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

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126 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 Ask anybody about God and it is very rare to find a person who will say to you, ”I don’t know.” Very rare... almost impossible. Many will say, ”Yes, God is, God exists.” And they are ready to fight, to argue, to kill you or be killed, for something that they know not, not at all. And there are a few who will say, ”No, there is no God.” But it is very rare to find a person who will say, ”I don’t know” and that is the real religious person. The agnostic is the real religious person neither the theist nor the atheist. One believes without knowing, one disbelieves without knowing; both are deceiving. But I am not doubting their sincerity. They may be thinking... they may be absolutely convinced that they know. And then you ask other questions about God and then they have to invent answers, because basically they have accepted that they know. Ask them how many heads God has, and they will tell you three or four, and they will make much out of nonsense. They will say that God has four heads because there are four directions and he has to look in all directions, or three because there are three dimensions and he has to look into all dimensions. How many hands has he? And some say he has one thousand hands because he has to work so much and he is so alone, and he has to create the world and manage the whole show all alone. One thousand hands... two hands are not enough. Do you think one thousand hands will be enough to manage this vast universe? Do you think four heads will be enough to see everywhere? But people go on inventing answers. You ask the question and they invent they have to invent because they cannot accept one thing, that they don’t know. A blonde took her dog to the vet who advised her to buy some Nair to remove the excess hair around the Schnauzer’s eyes and ears. The blonde entered a pharmacy and asked for the hair remover. ”Use it full strength for leg hair,” said the druggist, ”but dilute it one half for the underarms.” ”Ah,” said the girl, ”but I want to use it on my Schnauzer.” ”In that case,” said the pharmacist, ”you better use one quarter strength and I wouldn’t ride a Honda for a couple of weeks.” The knowledgeable person cannot ask, ”What is this Schnauzer?” That shows his ignorance and he cannot show that. Sometimes knowledgeable people commit such stupidities that no ignorant person can ever commit, because the ignorant person can always ask what it is ”I don’t know.” But the knowledgeable person finds it impossible. He cannot say these three words: ”I don’t know.” If you can say, ”I don’t know,” you have taken one of the greatest steps towards real knowing, towards wisdom. Buddha says: When mind is empty, silent, you are wise. By wisdom he does not mean knowledgeability; by wisdom he means innocence. Knowledge comes from the outside, wisdom arises within. Knowledge creates noise, wisdom brings more and more silence. The wise person slowly, slowly becomes utterly silent. Even if he speaks, his words carry the flavor of silence, the music of silence. By wisdom he means spontaneity, childlike spontaneity, eyes full of wonder. When your eyes are full of wonder you can see the beauty that surrounds you. When your eyes are full of knowledge you can’t see the beauty because you have explanations for everything and explanations help you only to explain things away, nothing else. But knowledgeable people have been doing good business. They have dominated humanity too long; that is their joy. ”I’ve got a problem, Doc,” the new patient began. ”We all have problems,” replied the doctor, smiling his assurance. ”My problem is this, Doc: I get migraine headaches every time I think of my wife. I break out in a rash every time I think of my job. I get cold sweats every time I think of my bank account. Talk about problems! Boy, have I got them!” ”Every problem has its answer, of course, and I understand this one perfectly,” said the psychiatrist, nodding. ”You will need a hundred sessions on the couch, at twenty-five dollars per session.” The patient gulped. ”Well, Doc,” he said after a painful pause, ”that solves your problem. Now, how about mine?” The knowledgeable people are doing good business. The priests, the professors, the pundits, the scholars, the theologians, they have been doing good business. Without knowing a thing about God, without knowing a thing about themselves even, they go on talking about great problems and great solutions. They talk about metaphysics, about philosophy. They have ready-made answers for everything. Beware of these people! And they are all around, in the churches, in the mosques, in the temples, in the universities; you will find them everywhere. Beware of them. They are the people who will not allow humanity to ever become wise because once humanity becomes wise their profession is finished.
THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 127 YOU ARE WISE. YOU ARE FREE FROM DESIRE AND YOU UNDERSTAND WORDS AND THE STITCHING TOGETHER OF WORDS. AND YOU WANT NOTHING. Buddha says: When you are wise... not knowledgeable, not well informed, but when meditation has released your inner fragrance, when your inner consciousness has become a fully open lotus, then you will be able to understand words the words of the buddhas not before that. Don’t waste your time with the Gita and the Koran and the Gurugrantha unless you become meditative. Once you know your own being, in deep silence you have encountered yourself, then, of course, scriptures are tremendously beautiful. Then you will be able to understand because you will be standing in the same position, you will be having the same vision. Now scriptures will become your witnesses, they will witness for you. When you have known something on your own, reading in the Gita or in the Koran suddenly you will come across a sentence that will say exactly the same that you have experienced, and suddenly now the meaning is revealed. Meaning has to come first to you through experience; only then can you understand words particularly the words of buddhas. In the ordinary world we don’t understand even the words of those who are not enlightened. You can see it happening everywhere. Talk to your wife and you will understand; you both speak the same language, but there is no conversation possible. You say one thing, she understands another. You try to explain it to her, she goes even farther away. She tried to explain something to you and you jump to some other conclusion. It seems conversation is impossible. Both are in a state of madness. Both are so full of their own ideas that before the other has said anything they have already concluded what he means. Nobody is listening to anybody else. Even when somebody is silent and pretending to listen to you, he is not listening. He is thinking a thousand and one things. While you are talking, he is preparing, so when you stop he starts saying something to you. Passing Beth Yisroel Synagogue in Staten Island, in the wee hours of the morning, a drunk noticed a sign that read: Ring the bell for the shammes. He did just that, and a sleepy-eyed old man came to the door. ”What do you want at this hour?” the shammes demanded crossly. The drunk looked the old man over for a full twenty seconds and then retorted, ”I want to know why you can’t ring that silly bell yourself!” People are bound to understand according to their minds. Tannenbaum the tailor had saved up his money for years so that he could fulfill a longtime dream to take a Caribbean cruise. But he had not reckoned with seasickness. On the second day out from port, the captain noticed him, green-faced, hanging on the ship’s rail. ”Sorry, sir,” said the captain politely, ”but you can’t be sick here.” ”No?” said Tannenbaum. ”Watch!” Rabbi Longbleibt of Far Rockaway had a well-deserved reputation for being long-winded. On this Sabbath, he was in especially good form. His topic for the day was ”Prophets of the Bible.” ”Now then,” he added, after speaking for half an hour, ”we have disposed of the major prophets. Next we come to the minor prophets. To what place, my dear friends, shall we assign them?” From a seat in the rear of the temple, a bored-looking stranger arose. He waved an explanatory hand at the seat he had just vacated and said, ”One of them can have my place!” It is impossible to understand even the people who are just like you. What to say about buddhas? They speak from sunlit peaks and you live in dark valleys. By the time their words reach you they are no longer the same. By the time you hear them, great interpretation has happened. Your mind has colored them in its own color. Buddha says: Now YOU ARE WISE. YOU ARE FREE FROM DESIRE. That is the sign of wisdom: freedom from desire. Only fools desire. Wise people live and live joyously, but without desire. Either you can desire or you can live, you can’t do both. If you desire, you postpone living; if you live, who bothers about desiring? Today is enough unto itself. ... AND YOU UNDERSTAND WORDS AND THE STITCHING TOGETHER OF WORDS. This is a very beautiful sutra. Buddha says: The words of the awakened ones have to be understood in a special way because they are stitched in a special way. Between two words there is silence; that is the stitching. You have to read between the lines. If you can just understand the lines you will miss the whole point. You have to read between the lines. You have to read between the words. You have to read the silences, the pauses. Hence it is more easy to understand a living buddha than to understand a dead one, because with a living buddha you can experience his pauses, his periods, when between two words suddenly there is a gap, the interval, which is far more pregnant than the words themselves. ... AND THE STITCHING TOGETHER OF WORDS. AND YOU WANT NOTHING.
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