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

174 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
and your dreams. Leaving your dreams and your life behind is hard. It is demolishing your whole past. It is
entering into such an unknown territory and without maps one feels scared.
Only disciples can understand; the masses cannot understand. The masses have every investment in not
understanding. Even if there is some possibility of understanding they will avoid that possibility. They will not
come close to the buddhas. They will try in every possible way to create more and more barriers. They will create
rumors, all kinds of rumors. They will surround the buddhas with so much smoke of their own creation that the
buddhas become almost invisible to them. They don’t want to listen it hurts. Their whole life is rooted in lies
and the truth hurts, it shatters.
And the masses are vast, the blind people are millions. The people with eyes are rare, few and far between.
Only once in a while comes a Zarathustra, a Lao Tzu, a Jesus, a Moses, a Buddha. They are doing something
unimaginable. They are trying to explain light to the millions who are blind. The blind people can hear the
word ’light’, but they cannot understand it or they will understand it in their own way, whatsoever is their idea,
opinion about light. And they are not only blind; they have thousands of opinions. They have much knowledge
without knowing anything at all. They are full of scriptures. They hide their blindness behind scriptures. They
can quote scriptures, they can argue. They are clever and skillful in argument.
In fact, truth cannot be argued about. Either you know it or you don’t. Truth cannot be proved either; either
you know it or you don’t. Knowing is all that is possible, or not-knowing; there is no way to prove it.
Once it happened:
A blind man was brought to Gautama the Buddha. He was a logician, a philosopher, very argumentative. He
had been arguing with the village that there is no light, ”and you are all blind, just as I am blind. I know it and
you don’t know it, that’s the only difference.” He was saying this to people who had eyes! And he was so clever
in argument that the villagers were at a loss what to do with this man.
He was asking them, ”Bring your light. Let me taste it or smell it or touch it. Only then will I believe.”
Now, light cannot be touched, cannot be tasted, cannot be smelled. You cannot hear it. And these were the
four senses available to the blind man. Then he would laugh in victory. He would say, ”Look! There is no light.
Otherwise, give me the proofs!”
When Buddha came to the village, the villagers thought it would be good: ”Let us take this man to Buddha.”
They brought the man to Buddha. Buddha listened to the whole story and then he said, ”He does not need
me. I also work with blind people, but of a different kind spiritually blind people. I heal them, I cure them. But
this is physical blindness. You take him to a physician. You take him to my personal physician.”
He had a personal physician a king had given him. The greatest physician of those days, Jivaka, was given
to Buddha as a gift to take care of his body. ”You take him to Jivaka, and I am certain that he will be able to
do something. He needs a physician; he does not need great philosophy about light. Talking about light is just
stupid. And if you argue with him, he is going to win. He can prove that there is no light.”
Remember, to prove that there is no God is very easy; to prove that there is God is impossible. To prove the
negative is easy because all logic tends to be negative. To prove the positive is not possible; logic has no opening
towards the positive. Hence the atheist is more argumentative and the theist feels almost defeated. He cannot
prove the existence of God or the soul.
Buddha said, ”You take him to Jivaka.” Jivaka cured his eyes. Within six months the man was able to see. He
came dancing with many flowers and fruits as a present to Buddha. He fell at his feet and he said, ”If you had
not been there I would have argued my whole life against light and light is! Now I know!”
Buddha said, ”Can you prove it? Where is light? I would like to taste it and touch it and smell it!”
And the blind man the ex-blind man said, ”That is impossible. Now I know it can only be seen; there is no
other way to approach it. Excuse me, I am sorry. I was blind, utterly blind, and in my blindness I was saying
things. I was arguing against something which exists and is the most beautiful experience of life. If you were not
there I would have argued my whole life against something which is, and I would have remained a blind man.
And you did well that you did not say a single word about light; otherwise, I had come prepared, fully prepared
to argue with you, and I know now, even you would not have been able to prove it. But your insight is deep: you
could see that I didn’t need any proofs; I needed some medicine. I didn’t need philosophy, I needed a physician.
You directed me to the right person. I am immensely grateful.”
And the man never left Buddha. He said, ”What you have done to my physical eyes, now do to my spiritual
eyes too.”
He became a disciple, he became a sannyasin.
To be a disciple means to be ready to be operated on. It is a surgery, a very internal surgery: surgery in the
very deepest core of your being. Only then can you understand me, what I am saying to you.