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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 207
Be very conscious of what you are saying, to whom you are saying it, for a few reasons. The first: the truth that
you have found cannot be said; language is inadequate. You can only indicate, you can only make a few gestures
fingers pointing to the moon. You cannot argue for it. You can persuade, but you cannot convince anybody. It
is not their experience, so don’t be angry if they don’t listen to you. If they go against you, don’t feel that they
are ungrateful. They are simply behaving the way they can behave. You have to be very, very patient with them.
You have to accept all kinds of abuse that they will throw on you. You have to accept their stones as flowers.
Even if they kill you, you have to die loving them.
That’s how Jesus died: with a prayer on his lips to God, ”Forgive them, for they know not what they are
doing.”
Secondly: to say the truth is to falsify it so try to say it indirectly; never make direct statements about it.
Don’t say ”God is” or ”God is not.” These direct statements have created much confusion in the world; rather
than helping people they have created conflict, wars, murders. Don’t make any direct statement about God or
truth or nirvana. You have to be very, very subtle. You have to live in such a way that people become aware
that you have attained something which is missing in their lives, that there is something more in life which is not
available to them. That’s all that you can do.
Speak not in prose but in poetry. Sing a song no syllogism is needed. Let your laughter and your joy trigger
some process in them so that they can also start searching and seeking. Let you be the proof rather than making
great arguments. A Bodhisattva is not a theologian, he does not argue for anything. He is the proof; he gives no
other proof.
Truth is something which is beyond words and beyond even meaning. It is closer to music. So let there be
a music around you: HOLD YOUR TONGUE... otherwise your words may destroy the music. Silence is more
musical, more eloquent. Words give to truth a certain meaning, naturally, because words have meanings. Meaning
gives a frame to the truth which is infinite.
It is like when you are looking from the window towards the starry sky and your window gives a frame to the
sky. The sky has no frame; it begins nowhere, ends nowhere, but now your window is making a frame on the sky.
That frame belongs to the window, but the person who has always lived inside the window and has never gone
out of it will think that the sky is square like the window, that it has the same shape and form.
People live in words, they have never known anything wordless, so give them an experience of wordlessness.
Help them to meditate. Rather than giving them a doctrine give them an experience.
Third: remember always, whatsoever you say is bound to be misunderstood by millions. So don’t feel offended,
don’t feel angry, don’t feel judged. When they are misunderstanding you they are simply saying something about
themselves, not about you. Unless you can remain cool with all kinds of misunderstandings being heaped upon
you, you cannot be of any help to them; then you yourself will need help.
Two very hippie hippies were walking down a country lane.
One hippie turned to the other and asked, ”Did you shit in your pants?”
”No,” replied the other.
A little further down the lane the first hippie again asked the other, ”Are you sure you haven’t shit in your
pants?”
”Quite sure,” said the other.
Further on down the lane the first hippie said, ”Come on, take down your pants and let me see.”
When the other hippie had obliged, the first hippie exclaimed, ”There, I told you so!”
”Oh,” said the other, ”I thought you meant today!”
People understand according to themselves.
Mulla Nasruddin was going to Italy, so I told him, ”Nasruddin, learn a little bit of Italian.”
He said, ”I have done it. I have been taking lessons from Radha.”
When he came back from Italy he was very angry. I said, ”What is the matter?”
He said, ”One day I went-a to a big town to a big-a hotel. In-a the morning, I go down to breakfast. I tell-a
the waitress, ’I wanna two piss toast.’
”She bring-a me only one piss. I tell-a her, ’I wanna two piss.’
”She say, ’Go to the toilet.’
”I say, ’No, you no understand I wanna two piss on-a my plate.’
”She say, ’You better no piss on-a the plate, you sonavabitch!’
”Later I go out to eat at a big-a restaurant. The waitress bring-a me a spoon and knife, but no fock. I tell-a
her, ’I wanna fock.’
”She say, ’Everyone wanna fock.’