. Hence the man who lives in sheer pleasure
is in a better condition in a way; he is healthy, as healthy as animals are.
Animals live in sheer pleasure: when the pain comes they suffer, when the
pleasure comes they enjoy. They go on rotating between pleasure and pain. The
man who lives only in pleasures - a Don Juan - he is in a way healthy, normal,
because he is part of the animal world; he is not yet human. In a way his life
is clear, it has no complexity.
But the man who lives in
happiness or tries to find happiness, lives for happiness, is far more confused
because he is nowhere. He is neither the animal nor yet the divine; he is in a
limbo. He is riding on two horses; he will be in very great difficulty. And
that's where almost all human beings are. It is very rare to find a human being
who lives purely in pleasure - it is rare to find a Zorba the Greek who lives
purely in pleasure. He is clear, there is no confusion in him. He simply walks
on the earth; he has no idea of flying in the sky. He has accepted the law of
gravitation and he knows no other law.
The man who lives for
happiness, who knows the beauty of music, who knows the beauty of paintings,
art, who knows something higher than the animals can know, is far more
confused; he is in far more of a mess... because while you are listening to
great music something is contributed by the music which is outside and
something is contributed by the music which is inside; it is a meeting of two
polarities. You are hanging in the middle and both are pulling you in separate
directions. You will find more anxiety in your life.
That's why poor people are less
in anguish than rich people. Rich countries live in anguish because they have
enough pleasure; they are fed up with it. Now they want something higher, and
with the higher the problems arise.
The animal part is well settled
because it is your heritage of millions of years. It is in your chemistry, in
your biology, in your physiology. Everything is settled, instinctive. You need
not be aware, you need not do anything. But if you seek and search for
happiness then you are going into a more shadowy world which is less
substantial - higher but more shadowy.
And the third goal is bliss,
which again is very clear, as clear as the first, in fact far more clear than the
first because the first has a clarity, but the clarity is of a much lower kind.
The third has a clarity of the highest quality. Only the awakened one knows the
clarity of the third.
Buddha says: resist the
pleasures of life... Become a little more mature. Don't be childish,
don't remain animals. Put your energies towards the highest goal in life - let
bliss be your goal.
And people who live in
pleasures also have one thing more in their life, and that is the desire to
hurt others, because pleasures create competition. If you want more money, of
course you have to snatch it from somebody else. If you want power, then
somebody else will lose power. If you want to be the president, then somebody
else will not be the president. Hence it is a constant struggle. You have to
hurt many to succeed. You have to be very destructive, inhumanly destructive.
It is only the goal of bliss
which can be nonviolent; otherwise pleasures are going to be violent.
Buddha says: resist the
pleasures of life and the desire to hurt - till sorrows vanish. Be
alert. He is not saying repress, he cannot say that. Be aware - so that
pleasures don't pull you downwards, so that slowly slowly you are freed from
your animal heritage, so that slowly slowly you can transcend your biology.
And avoid the desire to hurt
others. There is a certain joy in hurting others. We go on hurting people; it
gives you the feeling of power. It helps you to feel that you are powerful when
you can hurt somebody. It is a very ugly desire, egoistic, but everybody does
that. Watch yourself, in how many ways you hurt people. You may not be doing
anything in particular to hurt them, but your gesture may be enough. People
walk in such a way, talk in such a way, that others are hurt. And nobody can
blame them because what they are doing is so subtle. They use words which can
hurt, and they use them with such skill that you cannot blame them. They can
always find a way to rationalize.
A black gentleman was arrested
for shooting a man. The next morning he was brought into court.
"Why did you shoot that
man?" asked the judge.
"Because he called me a
black sonofabitch!"
"You didn't have any
business shooting a man for that!"
"Well, Your Honor, what
would you have done if he called you that?"
"Oh, he wouldn't have
called me that!"
"I know, Judge, but
suppose he had called you the kind of a sonofabitch you are, then? Of course he
cannot call you 'a black sonofabitch' - you are not black - but the kind of a
sonofabitch you are, if he had called you that, what then?"
People can go on finding ways
skillfully... One has to remain aware until all sorrows vanish.
Never offend
By what you think or say or do.
That does not mean, remember,
that people will not be offended. They may still be offended, but it should not
be an intention on your part. Buddha is not saying that nobody will be offended
by the master, because thousands were offended by Buddha himself. Certainly
many were offended by Jesus; otherwise why should he have been crucified?
Buddha is saying: never offend by
what you think or say or do. It should not be your intention. Still,
it is going to happen: whenever the master speaks it is almost inevitable that
many will be offended because they will understand in their own way what he is
saying. They will not hear what he is saying; they will hear only what they can
hear. They are going to misunderstand him. That is absolutely inevitable, it
cannot be avoided.
It was late afternoon in a
small town. Joe, the owner of the local beer parlor, was lazily polishing
glassware when his friend, Mickey, came running in.
"Joe," he shouted,
"get over to your house real quick. I just stopped off to see if you were
home and I heard a stranger's voice in your bedroom. So I looked in the window
and, gosh, I hate to tell you this, but your wife is in bed with another
man!"
"Is that so?" said
Joe, matter-of-factly. "What does this guy look like?"
"Oh, he is tall and
completely bald."
"And did he have a thick
red mustache?" asked Joe.
"Right! Right!"
yelled Mickey.
"Did you notice if he had
a gold front tooth?"
"Damn it, man, you're
right!"
"Must be that jackass,
Dick Roberts," said Joe. "He'll screw anything!"
Now, when you are talking to a
husband about his wife it is a totally different matter. He does not care, he
is no longer interested, he is fed up, he is finished. You may be excited that
something has to be done, but the husband will hear through his experience of
being a husband to the woman; he cannot put that experience aside.
I am saying something to you;
you will hear it through your experiences, through your memories, through your
ways of interpreting things. Nobody knows what you are going to gather out of
it; that will be more your own than mine. I may have triggered the process,
that's all, but you will be the creator of the whole phenomenon.
Hence, remember, the master
never offends, still people are offended.
Buddha says:
Honor the man who is awake.
That has been one of the most
beautiful things in the East - that flower has bloomed in the East - the East
can be proud of it: we have always honored the man who is awake. In other parts
of the world, particularly in the West, the expert is honored, the technician
is honored, the scientist is honored, the man who can do many things is
honored. But the man who is conscious is not considered at all just for his
consciousness.
Gurdjieff was not honored at
all. In the East he would have been a buddha; in the West he was not honored at
all - insulted in every possible way, for the simple reason that the West has
no idea how to honor the awakened man, because the awakened man fulfills no
utilitarian purpose. If your machine is broken he cannot be of any help; he
cannot mend your car... he cannot help you in any way in the world. In fact,
all that he can do is help you to get rid of the world. And nobody wants to get
rid of the world; everybody wants to be in possession of the world. Hence the
expert is honored in the West; in the East the expert has not been honored,
never. The expert is okay - he is a servant, he serves, he is paid for it. But
we have honored the buddha.
To honor a buddha is to honor a
roseflower, which has no utilitarian purpose. You cannot eat it. If it is a
question of starvation, roses won't help; wheat will be far better. If it is a
question of choice between wheat and roses you are going to choose wheat. What
are you going to do with roses? A buddha is like a rose: you can appreciate the
beauty, you can dance around the rose, you can sing songs to it, you can look
at the rose and praise the Lord, but what else? It cannot fill your hungry
stomach, it cannot help you to succeed in the world, it cannot make you a great
warrior. If you carry a roseflower you will not become Alexander the Great; a
sword is needed, not a rose.
But the expert is as much
asleep as you are; there is no difference, no qualitative difference. Hence in
the East the expert is paid but he commands no honor.
A motion picture actor told his
psychiatrist, "I'm attracted to men instead of women."
The shrink replied,
"You've come to the right place, handsome!"
Now the shrink cannot be
honored in the East; in the West he has become one of the most honored people.
He has even defeated the priests. Now priests are learning how to be shrinks;
priests are going to the universities to learn psychotherapy, psychoanalysis,
psychosynthesis and all kinds of nonsense, because now they know the profession
of the priest is finished; they have to add something more to its glamor. And
they see the shrink is getting higher and higher; he is the most highly paid
person in the West. In the East nobody will think anything special about a
shrink. Yes, he cannot be more than a motor mechanic, maybe he is a mind
mechanic - he is also a plumber. You pay him, but honor is totally different.
Honor is due only where payment
won't do. Where you cannot pay, where there is no possibility of paying back,
then honor. Honor is the acceptance of the fact that it is impossible to pay
back; the debt cannot be paid.
Honor the man who is awake
And shows you the way.
Honor the fire of his sacrifice.
The buddhas show you the way.
You have to walk, you have to go; buddhas only point. They don't give you
detailed directions because each individual is so unique and different that no
detailed directions can be given. Only vague instructions, only indicators,
pointers, hints at the most - not orders, not commandments...
I have heard the story about
the Ten Commandments. Of course God had asked the Indians first, "Would
you like to have a few commandments?" They said, "No, not at
all."
Then he asked the French and
they said, "We want to live in freedom, we don't want any
hindrances."
And he went on asking and
nobody was ready. Finally he asked Moses, "Would you like a few
commandments?"
He said, "How much?"
And God said, "Free,
absolutely free!"
He said, "Then I will have
ten!"
Honor the man who is awake and shows you
the way. He does not command you; he does not tell you, "Do
this and don't do that." He simply gives you a few hints here and there -
and keeps you free, allows you total freedom. He is not to be imitated or
followed; he is only to be understood. You have to learn from the awakened
person the beauty, the bliss of being awakened, that's all, and then you have
to search on your own. It is always an individual search, a private
exploration. Truth cannot be transferred from one hand to another; it is
untransferable.
Honor the fire of his sacrifice...
And why should a buddha be honored? - because of the fire of his sacrifice. It
is impossible for you to understand the sacrifice of a buddha because it is
absolutely invisible to you. You will know it only when you become a buddha.
What he has known cannot be put into words, still he tries; it is a constant
sacrifice.
What he has known is beyond the
mind, yet he tries in every possible way to make you understand it, to help you
understand it. He puts all his energy into making the incomprehensible
comprehensible. His sacrifice is great. He takes so much trouble - for no
reason at all, because he is not going to gain anything out of it. His work is
finished! His ship has arrived. He can leave the body any moment, any moment he
decides, still he goes on living in the body - which is a confinement, which is
a bondage. Still he goes on suffering in the body for the simple reason that he
would like to convey the unconveyable. His compassion is infinite.
Ramakrishna suffered from
cancer. Many times his disciples said to him, "Paramahansadeva, if it is
too much of a pain, we will be very sad, miserable, but you please leave your
body."
He said, "It is all the
same whether the body has cancer or does not have cancer. To be in the body now
is a suffering; even if it is healthy it is a suffering because now I can be as
vast as the sky. But for you I will cling to the body a little longer."
And the master has to find ways
and means to cling to the body because all the old associations are broken, all
the old connections are broken. He has to forge new connections, which is
really one of the most difficult things in existence.
Ramakrishna was very much
interested in food, so much so that his wife was always feeling embarrassed. He
would be talking to his disciples and suddenly in the middle of it he would
rush to the kitchen and ask Sharda, "What are you cooking?"
It is just like if suddenly, in
the middle of the lecture, I rush to the kitchen and ask Vivek, "What are
you cooking?" and then come back again, and you have to wait!
Sharda said many times,
"This is not right. What will the people think?"
Ramakrishna always laughed and
never answered. One day Sharda persisted: "You answer me! There is
something strange about it." Whenever she brought his food he would stand
up; he was so eager to know. He would remove the cloth and look into the thali. People were always sitting there
and they would start laughing and giggling: "What kind of God-realized man
is this?"
One day Sharda persisted, then
Ramakrishna said, "If you want to know the truth I will tell you: this is
the only way I am clinging to the body. I have created a false desire for food.
And remember, the day I show no interest in food then that is the end. Only
three days more will I live after that."
Sharda did not pay much
attention to it - who pays much attention to such people? They go on talking
about things, so many things; you listen and you don't pay much attention.
But one day Sharda came in with
the thali... Ramakrishna did not stand up. Not only that: he was looking at the
door, he turned his back towards Sharda and started looking out of the window
in the other direction. Sharda suddenly remembered - the thali fell from her
hands.
Ramakrishna said, "So now
you understand; that day you missed. Now only three days more..." And
exactly on the third day he died.
Only when you become
enlightened, awakened, will you know how a man who has come home still goes on
living in the caravanserai - dirty, ugly - and still goes on helping people who
are insane. Honor
the fire of his sacrifice... Hence, Buddha says, honor him.
Matted hair or family or caste
Do not make a master
But the truth and goodness
With which he is blessed.
Your hair is tangled
And you sit on a deerskin.
What folly!
When inside you are ragged with lust.
Character is not a decisive
factor. You can cultivate a beautiful facade around yourself, but the really
decisive factor is your inside.
The master's clothes are in tatters.
His veins stand out,
He is wasting away.
Alone in the forest
He sits and meditates.
For years Buddha was meditating
in the forest, alone, not caring about his clothes, not caring about his body,
not caring about anything else except his meditation; except for one thing all
was dropped from his consciousness: how to reach the center. Once you have
reached it then there is no problem, but before you can reach it, it has to be
a one-pointed search. You have to be concentratedly concerned about only one
thing, excluding everything else. Unless your search is so total, so whole, so
wholehearted, you will not succeed in it.
Alone in the forest he sits and meditates.
Wherever you are, learn to be
alone, sit alone. It is difficult, the most difficult thing in the world,
because when you are alone the mind starts dying. It cannot exist in aloneness,
it needs company. Hence whenever you are alone the mind says, "Do
something, go somewhere. Turn on the TV or the radio." The mind wants
company, engagement, occupation.
If you can be just alone...
sitting silently doing nothing, the spring comes and the grass grows by itself.
One day your inner being blooms into a one-thousand-petaled lotus. That day you
have also become a buddha, and only then will you be able to understand the
meaning of Jesus' life, the meaning of Buddha's sayings, the meaning of Lao
Tzu, Zarathustra. Before that whatsoever you try to understand is just your
mind interpreting, and that interpretation has been one of the greatest causes
of mischief.
Drop the mind - the only thing
to be renounced in the world is the mind - and move towards the no-mind, the
inner silence and serenity. Know yourself in your absolute aloneness and your
life will be fulfilled, your life will be blessed: blessed with eternal bliss,
blessed with truth, blessed with freedom.
Enough for today.
