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

224 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
”Don’t worry,” said Peterson. ”I won’t do anything to hurt their feelings.”
So they went next door, up into the nursery and stood over the new baby’s crib with the Gladwells. ”He’s so
cute,” said Mrs. Peterson to the baby’s mother.
”Yeah,” agreed Mr. Peterson. ”What strong arms and legs the kid has he’s gonna grow up to be a bruiser.”
”Thanks,” said the baby’s father.
”How’s the kid’s eyes?”
”They’re perfect!” said Gladwell.
”They’d better be he won’t ever be able to wear glasses!”
Somehow or other it is going to come up. How can you avoid it? The more you avoid, the greater is the
possibility you will stumble upon it. In fact, the very effort to avoid it makes you focused on it; then you can’t
see anything else.
A very holy man went into an optician’s one day to order a new pair of spectacles. Behind the counter was an
extremely pretty girl, which reduced the customer to total confusion.
”Can I help you, sir?” she asked with a ravishing smile.
”Er yes er... I want a pair of rim-speckt hornicles... I mean I want a pair of heck-rimmed spornicles... er... I
mean....”
At which point the optician himself came to the rescue.
”It’s all right, Miss Jones. What the holy man wants is a pair of rim-sporned hectacles.”
Hence Buddha says the seeker has to start his journey not out of misery but out of joy. Rejoice in life. He says:
LOVE AND JOYFULLY FOLLOW THE WAY, THE QUIET WAY TO THE HAPPY COUNTRY.
When one first comes across these words one feels a little surprised. Buddha, and saying: LOVE AND JOY-
FULLY FOLLOW THE WAY, THE QUIET WAY TO THE HAPPY COUNTRY...? Yes, one is a little shocked
because the Buddhist priests have been avoiding these beautiful sayings, they have been bypassing them. They
have been emphasizing those words of Buddha which emphasize pessimism. And he was not a pessimist at all, he
could not be. One who knows, how can he be a pessimist? It is impossible. He is not even an optimist, remember,
because the optimist is connected with the pessimist; he is the other extreme.
Buddha is beyond both; he is neither a pessimist nor an optimist. He simply wants you to see that which is
and that is enough to make you love life. It is enough, more than enough, to make you dance with joy, with
gratitude.
And the way is silent, very quiet. Hence Buddha has not taught any prayer, he only teaches meditation. When
prayer is silent it is meditation; when meditation becomes eloquent it is prayer. But first you have to learn
meditation; otherwise you will move in a wrong direction. Without knowing meditation all your prayers are going
to be false. You will be pouring your rubbish on God holy rubbish, but it is all holy cow dung!
First learn to be silent. And yes, out of silence some songs are born, out of silence some flowers bloom. Then
offer those songs, those flowers to God. But they will be of joy, of tremendous joy.
SEEKER! EMPTY THE BOAT, LIGHTEN THE LOAD, PASSION AND DESIRE AND HATRED.
Let me remind you again and again: Buddha is talking to his Bodhisattvas, to his messengers, to his apostles,
who are going to the masses. He is helping them with what to say, from where to begin. He is saying the first
thing a seeker has to fulfill is, the first requirement of a true seeker is, that he should not have any belief system,
that he should not have any philosophy, any ideology. If you already believe then there is no question of seeking,
inquiring. Inquiry means you start with a state of not-knowing. Hence: SEEKER! EMPTY THE BOAT....
Empty your mind of all the baggage that you have been carrying all along. Become utterly empty. Then the
same mind that has been causing you so much insanity, so much turmoil, so much anguish... the same mind
when empty becomes the boat for the other shore, for the further shore. Empty, it becomes a vehicle; burdened
with all kinds of thoughts, with all kinds of beliefs, scriptures, which each generation goes on handing over to the
next generation.... We are so much burdened that we are carrying almost Himalayas of weight on our heads; it
is not possible to move with such a load. You need unlearning. You already have too much knowledge; all this
knowledge has to be dropped.
EMPTY THE BOAT, LIGHTEN THE LOAD.... When you are utterly empty, when you say, ”I know nothing,”
then the inquiry starts. It is fresh, it is young, it is authentic, because there is a fundamental law of life that if
you are in a state of not-knowing, a great urge will arise in you to know. Just as nature abhors a vacuum and it
rushes to fill it, exactly in the same way if your mind is totally empty, truth rushes in and fills it.
But right now there is no space. Your mind is so full, even you cannot go in. You have to live somewhere on
the outside. People are living in their porches; their houses are so full of junk that they are afraid to go in. They
may get lost, and there is no space either.