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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 147
When the awakened one knocks on your door, please open the door, because you may miss the opportunity and
you may miss it for many many, lives. It is very rare to come across a Buddha, a Christ, a Krishna, a Mahavira,
a Mohammed. If you are fortunate enough to come across an awakened person, then don’t be miserly. Then drop
yourself totally, then be committed totally.
Just the other day somebody has asked, ”You say: I am the gate. I have come here, I love you. I have come
from far away, but I am not a sannyasin and I am not being allowed to see you. Then why do you say: I am the
gate if I am not allowed to come through you?”
You are allowed to come through me, but a few things you will have to leave at the gate: your shoes, your heads.
That’s what sannyas is. These are your two extremes, the two polarities: the shoes and the head. Leave both the
extremes outside, then you are balanced. The very word ’sannyas’ means a state of equilibrium, of balance, of
absolute balance.
I am the gate, but I am the gate only for those who are ready to pass through me. You have to pay the price
and sannyas is the price. And if you love me, then love is always ready to sacrifice. And I am not asking for your
money, I am not asking for your house; I am not asking anything of this shore from you. I am asking only for
that which you don’t have but you believe that you have. I am asking only for the false things: your beliefs, your
ego, your hatred, your passion, your desires, your lust, your greed. I am asking for all your diseases! Give all your
diseases to me; that’s what sannyas is all about. Then I am the gate and I am ready. Come through me and you
will find that which you have been seeking for lives together.
But you can miss the gate if you are so miserly or so cowardly that you cannot take the jump into sannyas.
Then what kind of love are you talking about? Love knows how to be committed, how to be involved. Love knows
how to die and how to be reborn. Love is ready to pass through any fire because love knows, ”Nothing can destroy
me, not even fire can burn me.” Love knows its eternity. Hence love is always courageous.
Sannyas is courage, it is adventure.
Buddha says: WHAT YOU GIVE TO HIM WILL BE GIVEN BACK TO YOU, AND MORE.
Don’t be worried and don’t be miserly. Be open with me, be vulnerable, be receptive, so that I can pour myself
totally in you. I am ready to be a guest in your heart, but you will have to be ready to be a host and you will have
to cleanse your heart of all the weeds. You will have to empty your heart of all the junk that you have collected:
of all the past, of all the memories, of all the belief systems, of all the philosophies, ideologies political, religious,
social.
When you are absolutely empty you can come in me, I can come in you. The meeting can happen. And that
meeting is the greatest orgasmic experience of life.
Enough for today.
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 10
Chapter 8 Not gospels but gossips
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The first question:
Question 1
BELOVED MASTER, I FEEL LIKE SUCH A NO-SAYER. IS THERE ANY HOPE FOR NO-SAYERS?
Prem Jinesh, no-saying is a good beginning, but not a good end. No-saying is the seed; yes-saying is the
flowering of it. The yes has to come through the no the no is the womb of the yes. If you cannot say no, your
yes will be impotent. It won’t have any meaning at all, it won’t transform your life. It will be just on your lips,
not in your heart.
That’s what has happened to the whole of humanity. People have been forced to become yea-sayers, theists,
God-believers, without ever knowing the taste of no. The yes has been forced upon them. They have not arrived
at the yes, the yes has been handed over to them, it is borrowed.
It is a mere belief, and all beliefs are blind. They keep you blind, they keep you in darkness. They keep you
stuck and stagnant.
There is nothing wrong in saying no. No has as much beauty as yes. No is the way to arrive at yes. Use the
no as a stepping-stone. Don’t let it become a habit; be conscious about it, that’s all. I cannot say to you to start
saying yes, because that will be not yet ripe for you. Go on saying no as long as the no remains significant to you.
The no will destroy all that is false, borrowed. It will negate all beliefs. It will create an empty space in you.
In the East we call the whole process neti, neti neither this nor that. We have never condemned it.
It cleans you of all rubbish, it purifies you. It is a fire. Passing through it is a necessary step you cannot avoid.
Those who avoid passing through it, their yes is just parrotlike. You can teach the parrot anything and he will go