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

162 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
master; only individuals can be masters. In the crowd you have to be a slave; the crowd consists of slaves. The
crowd wants you to remain a slave; only then the crowd remains powerful. All the politicians and all the priests
of the world want you to remain slaves; only then can they be priests and can they be great leaders. Otherwise
who will follow your stupid leaders? Who is going to follow your so-called religious priests?
If you are a little alert, aware, you will be able to see perfectly well that your leaders are hocus-pocus, that your
priests are pseudo, that you need not follow them, that following them you have been falling in ditches. Who is
going to follow Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin or Ayatollah Khomeini? Who is going to follow these people? Only
slaves, only people who don’t know what they are doing.
A young sports car enthusiast saved up enough money to buy the latest model of sports car.
After trying out the car, he went to his favorite pub to brag to all his friends about it. ”Shit, man my new car
is so fantastic! I just went from London to Liverpool in one hour!”
The next day he was back at the pub again, bragging to his friends. ”Today,” he said, ”I made it from London
to Liverpool in forty minutes!”
The day after, the young sports car enthusiast was again at the pub. ”Today,” he said, ”would you believe it?
London to Liverpool in twenty-eight minutes!”
After an absence of two days, to the astonishment of his friends, the young man arrived at the pub on foot.
”Where is your car?” asked his friends.
”I’ve sold it,” he replied sadly.
”But why?” they asked incredulously.
”I could not help it,” he told them. ”What the fuck was I supposed to do in Liverpool every day?!”
But people go on doing it! This man must have been a little intelligent. They go on going to Liverpool, never
thinking why. Why do you go to the church? Why do you go to the synagogue or to the mosque, or to the
temple? Why do you go on following stupid ideologies, ridiculous politicians? Why? You have never asked.
I have heard about a man who went to the court and wanted his name changed. The magistrate was a little
puzzled, but he could not object. He was puzzled because the new name that he had chosen was very strange.
His new name was ’None of the above’.
The magistrate said, ”What kind of name is this?”
He said, ”But this is what I want.” So he was allowed. He changed his name; he became ’None of the above’.
Then he stood for president. Then the secret was known. All other candidates who had stood for president
objected because this man is dangerous: his name is ’None of the above’. Anybody marking his name on the vote
list, on the vote, means canceling everybody! They objected. The man was called back to the court.
The court said, ”Your name is a little deceptive.”
He said, ”Whatsoever it is, it is my name and I want to change the president. I want to give people a chance
to cancel everybody else. I am not interested in being the president myself; my whole interest is to cancel all
the others, because everybody knows they are all fools, but you have to choose somebody. So I simply want to
give them a chance: if they want to reject all, they can reject. They can simply mark on my name: ’None of the
above’.”
If you look at the situation of the world you will be able to see what these politicians and the priests have done
to humanity: they have made it a hell. There is no need to ask for any proof. Now there is no need to ask whether
hell exists or not. Politicians and priests, in a deep conspiracy, have made it a reality on the earth. Who is going
to follow them? That’s why they don’t want you to be intelligent, they don’t want you to think, they don’t want
you to be alert. They want you to live in a kind of deep sleep. They want you to be machines, not men.
Buddha says: IN ALL THINGS BE A MASTER so that you are not reduced to a machine OF WHAT YOU
DO....
Watch what you are doing and why. Is it worth doing? Is it worth wasting your life and your breath? Are you
just doing it because you don’t know what else to do? It is better to do nothing than to do something without
knowing why, without knowing what. ... OF WHAT YOU DO AND SAY AND THINK.
You go on saying things and you suffer much because of your sayings. And many times you have decided not
to say such things because unnecessarily you get into trouble; you say something and you are in trouble. But still
you will go on saying the same things and getting into the same troubles, as if you never watch yourself, what you
are doing. You are moving like a somnambulist in your sleep.
And have you ever looked at what you think? Have you ever looked inside? You will be surprised: you are
carrying many, many mad people inside you. But nobody looks inside; people are continuously occupied on the
outside. Nobody thinks what he is doing, what he is saying, what he is thinking.