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

212 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 11
Chapter 2 In a right moment
The first question:
Question 1
BELOVED MASTER, WHY CAN’T I TAKE SANNYAS? I GO ON THINKING AND THINKING AND
THINKING.
Richard, sannyas has nothing to do with thinking at all. It is the crazy man’s way to enlightenment! By
thinking you can never come to a decision as far as sannyas is concerned. Thinking, at the most, can only help
you to postpone it, and you can go on postponing it ad infinitum. Thinking, in fact, is a process of postponement.
Sannyas is not something that you can think about. You don’t know it, you have not experienced it. Thinking
moves within the world of the known; it has no approach towards the unknown, no bridge with the unknown. And
sannyas is unknown for you. You may have seen sannyasins; that does not mean that you know what sannyas is.
By seeing lovers you cannot know what love is. By seeing meditators you cannot know what meditation is. There
are things which are known only existentially.
Sannyas is not a philosophical phenomenon, it is something existential. You have to take the jump... then think
later on, then think as much as you want, to your heart’s content. But once you have tasted it, then there is no
way of going back.
Thinking is part of the head and sannyas happens in the heart; it is a love affair. It is utterly mad, as mad as
love or even madder, because love happens biologically and sannyas happens spiritually.
Sannyas happens only to a very few, rare human beings. Love is ordinary; it happens to animals, to birds, even
to trees. It is nothing special. Religion is absolutely supernatural: it surpasses your instinctive world. But our
hearts are not functioning, and the head cannot work in the place of the heart.
That’s what you are doing, Richard. You can go on doing it, but you will never arrive in the world of sannyas.
The head is impotent; it cannot act because it is never spontaneous. It is only the heart that acts. The head only
reacts; the head only goes on repeating the past. You have not been a sannyasin before, so how can you think
about it? What can you think about it? There is no base to begin with.
Only the heart is courageous enough to take a jump into the unknown, into the unfamiliar. But with the
unfamiliar open up millions of possibilities. With the unknown you start growing. With the known you go on
moving in circles. Be a little heartful, not so thoughtful.
Richard, your name means hard. Transcend hardness, become a little soft, a little more feminine, a little more
round. Losing a few corners will be of tremendous help. Logic is hard, love is soft. Logic is square, love is hip!
Logic is always a coward; it thinks and thinks before it acts. And, in fact, by the time it comes to act it is already
too late; the moment has passed.
Life is not static. It won’t stand still for you, it won’t wait for you. Who knows? Tomorrow I may stop giving
sannyas then what? Then you will have missed the train! And remember, the sannyas I am giving to you nobody
else can give to you. Gather a little courage. Today is the day!
The two skeletons in the corner closet were grumbling about the heat, the dust, the boredom.
”What are we staying here for anyhow?” one asked.
”Damned if I know,” the second skeleton answered. ”I would leave in a minute if I had any guts.”
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER, I AM MORE AFRAID OF LIVING THAN OF DYING. IS IT POSSIBLE?
Yogananda, it must be possible if it is happening to you! Do you think you are managing the impossible? In
fact, it is a very common phenomenon, nothing extraordinary about it very normal. Nobody is more afraid of
dying than of living. The fear of death is nothing compared to the fear of life.
That’s why thousands of people around the earth commit suicide, and many more think many times in their
lives of committing suicide. Many try but are prevented; many try but try halfheartedly. But very few people try
to live. The number of people who try to live life is much less than those who try to commit suicide or actually
commit suicide.
The man who lives life becomes a buddha. How many buddhas do you have? They can be counted on your
fingers. Only once in a while is there a man like Jesus, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. Centuries pass; millions of people
come and go, then only is there a man who really lives, authentically lives, lives to the utmost, lives fearlessly.
Then what are the others doing? Their life is not life; on the contrary, it is a constant avoidance of life. They
are simply protecting themselves from life. They are hiding in their black holes in the name of security, safety,
comfort. They are simply trying to evade life.