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

140 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
fool’s heart is never joined with his ears. He is not able to see; he goes on seeing whatsoever HE wants to see. He
never allows the reality to be reflected in him; he is incapable of reflection. He is not a mirror.
After a day at the seaside, a bus full of deaf and dumb people stopped at a country pub. The bus driver went
in to explain to the barman: ”You see those people over there? They are all deaf and dumb. They have a special
sign language. Two fingers means a pint of bitter. Three fingers means a lager; four, a light ale; five, a Guinness;
a shake of the head, a whisky; a nod to the left, a brandy; and a nod to the right, a vodka.”
The barman, having taken in all this information, agreed he could handle the situation.
Things went well for the first hour or so, and then the barman noticed three of the party standing at the bar,
opening and shutting their mouths. He tried to figure out what they wanted, then gave up and forgot all about
them.
But ten minutes later, a dozen of the deaf and dumb people were at the bar, opening and shutting their mouths
like goldfish in a bowl. He started to feel a bit uneasy and pretended not to notice. But soon the whole crowd
from the bus was at the bar, all of them opening and shutting their mouths.
Not knowing what to do, he rushed outside, ran over to where the bus was parked and hammered on the
window.
”Hey, what’s up?” asked the driver.
”Well, you know all those people in there? Well, it was okay for the first hour or so three fingers, two fingers,
shake of the head, nod to the left but now the whole crowd of them is up at the bar, all opening and shutting
their mouths!”
”Ah, no,” said the driver, ”they are not singing again! Now we will never get them home!”
The fool lives in a totally closed world. Neither is he available to reality, nor is he capable of expressing anything.
He is uncreative because he cannot express.
Hence the third characteristic: the fool is uncreative. Imitative he is, but absolutely uncreative. He may be
able to compose a few things, he may be able to put a few things together, but it is never creativity. Never is a
new thing born through his being he himself is still unborn. He can become a great technician, but he is never a
great artist. He can know how to paint and he can know perfectly well how to paint but he will not be able to
paint anything genuinely new, authentically novel, original. He is absolutely unoriginal. He lives like a robot; he
has been reduced to a machine.
If man is reduced to his lowest, he becomes a machine; if he is raised to his highest, he becomes a god. Man is
a ladder: at the lowest rung, he is a machine; at the highest rung, he is a god. Either you can be a machine or
you can be a god. If you remain unintelligent, unaware, you will remain a machine.
Conscience cannot change you. You have been told, ”This is right and that is wrong,” but that has not changed
you. Nobody can change you from the outside. Any change from the outside is going to be only superficial; deep
down you will remain the same and you will persist in your foolishness.
I have seen sinners who are foolish, I have seen saints who are foolish in the same way. There is a great difference
between the sinner and the saint from the outside, but both may be fools. The sinner may have fallen in a wrong
company, that’s all, and the saint has fallen in a right company; that is the only difference. The sinner is following
the wrong crowd; it is accidental. And the saint is following the right crowd, but that too is accidental. Deep
down, both are the same.
Foolishness has a quality of persisting. It persists because for lives together you have lived through it, you have
remained identified with it. It has been safe to be a fool. It has been safe to pretend that you know without
knowing, because you know perfectly well that the world has not behaved well with the knowers. It has not
poisoned any fool, but it has poisoned Socrates one of the most wise men ever born. It has not crucified any fool,
but it has crucified Jesus.
Two hippies, short of cash, hit on a way of making money. With their long hair and beards, a couple of
nightshirts and a makeshift cross, they headed one Sunday morning for the local Baptist church, arriving in the
middle of the service. The first hippie entered, proclaiming aloud, ”Make way for the Lord!”
The second staggered behind, wielding the cross.
The worshippers cried out aloud. Some fell flat on their faces. Coins and bills were showered on them as they
paraded up the aisle and back out again into the street. That Sunday they made over forty dollars.
The following week they hit the local Catholic church. ”Make way for the Lord!” The parishioners tore out
their hair and shrieked up to heaven in paroxysms of divine ecstasy. That morning they made over a hundred
dollars.
The following week, just for a laugh, they tried the synagogue. The first hippie entered crying, ”Make way for
the Lord!” and the second lumbered in with his load.