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

178 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
The man said, ”While you were showing me my life, I noticed that when the times were pleasant there were
two sets of footprints, and I knew you walked beside me. But when times were difficult there was only one set of
footprints. Why, Father, did you desert me during the difficult times?”
And God said, ”You misinterpret me, my son. It is true that when times were pleasant I walked beside you
and pointed out the way. But when times were difficult, I carried you.”
You say, Samarpan, ”I never know what is coming next. It is no use being prepared.”
Certainly, it is no use being prepared or, there is a totally different way of being prepared. That is what I am
trying to show you. Live in the moment totally, fully aware. That is the real way of preparing without preparing.
That is preparation without preparation. You will be ready for the next moment naturally, without any worry.
You say, ”You are killing me.”
Yes, in a sense. And in another sense....
Meditate over this story:
A man is taking a walk in a park late at night. Suddenly, behind some bushes he hears strange gasps and
muffled screams. Alarmed, he shouts, ”Is anybody being killed in there?”
”No, no,” shouts back a voice. ”Just the opposite!”
Yes, in one sense I am killing you; in another sense, I am giving you a new birth. I am doing just the opposite.
The master is a womb. He takes the disciple inside his womb. We call that womb the buddhafield. And then
the disciple grows in his love, is nourished through his love, in his light. He is showered continuously with his
compassion, with his understanding. And one day he comes out of the womb of the master, a totally new man.
The old dies and the new is born. This is how you become twice-born.
The fourth question:
Question 4
BELOVED MASTER, YOU TALK ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ’KNOWING’ AND ’KNOWL-
EDGE’. BUT TO BECOME A MASTER, DO YOU NOT HAVE TO HAVE ’KNOWLEDGE’ AS WELL AS
’KNOWING’? IT SEEMS TO ME THAT YOU, IN YOUR TALKS, SHOW MUCH KNOWLEDGE. CAN THIS
NOT BE A PART OF THE WAY FOR SOME?
Nicholas Mosley, there is a great difference between knowledge and knowing. And to you, knowing may appear
as knowledge because you are not acquainted with knowing at all; you know only knowledge. Hence you may find
much knowledge in what I am saying, but it is not knowledge to me, it is knowing to me. Knowing means my
own experience; knowledge means something borrowed.
And it is not necessary that my knowing should go against the knowing of Buddha or Jesus or Krishna. In fact,
it cannot go against anybody’s knowing. Knowing is the same, the process is the same, whether Buddha knows
or Zarathustra. It is the same.
Knowing means you enter into your interiority, you move inwards, you reach to the very center of your being.
You experience who you are... and in that very experience you know you are God, because only God exists. To
say, ”God is,” is a tautology because God means ”is”; ”isness” is God.
Whatever I am saying here may appear to you as knowledge because it can be found in the Bible, in the Koran,
in the Gita, in The Dhammapada. And you will think, ”Of course, it is knowledge.” It is not. The difference is
subtle and delicate.
One can know about love libraries are full; thousands of books about love have been written. You can gather as
much knowledge about love as possible. You can make an encyclopedia of love. You can become an encyclopedia of
love. Still, if you have not experienced love, all that you know is rubbish, all that you know is verbal, intellectual;
it has no existential value.
Buddha used to say: It is like a man who goes on counting other people’s cows and buffaloes every day and
he himself has no cow, no buffalo. Counting other people’s cows and buffaloes you may become very expert in
counting, you may become very reliable, but unless you have your own cow you will not be nourished by that
counting.
To know means to be silent, utterly silent, so you can hear the still, small voice within. To know means to drop
the mind. When you are absolutely still, unmoving, nothing wavers in you, the doors open. You are part of this
mysterious existence. You know it by becoming part of it, by becoming a participant in it. That is knowing.
And once knowing has happened, then to read the Bible and the Koran and the Gita is beautiful, because then
they all become witnesses. Otherwise you can read, you can repeat, but they are only words with no meaning,
with no content.
Knowledge is without content, empty shells with nothing inside. But if you have seen only knowledge, from
the outside both will look almost the same. Knowledge comes through studying and knowing happens through