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

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232 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 What I am saying is not going to appeal to many people. It is going to appeal to only a few intelligent ones, courageous ones, to only a few who are really healthy and whole. This is unfortunate, but this has been so up to now. Whenever somebody comes here to teach life to you he seems far away; there seems to be no dialogue happening between him and you. He talks about dance and you don’t even know how to walk! He talks about ecstasy and you don’t know what that word means. One of my sannyasins has just come from Greece. She has informed me that in Greece ’ecstasy’ ekstasis means bus stop! That seems to be more meaningful. And in a sense it is a bus stop, in fact the terminus, the last stop. Beyond that there is no way to go the last bus stop. You hear the word ’ecstasy’, the sound comes to you, but the meaning is missed. But when you hear the word ’suffering’ it is not only the sound that comes to you, you know the meaning too. When you know what the cross is, you perfectly agree; your life agrees with it. But your life is wrong. Your life is not yet life, you are not yet born. That’s why Jesus goes on saying again and again: Unless you are born again.... My whole effort here is to give you a rebirth. The mala is not a cross. The fifth question: Question 5 BELOVED MASTER, WHY ARE THE JOURNALISTS ALWAYS WRITING AGAINST YOU? Sudarshan, feel happy that they are always writing; don’t be worried about what they write. It they are writing that means something is happening here. And they can only write against because when you write something in favor you have to experience what is happening here; without experiencing it you cannot write a favorable report about it. You have to be here for a few months. They come only for one day, they look around, they see the meditators but by seeing the meditators you can’t see meditation. They see that something is happening and something so new for them that it does not fit with their idea of an ashram, of a monastery. Hence, naturally they turn against me, they become antagonistic. If they are Hindus they are bound to be absolutely against me for the simple reason that this is not a Hindu ashram; it does not fit with their idea of an ashram. The Hindu ashram has to be very dull and dead. And here there is so much dance and so much song and so much joy and so much love, they are shocked. And things are so intense here. For centuries they have created a certain ideal of the Hindu ashram. People should not be active there; inaction is worshipped. People should renounce life and here we rejoice life. How can they write in favor? To them it appears that I am destroying their whole ideal. To them it seems for centuries they have worshipped a certain ideal and I am sabotaging it. And in a way they are right. I want to sabotage that stupid idea of an ashram: that it should be dead, people should be inactive, people should be dull, uncreative, against life, against love, against everything that smells of joy they should be walking corpses! And the Hindu idea of sannyas is that one should become a sannyasin only after seventy-five years. That means in India, nobody can become a sannyasin! The average age is thirty-six, so as far as the average man is concerned there seems to be no possibility of anybody ever becoming a sannyasin. Seventy-five years, then sannyas: the fourth stage of life, when death starts knocking on your doors, when one foot is already in the grave then you should become a sannyasin. And here they see young people, so young they cannot believe their eyes. Why have these people become sannyasins? This is not the time for sannyas! I am trying to create a totally new concept of sannyas. Because they are against life... of course, if you are against life seventy-five years seems to be the right time. Because life has already left you now you can renounce, at least you can enjoy the idea that you are renouncing life. Life has already left you what is the point of renunciation now? What are you renouncing? The whole idea is stupid. Then why not take sannyas when you are dead? Just wait a few days more, maybe one week. Why be in such a hurry? Just a little more! In India when a man dies, they cover him with orange clothes. I don’t know whom they are deceiving; the dead body is covered with the clothes of a sannyasin. And they chant the name of God when they are taking the dead body to cremate it. Now I don’t know who is hearing their chanting that poor fellow is no more there. They are simply deceiving themselves. Hindus are bound to be against me. Jainas come here, they are bound to be against me this is not a Jaina ashram. In fact, Jainas have always been against ashrams; there is no such thing as a Jaina ashram. They want their sannyasins to be wanderers. They are very much afraid that if a person stays in one place he may become attached to the place; to the house, to the people surrounding him. And they are so much afraid of life that it
THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 233 is better to keep moving. The Jaina monk has to stay not more than three days in one place; the fourth day he has to leave. So no attachments, no friendships, no love affairs are possible; at the most he becomes acquainted. In three days you cannot have intimacies with people. One day you come, in fact only one day you remain in the village, the third day you are preparing to leave. This is fear of life! And to me, a sannyasin should be fearless. So when a Jaina comes here, seeing so many people living together with so much joy, with such love, in deep involvements with each other, in great intimacies, friendships, love affairs.... Much more love is happening in these six acres than may be happening all over the world. In fact, sometimes I wonder how much love six acres can contain! It seems the capacity to contain love is infinite. And anybody who comes... if a Christian comes he can’t find the idea of his monastery. There are Christian monasteries where women are not allowed; for one thousand years no woman has ever entered. Not even a small female baby, a two-month-old baby is allowed. What kind of people are living inside monks or monsters? They are afraid of a two-month-old baby. What can a poor, two-month-old baby do to them? They are afraid of themselves they may do something. They are boiling! And they are committing all kinds of perversions, they become perverted. If people are not allowed to be natural their energies become perverted. All sexual perversions came out of the monasteries, remember it. They all have religious origins, they are very, very spiritual and holy. All sexual perversions have their sources somewhere in religion. Now only monks are living in a monastery... how long do you think they can avoid homosexuality? Only nuns are living in a nunnery; how long can they avoid lesbianism? impossible to avoid. It is natural, something is bound to happen. So when these people come here they are somebody. It is very difficult to find a journalist who has no prejudices of his own; he comes with his prejudices. And this place is totally new, so naturally they are offended, outraged. And my statements are outrageous they are meant to be. They are electric shocks to these people. They get very much disturbed and they take revenge. Remember one thing: if you report something good it never becomes news. Nobody is interested in good things; people are interested in something bad, something sensational. So they are in search of sensation. And you can find enough sensational things here, more than you can find anywhere else. You need not invent them we provide them! Father Murphy was a priest in a very poor parish. He asked for suggestions how he could raise money for his church, and was told that horse-owners always had money. He went to a horse auction, but he made a very poor buy as the horse turned out to be a donkey. However, he thought he might enter the donkey in a race. The donkey came in third, and the next morning the headlines in the paper read, ”Father Murphy’s Ass Shows.” The archbishop saw the paper and was very angry. The next day the donkey came in first and the headlines read, ”Father Murphy’s Ass Out Front.” The archbishop was up in arms and figured something had to be done. Father Murphy entered the donkey for a third time and it came in second. Now the newspaper read, ”Father Murphy’s Ass Back In Place.” The archbishop thought this was too much so he forbade the priest to enter the donkey the next day, which inspired the editor to write the headline, ”Archbishop Scratches Father Murphy’s Ass.” Finally, the archbishop heard this and ordered Father Murphy to get rid of the donkey. But he was unable to sell it, so he gave it to Sister Agatha for a pet. When the archbishop heard this he ordered Sister Agatha to dispose of the animal at once. She sold it for ten dollars. Next day the headlines read, ”Sister Agatha Peddles Her Ass For Ten Dollars.” Don’t be worried about the journalists. Enjoy whatsoever they write and help them to find things so they can go on writing. I am much more concerned right now that they should go on writing, because whether they write for or against they bring more and more people to me. And once a person comes here it is very difficult to escape! So I am just absolutely grateful to the journalists, whatsoever they are doing. They are doing such humanitarian work, such a great service to me! So when they come here, don’t feel antagonistic. Help them in every possible way. The sixth question: Question 6 BELOVED MASTER, I AM SITTING SILENTLY DOING NOTHING, AND THE WEEDS ARE GROWING ALL AROUND ME. Roderick, weeds are divine. Don’t call them weeds. They are as spiritual as the buddhas. They partake of God as much as roses. Remove men from the earth will there be any difference between weeds and roses? All these distinctions are made up by the mind.
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