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

182 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
fact, things will possess you because you will not be your own master. It is better to possess one’s own being
than to possess the whole world. It is better to be a buddha a beggar than to be Alexander the Great, because
the buddha lives a full life and dies a full death, and Alexander the Great lives an empty life, hollow, somehow
stuffing it in an effort to convince himself that he is not empty, and then dies utterly empty.
When he died he said to his generals, ”Let my hands hang out of my coffin.”
”Why?” they asked, because that was not the way to carry a dead body.
He said, ”That may not be conventional, but I would like my hands to hang out of my coffin so people can see
that I am dying empty-handed.”
That’s how his body was carried. Millions of people had gathered to see, and everybody was wondering, ”Why
are his hands hanging out?” And, slowly, slowly the rumor went around that Alexander wanted it to be known
by everybody that he was going empty-handed. His life had been utterly futile.
John, no need to be worried about education, knowledge. In the inner world, the ordinary education is not
needed something else, a true education.
The word ’education’ is beautiful. It means ”drawing something out”: drawing out that which is within you. In
fact, we should not use it for the ordinary education. It is wrong to use a beautiful word like ’education’ for this
rotten system of schools, colleges and universities. It is not education in the literal sense even, because instead of
drawing out what is within you it forces things from the outside upon you. It is an imposition.
Real education is like drawing water from a well, not pouring something into the well. Real education is drawing
out your being so that your inner luminosity starts filtering through your body, through your behavior.
I am reminded of a beautiful story. It really happened, it is not just a story.
Stosh, a new immigrant, got off a boat at Ellis Island and set about finding himself a job. Door-to-door inquiries
brought no luck until he rang the bell of a whorehouse. The madam was sympathetic and employed him to clean
up the basement. After completing the task in record time, Stosh asked for further work, whereupon the madam
suggested that he become their permanent bookkeeper.
When Stosh explained that he could neither read nor write, the madam paid him ten cents and sent him off on
his way with her best wishes.
With the ten cents Stosh bought two apples in the market. He ate one and sold the other in the town center
for ten cents. He returned to the market and bought two more apples which he sold again for ten cents each.
Increasing his business this way he eventually became the owner of a small fruit wagon, then several fruit wagons,
then a small fruit store, then a supermarket, and finally a chain of supermarkets.
When several of the giant national food chains offered to buy him out, he accepted the highest bid seven and
a half million dollars. The contracts were drawn up and the corporate executive and Stosh, surrounded by a large
number of attorneys, met in the plush corporate offices atop one of Manhattan’s most prestigious skyscrapers.
The contracts were looked over, heads were nodded and finally the executive signed on the relevant dotted line.
Then Stosh picked up the solid gold pen and laboriously scrawled his ’X’ at the bottom of the page.
The corporate executive leaped up from his chair and shouted, ”My God, man! You mean to say you have
amassed this business worth seven and a half million dollars without being able to read or write?”
”Hell!” snorted Stosh emphatically. ”If Stosh could read or write, Stosh would still be a bookkeeper in a
whorehouse!”
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS MECHANICAL GOODNESS?
Gina Goyt, there is nothing like mechanical goodness. Goodness cannot be mechanical and anything mechanical
cannot be good. It is a contradiction in terms. Goodness can only be conscious, nonmechanical; and evil can only
be unconscious, mechanical.
But I understand your question. It is relevant, because for centuries something like mechanical goodness has
been taught to people because it is easy. People are mechanical. To bring real goodness in their lives, real virtue,
you will have to transform their unconsciousness into consciousness, you will have to change their darkness into
light. That is an arduous effort, and the society, moreover, is not interested in it at all. In fact, it is afraid of it
because whenever a really good person has happened in the world he has created trouble for the society.
A Jesus, a Lao Tzu, a Buddha, a Kabir, these are the greatest rebels for the simple reason that they were so
conscious that they could see through the whole stupid game that we go on playing. They could see through our
lies, they could see through our deceptions. It was impossible to deceive them and it was impossible to exploit
them and it was impossible to enslave them. Not only was it impossible to enslave them, but they created great