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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 187
The third world war has happened, and a monkey is sitting on a rock taking a sunbath. A female monkey
comes with an apple and gives the apple to the monkey. And the monkey says, ”My God, are we going to start
it all over again?”
Homosexuality is condemned because there is every possibility that if it is not condemned many more people
will turn towards it. The inner tendency is there in every person. In fact, the person who is against it... the more
he is against it, the more he has the tendency. Deep down, unconsciously, he knows it is there. To repress it he
has to be very much against it; he feels disgusted by the very idea.
But nobody is telling him to become homosexual. If others feel attracted, then it is not your business to
interfere or to condemn them. It is their freedom, and they are not doing any harm to anybody. It is a harmless
game stupid, certainly, but not a sin. But as far as stupidity is concerned all sex is stupid, for the simple reason
that it is a biological urge and you are not the master of it, you are just a victim.
And you need not be so much worried about it, Hein, because homosexuality has a very beautiful origin: it
originated in the monasteries. It is something religious! The first homosexuals were monks and nuns Christians,
Buddhists, Jainas; all great religions have contributed their share to it. It was bound to be so because there are
monasteries even now in existence where no woman has ever entered.
In a Catholic monastery in Europe, Mount Athos, for one thousand years no woman has entered; not even a
six-month-old girl has been allowed to enter in. What kind of people are living there? A six-month-old girl and
they are afraid even of that! What can they do? But repressing sex creates fear, so the whole monastery is full of
men; and homosexuality is a natural by-product if only boys are together or only girls are together.
Religious people have contributed greatly. Educationists have contributed greatly, because boys have to be
educated separately. They have to reside in different hostels specially for them and girls have to stay aloof in
separate hostels, in separate schools. If you put too many girls together they are bound to become lesbians,
because when the sexual urge takes possession of them and they cannot find a boy, then anything is better than
nothing.
In zoos even animals turn homosexual only in zoos, remember. In their wild state they don’t become homosexual.
There is no need females are available. But in a zoo, if females are not available, they become homosexual.
A zoo is worth studying. I used to study zoos because the zoo gives you many indications about human society.
The human society is a big zoo because everything has become so unnatural.
Go to a zoo and watch the animals and you will be able to see many things. They become homosexuals; they
never become homosexuals in their wild stage. They are forced to become homosexuals. They go crazy, they
become insane, mad. In wild states they never become insane. No animal ever becomes mad in his wild state; he
remains sane. But his sanity needs a little freedom.
A lion has a big territory in his wild state, miles of territory, and he is the king of the whole territory. In a zoo
he is in a small cage. If you go to the zoo you will see the lion walking up and down the cage, up and down, up
and down, the whole day. It can drive anybody mad. He needs freedom, he needs a certain territory. In such a
small space he is overcrowded. He becomes angry, enraged, violent.
Many diseases never happen in the wild. For example, no animal suffers from tuberculosis or cancer, but in
a zoo animals suffer from tuberculosis and cancer. Strange! In the wild there are no medical facilities for them
and in the zoo every kind of medical facility is available. Doctors are there to look after them, great doctors,
doing something great! What they cannot take care of on their own cancer, tuberculosis doctors help them with.
Animals become victims of illnesses which they have never known before.
Human society has been so much forced to live in unnatural circumstances and the monastery is one of the
most unnatural circumstances. It is a zoo, a religious zoo! Homosexuality was born there, so you need not feel
very bad about it. You are a religious person! And you have a great lineage of homosexuals....
If you look for homosexuals you will be surprised. Many poets, many authors, many painters, many musicians,
many dancers, many great people, many creative people, were homosexuals. Many Nobel Prize winners have been
homosexuals.
And don’t be worried about enlightenment either, because at least one homosexual I know has become enlightened
Socrates; he was a homosexual. And there are suspicions about Jesus. I cannot prove it, they are only
suspicions because he always moved with the boys. Those twelve apostles... who knows? But if he was, nothing
is wrong in it. Socrates was certainly a homosexual. Plato was, Aristotle was. Greeks are great people!
One American girl was going to marry a Greek. The mother was very much worried. She said, ”Wait! If you
can avoid this marriage....”
The girl was mad. She said, ”No. He looks so beautiful, just like a Greek god!”