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

218 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
The seventh question:
Question 7
BELOVED MASTER, ”HOLD YOUR MOUTH,” YOU SAID. DIFFICULT! ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE FOR
AN ITALIAN. MY APPROACH TO THE BODHISATTVAHOOD IN THESE DAYS IS CONTAINED IN THIS
LITTLE STORY THAT HAS BEEN HAUNTING ME FOR MONTHS: THERE IS THIS LITTLE MAN (ANY-
ONE) THAT I MEET IN A STREET (ANYWHERE) AND HE LOOKS VERY MISERABLE, LIKE ALL THE
LITTLE MEN EVERYWHERE... AND SEEING ME AFTER A LONG TIME, HE SAYS, ”HEY, YOU LOOK
GREAT!” ”HMM,” I REPLY, ”I WOULD LIKE TO SAY THE SAME THING ABOUT YOU, BUT YOU LOOK
SO SAD!” ”WELL, YOU KNOW MY LIFE... I FEEL SO MISERABLE. BUT WHAT ABOUT YOU? HOW
COME YOU LOOK SO RADIANT?” ”WELL,” I SAY TO HIM WITH A SMILE, ”I HAVE FOUND A MAS-
TER.” ”AH!” HE LOOKS AT ME SADLY. ”AND WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?” SO PLEASE, YOU AND
THE OTHER GUY, BUDDHA, DON’T TELL ME TO HOLD MY MOUTH. I CAN’T BEAR THIS LITTLE
MAN KNOCKING EVEN WHEN I AM DANCING, AND ASKING, ”WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME?”
Sarjano, now you have told him, what happened? The little man has not come to me yet. Just your telling
him is not going to make any difference; he will simply think that you are crazy.
The miserable people think that if you are looking blissful you are mad. They can’t believe that anybody can be
blissful; that is beyond their grasp. Their whole life is such a misery, how can they believe there is any possibility
of being blissful? unless you are mad. If you tell them that you have found a master they may not say anything to
your face, but behind your back they will laugh at you; they will think something has gone wrong. They are not
going to believe you. How can one become blissful by finding a master? They can’t see any relatedness between
their problems and finding a master. If their wives are nagging them to death, how is finding a master going to
change it? Now the master will nag you more! If they are suffering from nightmares and everybody is suffering
from nightmares, day in, day out how is finding a master going to help? They can’t make any sense out of the
statement.
I can understand your difficulty, Sarjano. It is very difficult to keep silent when you know the answer, but part
of being a Bodhisattva is to learn the art of being silent. Let them ask again and again. Let them feel that your
bliss is not just something crazy, that your bliss is something real, authentic. Let them feel it of their own accord.
Let them come and knock at your doors again and again.
Only in a right moment, when you see that they can understand, when you feel that their hearts are open,
when you see a real thirst, a longing in them, when a search has arisen in them, only then tell them; otherwise
you will simply be wasting your breath. And if you go on telling everybody and nobody listens, sooner or later
you will feel very tired of the whole thing.
Buddha is right that guy is almost always right. Of course, he was not talking to Italians! That was not his
problem, that is my problem! But I know how to manage it.
Truth insists that it should be spoken, although it cannot be spoken that is the paradox but it insists that it
should be spoken.
When you know and you see that others can be helped, it is impossible to resist the temptation to tell them
but that is part of being a Bodhisattva.
Somebody else has asked: ”Beloved Master, you say fifty percent of enlightened people become arhatas and fifty
percent become Bodhisattvas. Still you say again and again that there are many mystics but very few masters
there seems to be a contradiction in it...?”
There is no contradiction in it. Yes, apparently there is, but only apparently. Not all Bodhisattvas are masters.
The Bodhisattva is one who tries to help others; the master is one who succeeds in helping others. Just trying
does not mean that you will succeed. Many try, very few succeed. Whosoever attains truth is bound to have the
temptation to tell it. If he is not by nature an arhata then he will try to say it to each and everybody, and he
will be thought just crazy. Communication is a difficult art, and communicating the ultimate truth is the most
difficult phenomenon in the world. A master is one who waits for the right time.
Many people have asked me why I kept silent although I became enlightened in 1953. For almost twenty years
I never said anything about it to anybody, unless somebody suspected it himself, unless somebody said to me on
his own, ”We feel that something has happened to you. We don’t know what it is, but one thing is certain: that
something has happened and you are no more the same as we are and you are hiding it.”
In those twenty years not more than ten people asked me, and even then I avoided them as much as I could
unless I felt that their desire was genuine. And I told them only when they had promised to keep it a secret. And
they all fulfilled it. Now they are all sannyasins, but they all fulfilled it, they kept it a secret. I said, ”You wait.
Wait for the right moment. Only then will I declare it.”