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

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144 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 ”Look what I got today! A brand-new car, and it only cost eight hundred pounds.” ”Eight hundred pounds? But that’s impossible a brand-new car?” ”Ah well, you see, it’s got no engine.” ”Got no engine?” ”That’s right. You talk to it, see... you just talk to it and it goes.” ”Is that so?” ”Yep, that’s right. Wanna come for a ride? Only one thing, though, before we start. This car only understands a few words. Like, to make it go forward you say, ’Bloody hell’; to make it stop you say, ’Bastard.’” ”Oh... is that so?” ”Yep. Sure is. Come on, I will show ya. ’Bloody hell’ she goes, see, and all you have to do is turn the steering wheel, blow the horn, flash the indicators.... ’Bastard’ see, she stops when you want, too.” ”Wow! I’ve never seen a car like that before!” ”Let’s take her out into the country. Maybe we can go out towards the cliffs by the sea. See, on a straight road she’ll go up to ninety, no problem ninety-four, ninety-five....” ”Uh... ahem... I say, aren’t we getting a bit close to the edge of the cliffs?” ”Come on now, don’t worry. Just watch how she brakes.” ”Hey! Hey, careful! That sign says, ’Road ends in fifty yards,’ and you’re going ninety-five!” ”Right! Watch this: Bastard.... Hey, come on now she doesn’t want to stop! Bastard! Bastard! Bastard! We made it! See, she stopped.” ”Phew, bloody hell, that was close...!” THE FOOL IS HIS OWN ENEMY. SEEKING WEALTH, HE DESTROYS HIMSELF. By ”wealth” Buddha means everything that is outside you: power, prestige, money, sex anything that is outside you. The fool is extrovert; he never looks in. He accumulates everything on the outside. His whole life is devoted to money, power, prestige, and then one day death comes, but then it is too late. When death comes, he realizes that all that he has been doing has been simply stupid because all is slipping out of his fingers. All that he has been doing was making sandcastles. Just a blow of death, and everything disappears like a dream. Buddha says: SEEKING WEALTH, HE DESTROYS HIMSELF. He remains constantly extrovert; hence he never becomes aware who he is, why he is, from where he comes, to where he is going, what is his destiny, what is his significance, why this existence needs him, what purpose he is supposed to fulfill, what fragrance has to be released by him. He never looks in. He goes on rushing faster and faster. As death comes closer he runs faster so that he can accumulate a little more wealth, a little more respect, respectability, so that he can become a president or a prime minister. But death destroys everything your presidents, your prime ministers. You may be rich; death is not going to favor you. Before death, everybody is the same rich or poor, knowledgeable or not knowledgeable, famous or not famous. Buddha says: If you are putting your energies into such projects which can be destroyed by death, then you are destroying yourself. Attain something that is imperishable. Attain to something that death cannot snatch away from you. Realize something that will go beyond death with you. Realize something that even fire cannot burn, swords cannot cut, atom bombs, hydrogen bombs cannot destroy. Then only you have been a friend to yourself; otherwise you are an enemy. Three couples were killed in a car crash. Saint Peter was waiting for them at the Pearly Gates, his big book under his arm. The first couple was summoned forth. ”Name?” shouted Saint Peter. ”Jones,” replied the husband. Saint Peter opened his big book and started thumbing through the pages. ”Hmmm... Jackson... Johnson... ah yes, Jones! Hmm... Jones, hey? Well now, Jones, this is not a very good record, is it? Drink, drink, drink that’s all you’ve ever been after even married a woman called Sherry. Well, Jones, this isn’t good enough, you know. I’m afraid it is downstairs to hell for you.” The Joneses broke into sobs and hugged each other, but two guardian angels pulled them apart and dragged the man towards the gates of hell. The wife followed shortly. ”Next!” called Saint Peter and the second couple shuffled forward. ”Name!” ”Smith,” they both replied shakily. ”Hmm... Sutherland... Spencer... ah yes, Smith! Hmm... well, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, this one doesn’t look too good either. Money, money, money that’s all you two have ever been after even called your sons Buck, Frank
THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 145 and Mark, and your daughter, Penny. Now what kind of a life is that! Well, there’s only one place for people like you. You’ll have to go downstairs down to hell!” The Smiths wept and fell at his feet, but the verdict was final. ”Next!” shouted Saint Peter, as the guardian angels were hauling the Smiths away. The next husband turned to his wife and said, ”Come on, Fanny... I’m not gonna stand here and be insulted!” SEEK RATHER THE OTHER SHORE. Buddha says: Don’t be too much concerned with this shore; it is momentary. Tomorrow you have to go. Even seventy years is not a long time; compared to eternity it is just a moment. Your life lasts only as long as a soap bubble. You think it is long enough seventy years because you compare your life with the life of flies or mosquitoes; then it looks long enough. But ask the mosquitoes and they think they are doing perfectly well: they are doing everything that you are doing and in a short span. They are born, they fall in love, they get married, they have children and many more than you can ever have and they sing and they dance. Maybe they have their own religion and priests and politicians. And then they become old and then they die. Maybe it lasts only for a few weeks, but in those few weeks they have done everything! There are insects that will live only for a few hours, but in those few hours is condensed your whole life: boyfriends and girlfriends, husbands and wives, and all the fights.... I have heard they go even to marriage counselors, they consult sexologists! One woman had a cat and the cat was creating much trouble in the neighborhood. He was a playboy and the whole night he was going from this house to that, and they were making so much noise because cats don’t believe in making love silently. They are not Hindus, not Indians! They are all hippies! So the whole neighborhood told the woman, ”Do something. It’s too much we can’t sleep! This lovemaking of your cat he’s driving us mad!” Finally the woman took her cat to the vet and he was operated on. But the neighborhood was in as much trouble as before. People asked the woman, ”What is the matter? What kind of operation is this? Your cat has been operated on, you say, but we still see him coming.” The woman said, ”Yes, he still goes now as a consultant.” Time does not matter. In a few hours you can live seventy years or seven hundred years in a condensed way. Into seven minutes seventy years can be condensed. And seven minutes look very small compared to seventy years, but what are seventy years compared to the age of the sun or the moon or the earth or the stars? And what are seventy years compared to eternity? This shore consists of momentary phenomena. Don’t waste your total energy in that which is momentary. Go on remembering the other shore. By ”the other shore” Buddha means that which is beyond time and beyond space. This shore is outside you and the other shore is within you. This shore consists of money, sex, power, prestige, and that shore consists only of awareness, silence, peace, prayer. SEEK RATHER THE OTHER SHORE. WEEDS CHOKE THE FIELD. PASSION POISONS THE NATURE OF MAN, AND HATRED, ILLUSION AND DESIRE. But you are full of weeds, hence you cannot grow roses. Before you can grow roses you will have to remove all the weeds, you will have to prepare the ground, you will have to prepare the soil. You will have to remove the weeds, the stones, and all that can be a hindrance for the roses. WEEDS CHOKE THE FIELD. And about weeds, one thing has to be understood: you need not grow them, they grow on their own accord. Even if you pull them out they will grow again. Mulla Nasruddin has a very beautiful lawn. A new neighbor moved recently next door to Mulla’s house and he became very interested in Mulla’s garden, particularly his lawn. He also wanted to make a beautiful lawn and a garden. He planted seeds, he planted plants, but so many weeds started growing. He asked Mulla, ”How to distinguish which is grass and which are weeds?” Mulla said, ”Simple. You pull them both out. The grass will not grow again and the weeds will grow again. That’s how one knows, that’s how one can distinguish.” Weeds have a quality the same quality as the fools: they persist, they insist, they don’t want to be removed. Everything great in this life is fragile and everything ugly is rocklike, very strong. Weeds grow on their own accord. You have not cultivated anger and you have not cultivated lust. There are no schools where you are taught how to be jealous and how to be greedy. No teachers, no masters are needed to teach you how to be unconscious. These things grow on their own accord. Falling downwards is easy; rising upwards is difficult it goes against gravitation.
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