THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 The ...

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102 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 ”No.” The gates of pearl and alabaster swung open upon their golden hinges, making the most ravishing music, and the patriarch bowed low. ”Enter into thy eternal rest.” But Mrs. Farid hesitated. ”The poisoning, the chopping, the... the....” she stammered. ”Of no consequence, I assure you. We are not going to be hard on a lady who did not belong to the Women’s Lib. Take a harp.” ”But I applied for membership. They would not let me in.” ”Take two harps.” Don’t be worried, Shakti. There are many women here who have belonged to the Women’s Lib movement. But as they have come closer to me, their attitudes have changed, their approach has changed. Life’s problems can only be solved by love, they cannot be solved by any violent approach. Men and women are different worlds; hence it is difficult to understand each other. And the past has been full of misunderstandings, but that is not necessarily to be so in the future. We can learn a lesson from the past, and the only lesson is that man and woman have to become more understanding of each other and more accepting of each other’s differences. Those differences are valuable, they need not create any conflict; in fact, they are the causes of attraction between them. If all the differences between men and women disappear, if they have the same kind of psychology, love will also disappear because the polarity will not be there. Man and woman are like negative and positive poles of electricity: they are pulled towards each other magnetically; they are opposite poles. Hence, conflict is natural. But through understanding, through compassion, through love, through looking into the other’s world and trying to be sympathetic to it, all the problems can be solved. There is no need to create more conflict enough is enough. Man needs as much liberation as woman. Both need liberation liberation from the mind. They should cooperate with each other and help each other to be liberated from the mind. That will be a true liberation movement. That’s what sannyas is all about. The last question: Question 6 BELOVED MASTER, ARE YOU GOD THE CREATOR? Sudheer, do you think I am mad? For almost a year, Grandpa Sulzberg had been a constant embarrassment to his family. He would mount a soap box on street corners in his neighborhood and proclaim himself the messiah. Then he would proceed to harangue the amused crowds that gathered, hurling fierce warnings and injunctions, reminding them of the dire consequences of their evil ways. In his long white robe which he had fashioned from a bedsheet, and his flowing, silvery beard, he did indeed look like a biblical patriarch. Old Sulzberg’s delusion gradually worsened, and finally his sons and daughters and grown grandchildren held a conference and reluctantly agreed to send him to an institution. There, they hoped, with proper treatment, he might regain his sanity and then return home. At the Cedars of Lebanon Home for the Mentally Disturbed, the ”messiah” got along famously with his fellow patients. Until, that is, he made the mistake of exhorting them to abandon their godless ways. ”I am Moses reincarnated,” he thundered like a prophet of old. ”I am the messiah!” ”Oh yeah?” yelled one of the patients. ”Who said so?” ”I will tell you who said so,” yelled Mr. Sulzberg-turned-messiah. ”God said so!” And from the outer circle of patients an indignant voice rang out: ”I did not!” Enough for today. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 10 Chapter 3 Meditation requires courage Audio:Yes Video:No Length:0 mins IT IS NOT IRON THAT IMPRISONS YOU NOR ROPE NOR WOOD, BUT THE PLEASURE YOU TAKE IN GOLD AND JEWELS, IN SONS AND WIVES. SOFT FETTERS, YET THEY HOLD YOU DOWN. CAN YOU SNAP THEM? THERE ARE THOSE WHO CAN, WHO SURRENDER THE WORLD, FORSAKE DESIRE, AND FOLLOW THE WAY. O SLAVE OF DESIRE, FLOAT UPON THE STREAM. LITTLE SPIDER, STICK TO YOUR WEB. OR ELSE ABANDON YOUR SORROWS FOR THE WAY.
THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 103 ABANDON YESTERDAY, AND TOMORROW, AND TODAY. CROSS OVER TO THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH. DO YOUR THOUGHTS TROUBLE YOU? DOES PASSION DISTURB YOU? BEWARE OF THIRSTINESS LEST YOUR WISHES BECOME DESIRES AND DESIRE BINDS YOU. The most fundamental message of Gautama the Buddha is not God, is not soul... it is freedom: freedom absolute, total, unconditional. He does not want to give you an ideology, because every ideology creates its own slavery. He does not want to give you a religion, because religion binds you. That’s exactly the meaning of the English word ’religion’ that which binds you together. Religion is a bondage, very subtle, so subtle that unless you are very aware you will not be able to see it. He does not want to give you a philosophy of life, because any philosophy given by somebody else is going to fetter you. You have to live according to your own light, not according to somebody else’s light. The whole world is full of slaves for the simple reason that everybody is living according to somebody else. Somebody is living according to Jesus, somebody is living according to Mahavira, somebody is living according to Krishna, somebody is living even according to Buddha. Buddha says: Be a light unto yourself. Unless you create a light within your own being you will remain a slave, you will be dominated. And there are crafty priests, cunning, very clever, very worldly; and they know, they are very experienced in creating new bondages for you. If you escape from one prison, they immediately create another. They are very clever with words. They go on interpreting words in such subtle ways that you will never be able to understand how these words of the buddhas are being manipulated, distorted. Words that were meant to give you freedom have been made into chains. But man is very unaware; hence he goes on remaining a victim a victim of all kinds of psychological exploitation. Buddha teaches you freedom as the ultimate goal, the summum bonum, the highest good. There is nothing higher than freedom. Every other value is a by-product of freedom; they follow freedom as a consequence. Jesus says: First seek ye the kingdom of God, then all else shall be added unto you. Buddha will not say that. He will say: First seek ye total and absolute freedom, and then all else shall be added unto you. If you seek God you are again seeking a new prison, maybe better than the old, maybe made of gold, very precious but a prison is a prison all the same. Whether your chains are made of iron or gold, it makes no difference at all. In fact, if the chains are made of gold it will be more difficult to come out of them because you will become attached. You will think those chains are not chains but ornaments. You will protect them, you will guard them somebody may steal them away from you! Freedom is the fragrance of Buddha’s whole message. No other enlightened person has emphasized freedom so much. Why did Buddha emphasize freedom so much? for the simple reason that he had seen all other ideals being changed into imprisonments. He had seen all beautiful philosophies poisoned by the priests. Beware of the priests! Buddha is not a priest, neither is Jesus, nor is Mahavira. No enlightened person is a priest. The priest lives on the words of the enlightened people and goes on exploiting the unenlightened. He certainly is clever but not wise, knowledgeable but not enlightened. He succeeds in manipulating you because you are unconscious. Hence, the second thing Buddha emphasizes is meditation, awareness. Freedom can come only through being more and more aware. By freedom he does not mean any social phenomenon or any political change. There are people... I have come across books written by communists, Marxists, socialists, who try to prove that Buddha’s freedom means communism, socialism, that his freedom means a social revolution, a political revolution. That is utter nonsense! Buddha has nothing to do with the outside world; his concern is your interiority. He wants to change your unconsciousness into consciousness, he wants to change your darkness into light, he wants to change your death into deathlessness. He is really doing the work of the seers of the Upanishads who have been praying to God, ”asato ma sadgamay. O God, O Lord, take us away from the false, from the untrue, to the truth. tamaso ma jyotirgamay. O God, O Lord, take us away from darkness into light. Mrityor ma amritamgamay. O God, O Lord, take us away from death to eternal life.” But they were praying to God. Buddha says: No prayer is going to help. Unless you do something, your prayer is impotent. There is no need to pray, but there is great need to meditate. His religion is not a religion of prayer. His religion is very scientific in the sense that he does not presuppose any belief. You need not believe in God, you need not believe in afterlife. He says when you can experience, then why believe? All beliefs ultimately reduce you to slaves. Buddha is against all kinds of beliefs and disbeliefs. He is an agnostic. He says remain open; if you believe you become closed. The Hindu is closed, the Mohammedan is closed, the Christian is closed: they have already concluded. They have already accepted a certain belief as true without experiencing it. This is dishonesty! And
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