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

236 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Apathy: Who gives a fuck?
Innovation: Get a bigger fucking hammer.
Surprise: Fuck! You scared the shit out of me!
Anxiety: Today is really fucked.
And it is very healthy too. If every morning you do it as a Transcendental Meditation just when you get up,
the first thing, repeat the mantra ”Fuck you!” five times it clears the throat. That’s how I keep my throat clear!
Enough for today.
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 11
Chapter 5 How sweet to be free
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SEEKER! DO NOT BE RECKLESS. MEDITATE CONSTANTLY OR YOU WILL SWALLOW FIRE AND
CRY OUT: ”NO MORE!”
IF YOU ARE NOT WISE, HOW CAN YOU STEADY THE MIND? IF YOU CANNOT QUIETEN YOUR-
SELF, WHAT WILL YOU EVER LEARN?
HOW WILL YOU BECOME FREE?
WITH A QUIET MIND COME INTO THAT EMPTY HOUSE, YOUR HEART, AND FEEL THE JOY OF
THE WAY BEYOND THE WORLD.
LOOK WITHIN THE RISING AND THE FALLING. WHAT HAPPINESS! HOW SWEET TO BE FREE!
IT IS THE BEGINNING OF LIFE, OF MASTERY AND PATIENCE, OF GOOD FRIENDS ALONG THE
WAY, OF A PURE AND ACTIVE LIFE.
SO LIVE IN LOVE. DO YOUR WORK. MAKE AN END OF YOUR SORROWS.
FOR SEE HOW THE JASMINE RELEASES AND LETS FALL ITS WITHERED FLOWERS.
LET FALL WILLFULNESS AND HATRED.
ARE YOU QUIET? QUIETEN YOUR BODY. QUIETEN YOUR MIND.
YOU WANT NOTHING. YOUR WORDS ARE STILL. YOU ARE STILL.
BY YOUR OWN EFFORTS WAKEN YOURSELF, WATCH YOURSELF. AND LIVE JOYFULLY.
YOU ARE THE MASTER, YOU ARE THE REFUGE. AS A MERCHANT BREAKS IN A FINE HORSE,
MASTER YOURSELF. HOW GLADLY YOU FOLLOW THE WORDS OF THE AWAKENED.
HOW QUIETLY, HOW SURELY YOU APPROACH THE HAPPY COUNTRY, THE HEART OF STILL-
NESS.
HOWEVER YOUNG, THE SEEKER WHO SETS OUT UPON THE WAY SHINES BRIGHT OVER THE
WORLD.
LIKE THE MOON, COME OUT FROM BEHIND THE CLOUDS! SHINE.
The Scots angler died, made his way to heaven, and was stopped at the gate by Saint Peter who said, ”You
have told too many lies to get in here!”
”Have a heart,” replied the angler. ”Remember you were a fisherman once yourself!”
Gautama the Buddha is reminding his Bodhisattvas that the path that they have followed themselves, the very
beginning of the path, they may have completely forgotten about by now. Who remembers the dreams in the
morning when he is awake? Within seconds those dreams are forgotten.
The same happens when you become enlightened: all the misery, all the nightmares, all the sorrows that you
had suffered so much simply become so insignificant, so irrelevant that they disappear from your consciousness.
They are no more part of your life story as if they had happened to somebody else and not to you. Hence Buddha
is reminding his Bodhisattvas how the journey starts from the very beginning; only then can these people be of
help to others.
The first thing he says: Remember only to talk to seekers. There are many who are inquirers but who are not
seekers, many who are curious but not seekers. The curious person is a little childish. Every child is curious curious
about each and everything, curious about one thousand and one things, but not really interested in knowing. He
asks one question; by the time you answer him he has started asking about something else. He is not listening
to your answer at all, he is not interested in it anymore; it was a momentary phenomenon. He had just become
attracted to something: he saw a flower and he asked about it, and then he heard the noise of an airplane and he
started asking about airplanes, and then something else caught his eye....
A seeker means one for whom the inquiry is not only curiosity, not a childish phenomenon, but a mature inquiry,
for whom it has become a question of life and death. Unless truth becomes a question of life and death you are
not a seeker.