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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 111
create their own misery. They should be entered into mental asylums, they should be treated! They need medical
care. They are not mahatmas, they are simply masochists. They have renounced the world, but they cannot
renounce misery so they start creating their own misery. And when a person creates misery for himself, you all
respect him. You have been told that this is something great; he is sacrificing his life for God.
God is not a sadist. He does not enjoy your miseries and your sorrows. Don’t be foolish, don’t be stupid! But
the reason is that people cannot abandon their miseries. They can renounce the gold and the palaces and the
money and the power, they can renounce everything, but when it comes to renouncing the miseries, this becomes
the most difficult thing they encounter, because miseries have been with you so long that you don’t know any
other style of living. The only style that you have become accustomed to is sorrow.
That’s why your saints are so ugly, so sad, so serious. And the more serious and the more sad they are, the
more they are worshipped, so their ego is again nourished. When their ego is nourished they torture themselves
more; you worship them still more, then they torture themselves still more. This becomes a vicious circle.
ABANDON YESTERDAY, AND TOMORROW, AND TODAY. CROSS OVER TO THE FARTHER SHORE,
BEYOND LIFE AND DEATH.
If you really want to reach to the ultimate, to the deathless, to the timeless, you will have to abandon yesterday.
That which is gone is gone forever. Don’t look back and don’t look ahead. That which is not yet is not yet. Don’t
look for the tomorrow.
And people are so foolish: they are not only looking for tomorrow, they are looking for life after death; they
are even thinking of heavenly pleasures. They are rejoicing in the idea that there will be the eternal possibility
of enjoying the same foolish things that they have renounced here. Strange logic! Here they say, ”Don’t drink
alcohol, it is irreligious.” But in bahisht, in the Mohammedan paradise, there are rivers, streams, waterfalls of
alcohol! There you can drink as much as you want, you can swim in alcohol, you can dive deep in alcohol and
you don’t have to pay anything for it!
Here they say, ”The woman is the door to hell”; particularly Hindu scriptures say, ”The woman is the door to
hell.” And what is happening in heaven? Beautiful women, continuously dancing! How did these women enter
there? And they are doors to hell.... Your gods must have all reached hell long ago! Here, renounce the woman
and then you will be rewarded with beautiful women in heaven. And do you know? those women never grow old.
In the Hindu paradise, nothing is told about the men, whether they grow old or not, but it is absolutely certain
that women are stuck at the age of sixteen, they cannot grow beyond that. That is the Hindu idea: sixteen is the
climax of beauty, according to the Hindu idea. And ideas differ....
In the Mohammedan paradise, even beautiful boys are available, not only girls, because homosexuality was very
much prevalent in the days when the Koran was being written. And of course, saints will not be satisfied only
with girls, they will need beautiful boys too.
Louis Jourdan, the French movie star, was in the United States seeking a good literary script for his next film.
He happened to run into Budd Schulberg, the American author and playwright.
”There is a new book out called Precocious Paula,” Schulberg suggested tentatively. ”It would give you a great
co-starring role.”
”I nevair hear of zis book,” said Jourdan.
”It is something like Nabokov’s novel, Lolita,” explained Schulberg.
”And what ees zis Lolita about?”
”Well, frankly, it is about a middle-aged man who falls in love with a twelve-year-old.”
The Frenchman gave him a blank look. ”I do not undairstan,” he said. ”A twelve-year-old what?”
Man, woman, animal what? The Frenchman has his own ideas. I don’t know what happens in the French
paradise it must be worth visiting! Not worth living in, but worth visiting. You will see all kinds of sexual
perversions.
Two professors were talking, one French, another American, about how many positions there are for making
love.
The Frenchman said, ”One hundred and twelve,” and the American said, ”One hundred and thirteen.”
The Frenchman said, ”You surprise me, because we French are the experts. You start telling me what those
one hundred and thirteen positions are.”
And the American said, ”First, the woman lying down on her back and the man on top of her.”
The Frenchman said, ”Wait! Yes, there are one hundred and thirteen. I never thought of that!”
It must be worth visiting, the French paradise! And what to say about the French hell? That may be even
worth living in! You will find great company, and on each step a surprise.