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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 121
REFLECT....
That is the first fundamental. Remember, by ”reflect” he does not mean contemplate, think. No, by reflect
he actually means reflect like a mirror. The mirror reflects; whatsoever comes in front of the mirror, it reflects
it. It does not think about it, it does not contemplate it; it simply reflects. When it has moved, the reflection
disappears.
This should be the fundamental: reflect things, and when they have disappeared, let them disappear. Don’t go
on carrying the past. Don’t become a photo-plate; remember to remain a mirror. The photo-plate also reflects,
but it becomes attached to the reflection, it becomes obsessed with the reflection. It clings to it, it becomes
imprinted with it. The mirror remains clean; it is not imprinted by what it reflects. It does not become beautiful
when a beautiful face is reflected; it does not become ugly.
So should be the seeker. When success comes, reflect; don’t become attached to it. When failure comes, reflect;
don’t be disturbed by it. When you are in a palace, reflect the palace, and when you are in a hut, reflect the hut.
Don’t become attached either to the palace or to the hut. Let everything come and pass, and you simply be a
mirror.
If you are a mirror you cannot carry the past with you, and if you don’t carry the past you will remain fresh,
you will remain young, you will remain in a continuous process of birth. Each moment you will be born anew. We
become old... I am not talking about physiological age, I am talking about psychological age. We become very
old for the simple reason that we collect the past.
You are still carrying something that happened thirty years ago. Somebody had insulted you and that wound
is still there; you still hanker to take revenge. You were rich fifty years ago, you cannot forget that yet; or you
were poor and you are still carrying that with you.
That’s how you find the world full of miserly people. From where do they come? These are poor people who
have become rich, but they are still clinging to their poverty. Only on the surface they have possessions, but
deep down they are poor, very poor. They can’t leave their poverty they can’t depart from their past. They are
carrying it; it has become a habit, it has become second nature to them. Hence the clinging to the money. They
cannot spend, they cannot use their money.
I know a person who has at least ten buildings and earns a lot of money but lives in such a dirty house. All his
buildings are beautiful, but those beautiful buildings have been rented and he lives in a dirty black hole. He has
no wife, no children; he is alone.
The reason I became acquainted with him, was that whenever he would pass through the street where I used
to live, at least from one furlong I would know that he was coming, because he used a bicycle so old that it must
have been used by Adam and Eve! It made so much noise that I became interested in the man.
I inquired, ”Who is this man?” and they said, ”He is one of the richest men of the town. His bicycle has no
brakes, but one thing is good about his bicycle: if you tell him to purchase a new one he says no, he can leave it
anywhere nobody ever steals it! Who will steal it? Anybody stealing it... it will be known all over the city who
has stolen it, it makes so much noise!”
I told a common friend that I would like to meet the man, and I asked him, ”Why are you living in such misery
when you can live beautifully, in a beautiful house? You have enough money, more than you need, and once you
are dead there is nobody else for whom you are collecting all this.”
He said, ”I know it, but somehow I cannot spend. That is impossible. Once I get some money, the hardest
thing for me is to spend it.” Tears came into his eyes and he said, ”I also feel, What am I doing to myself? But
I lived in poverty my parents died when I was very young. I have been a beggar; slowly, slowly I have earned
money. I gambled, I did all kinds of things, and that poverty is still within me I am still an orphan. I am not a
rich man I am the poorest in this town.”
And I could see it in his eyes. This is what happens to people.
You just watch your mind and you will see a queue of past events going back, far back, to the age when you
were three or four. And all that has become collected; it is heavy on you.
Buddha says: If you want to quieten the mind, the first thing is to learn the art of reflecting. Just reflect and
move on. Yes, live in the moment, live totally. Reflect whatsoever is and then let it move. Don’t cling to it, so
that you are again pure, again innocent, again available, again empty, ready to experience again.
It is because of your past that you cannot experience the present; your past distorts everything. It is because
of your past that you go on desiring the future, because you don’t want to repeat the mistakes of the past and
you would like to have all the pleasures that you enjoyed in the past again and again in the future. So your future
is nothing but a modified past: all the pains have been deleted and all the pleasures have been multiplied. And
between your past and future is the small present which is real. Between two unrealities you are destroying that