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

180 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
be otherwise. So I don’t take much care whether I am literally true to Buddha, to Jesus, or not. I take every
freedom.
Sometimes I change the stories because when I see that this story is not possible, it can’t happen to a buddha...
sometimes I invent stories too.
Once a great Buddhist scholar, Bhadant Anand Kausalyayan, came to see me. He said, ”Everything you say is
beautiful, but a few stories I have come across which I have not found in any scriptures.”
I asked him, ”For example?”
He said, ”For example, just the other day I was reading a beautiful story you have told: Buddha is passing
down a street talking to his disciple, Ananda, and a fly sits on his head. He goes on talking and just moves his
hand to scare away the fly, and then he stops suddenly in the middle of the road. The fly is gone, but he moves
his hand again slowly as if the fly is there.
”Ananda is very much puzzled. He says, ’What are you doing? The fly is no longer there!’
”Buddha says, ’Yes, I know, but this is how I should have done it before. I continued to talk with you and
automatically I allowed my hand to move. That is not right for me. I should move my hand with more awareness.
So now I am doing it as I should have done.’”
Anand Kausalyayan said, ”I have never come across this story. I have read all the scriptures.”
I asked him, ”But do you think the story is beautiful?”
He said, ”The story is beautiful.”
Then I said, ”It is perfectly right. Then why bother about the scriptures? Don’t you see a Buddhist flavor in
it?”
He said, ”I can see.”
”So that is the whole point!”
I am not functioning here as a man of knowledge, but only as a man of knowing.
The fifth question:
Question 5
BELOVED MASTER, I AM LOSING MY MEMORY AND IT IS WORRYING ME TO DEATH. WHAT
SHOULD I DO?
Mamta, nonsense! Just forget all about it!
The sixth question:
Question 6
BELOVED MASTER, WHAT WOULD YOU SAY WAS WRONG WITH THE INDIANS?
Madhuri, almost everything!
The seventh question:
Question 7
BELOVED MASTER, YES! I WAS NOT SURE UNTIL NOW! I SAID THE SAME WORDS TO ASEEMA
A MONTH AGO: ”YOU HAVE DRIVEN TWO OTHER MEN MAD. DON’T LET IT BE ME.” WOW! WE
HAVE BEEN IN LOVE FOR MAYBE ONE YEAR NOW, AND TO TELL YOU THE TRUTH I AM RE-
ALLY ALLOWING HER TO AFFECT ME IN ALL POSSIBLE WAYS. BOTH NIKUNJ AND SARVESH ARE
AFFECTED BY HER, AND FOR MYSELF I SEE WHAT IT IS: LOVE WITH A WITCH! RELEASE ME,
BELOVED MASTER. AH... WHAT SHALL I DO?
Narayana, it is too late! And I am not a witch doctor! Now, nothing can be done. In fact, you are already
mad.
Mulla Nasruddin plays on the sitar, but he goes on playing the same note continuously for hours. His wife has
gone mad, his children have gone mad, his parents have gone mad.
One day he continued to play the same note, and a neighbor asked him, ”Mulla, we have seen many people
playing sitar, but they change notes.”
Nasruddin said, ”I know they go on changing because they have not yet found the right note. And I have
found it, so why should I change?”
The neighbor said, ”But now it is two o’clock in the night. Please! Just one hour more and I will go mad. Stop
it!”
Nasruddin said, ”It is too late because I have stopped already. It is almost two hours since I stopped! What
are you talking about?”
Narayana, one year with Aseema... you are finished! She is dangerous all beautiful women are. All women
are witches! In fact, the word ’witch’ means wise. It is exactly the equivalent of ’buddha’. If a woman becomes
enlightened she becomes a witch.