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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 163
Rabbi Isaacs was quite fond of the Shapiro family whose members were long-time congregants of his temple.
So it was understandable that he would react sympathetically when they asked him to have a serious talk with
their daughter, Rachel, who was unmarried but pregnant again for the third time.
He confronted the young lady on the following evening. ”I can’t understand how a nice Jewish girl could allow
such a disgraceful thing to happen,” he began severely. ”Three times yet! I suppose the babies all have different
fathers!”
”Ah no!” said Rachel. ”It is the same fellow.”
”He is single, this man?”
”Certainly. You think I would go with a married man?”
”Then why don’t you marry him?” demanded the rabbi.
”Well, frankly,” Rachel answered with complete candor, ”he does not appeal to me.”
Just look at yourself and you will not laugh at Rachel. People are living with each other not knowing why.
So many people come to me, they write letters to me. They say, ”I am living with a man for fifteen years. I
don’t know why because all that he gives me is misery, suffering!” Maybe that’s why because you are a masochist.
You love being miserable, you want to suffer. That man is giving you good service! And people write to me, ”I
am living with a woman and my life is hell.” But why are you living with that woman? Nobody is forcing you.
People say to me, ”I am working in a job that I hate” but why? Get out of it immediately! Walk out of it!
I was a professor in the university. One day I was talking to the vice-chancellor and I told him, ”This whole
thing is nonsense. Just give me a piece of paper so I can write my resignation.”
He said, ”What are you doing? Are you mad? Such a good job, so little work!” He said, ”I know perfectly well
that you don’t do even that!” And that was true! ”Why are you leaving?”
I said, ”It is just nonsense. Enough is enough!”
He said, ”But wait! I have been in this business for thirty years I also know it is all nonsense. But how can you
leave like this? I have not been able to leave this. Many times I have decided, but now look I have succeeded. I
have become the vice-chancellor. One day you may become the vice-chancellor.”
I said, ”Forget all about it!”
He rushed... when he saw me leaving his office, he rushed out. He pulled me back inside. He said, ”What are
you doing? Think it over!”
I said, ”Finished is finished! I don’t think twice!”
He thought I was ill or something, or I had taken some drug. He said, ”Wait! I don’t think you are in a state
to drive back home. I will come with you.”
I said, ”You don’t be worried. In fact, this is the first time I am perfectly sane! I was insane when I joined this
university!”
But he came with me just to see whether I could drive back home. For two or three days he continued to come.
He said, ”You think. I am still keeping your resignation, I have not sent it. I have not told anybody.”
I said, ”That’s up to you. I am not coming back.”
The fourth day he said, ”You are really a man! I have also thought many times to divorce my wife I could
not. And now I have seven children!” Seven children from a wife you always wanted to divorce.... So what were
you doing with her?
I asked him, ”Are those children really yours? If you wanted to divorce the woman, why were you making love
to her?”
He said, ”You are right, but what else to do?”
And for thirty years he had been thinking to drop out of the job, because he always wanted to be a musician.
And now the poor fellow is dead just two years ago he died. He could never become a musician; he died a
vice-chancellor. What a failure! What frustration! But that’s how things are.
Watch your life. Buddha is all for watchfulness. IN ALL THINGS BE A MASTER OF WHAT YOU DO AND
SAY AND THINK. BE FREE. If you can be a master, if you can be watchful, freedom comes on its own accord.
Freedom is the shadow of being a master of your life.
YOU ARE A SEEKER.
Remember, always remember. Buddha insisted again and again: Remember you are a seeker. You are seeking
your true home; you have not yet found it. Many lives you have been seeking, this life also you are seeking. Have
you found it? Don’t waste your time, don’t go astray. Pour your whole energy into seeking, because nobody
knows about tomorrow. This may be your last day. Find it so that you can live joyously and you can die joyously.
YOU ARE A SEEKER.
DELIGHT IN THE MASTERY....