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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 153
Mark, don’t waste your time in occultism, unless you are interested in novels, fictions. Then it is okay, then
there is no problem....
The lecturer on the occult was warming to his subject of supernatural manifestations. ”Ah, my friends,” he
exclaimed, a look of dedicated zeal animating his face. ”If you could but be made to believe! If only the world
would cease its scoffing and come to realize that visitations from the Mystic Shore happen all the time.”
The lecturer searched the faces in his audience to find those sympathetic souls who agreed with his philosophy.
”I have told you about my own experiences,” he continued, ”but surely one of you has also had direct communication
with a departed spirit. If there is any such person here in this audience who has been in touch with a
ghost, I would appreciate it if he or she would stand up.”
From her seat in the front row, Mrs. Faigel Frume got to her feet. ”Me,” she said loudly. ”Such a experience I
had you would not believe.”
”This is very gratifying,” said the delighted speaker when the applause died down. ”Behold, a volunteer witness;
one who is a total stranger to me, arises to give her testimony. My dear lady, do I understand you to say that
you have been in touch with a ghost?”
”In touch with him?” echoed Mrs. Frume. ”Better even than that. When I was a little girl in Russia one of
them butted me till I was black and blue.”
”A ghost butted you?”
”A ghost, you said? Gosh! I thought you said a goat!”
Don’t waste your time in ghosts and goats. If you want to explore inner space, explore inner space. How does
occultism come in? That’s a way of escaping from inner space, not exploring it. That’s a way of keeping yourself
engaged in sheer nonsense! And theosophy, particularly in this age, has released so much nonsense: hundreds of
books and all kinds of foolish things. People are so gullible that they are ready to believe anything.
Man today exists in a kind of vacuum. Old religions have died or are almost dying. Either they have died or
they are on the deathbed; hence new creeds are cropping up everywhere, and all the new creeds need new fictions
to allure you.
I cannot give you any occult fiction. I am not interested in anything esoteric. I am a very down-to-earth man.
I am simply stating the facts. I don’t want to decorate them. I don’t want to create illusions in your mind; I
don’t want to create projections in your mind. My effort here is to help you to go beyond the mind and all your
occultism and esotericism, theology, anthroposophy and there are so many schools. You can create your own;
there is no need to believe in anybody else’s, you can create your own. All that you need is a pencil and paper;
you can just go on writing your own fiction. That will be far more enlightening. At least it will be something
creative. Then give your copy to somebody, and you will find a few believers. Then you will know how people go
on believing in any kind of thing.
J. Krishnamurti was brought up by theosophists. He was fed, spoon-fed with all kinds of occultism. He became
so fed up that when the theosophists were going to declare him to be the world teacher.... The day they had
gathered from all over the world six thousand leading theosophists when they asked Krishnamurti to declare,
he stood up and said, ”I dissolve this organization. I am nobody’s teacher. I am finished with it all, and I don’t
want to say anything more!”
They were shocked, but as far as I see it, it is a logical conclusion. For years he was taught all kinds of nonsense
by all kinds of stupid people. He was getting fed up with the whole thing. But old ladies, and particularly retired
old people, were very interested. They were the majority of the theosophists retired people and old ladies who
now had nothing else to do and they would gather and talk nonsense about ghosts and about Tibetan masters
who come flying in the air, and about letters that Master K.H.... Now nobody knows who this K.H. is. His full
name is Koot Humi. That too, nobody knows what it means. The less you understand, the better.
Koot Humi in short K.H. used to write letters, until finally it was found that those letters were written by
Blavatsky herself. A servant used to hide on the roof just think, just on the roof of Buddha Hall! and there
was a small hole from where, when the theosophists would be sitting with closed eyes waiting for Koot Humi, he
would drop a letter.
Now, people are so foolish.... Just ordinary paper they could have seen what brand it was, in what factory it
had been made ordinary ink, and the handwriting was Blavatsky’s. Then the letter would be read, and those
letters were collected, and they were great treasures. But in the High Court there was a case against one of the
great theosophists, Leadbeater. He was a colleague of Annie Besant, and he was suspected of homosexuality. Just
a dirty old man, that’s all!