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

240 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
The erect posture helped the mind to come out of sleep. It became more intelligent, it became more alert, it
became more conscious.
Other animals who move on their four legs have not been able to develop intelligence, although many of them
have a mind of almost the same capacity as man. For example, the elephant has a mind of almost the same
capacity as man, but has not been able to develop it and I don’t think it is ever going to happen. In circuses they
try hard to teach the elephant to sit in a chair or to stand even for a few seconds on two feet, but the body is
so heavy the elephant cannot manage to be on two feet. Hence the brain remains clouded; the gravitational pull
keeps it unconscious.
Hence this lotus posture is something valuable. It is not just a body phenomenon; it affects the mind, it
changes the mind. Sit in a lotus posture the whole point is that your spine should be erect and should make a
ninety-degree angle with the earth. That is the point where you are capable of being the most intelligent, the
most alert, the least sleepy.
And then watch your breath, the natural breath. You need not breathe deeply, you don’t change your breathing;
you simply watch it as it is. But you will be surprised by one thing: the moment you start watching, it changes
because even the fact of watching is a change and the breathing is no more the same.
Slight changes in your consciousness immediately affect your breathing. You will be able to see it; whenever
you watch you will see your breathing has become a little deeper. If it becomes so of its own accord it is okay, but
you are not to do it by your will. Watching your breath, slowly, slowly you will be surprised that as your breath
becomes calm and quiet your mind also becomes calm and quiet. And watching the breath will make you capable
of watching the mind.
That is just the beginning, the first part of meditation, the physical part. And the second part is the psychological
part. Then you can watch more subtle things in your mind thoughts, desires, memories.
And as you go deeper into watchfulness, a miracle starts happening: as you become watchful less and less
traffic happens in the mind, more and more quiet, silence; more and more silent spaces, more and more gaps and
intervals. Moments pass and you don’t come across a single thought. Slowly, slowly minutes pass, hours pass....
And there is a certain arithmetic in it: if you can remain absolutely empty for forty-eight minutes, that very
day you will become enlightened, that very moment you will become enlightened. But it is not a question of your
effort; don’t go on looking at the watch because each time you look, a thought has come. You have to again count
from the very beginning; you are back to zero. There is no need for you to watch the time.
But this has been the experience in the East of all great meditators: that forty-eight minutes seems to be the
ultimate point. If this much of a gap is possible, if for this much of a gap thinking stops and you remain alert,
with no thought crossing your mind, you are capable of receiving God inside. You have become the host and the
guest immediately comes.
IF YOU ARE NOT WISE, HOW CAN YOU STEADY THE MIND?
You have to be very intelligent; only then can you steady the mind. And what does he mean by intelligence?
Ordinarily we behave in a very unintelligent way: we behave according to beliefs; beliefs keep us unintelligent.
We behave according to borrowed knowledge; that keeps us unintelligent.
Try to accept the challenges of life directly; don’t act out of belief or knowledge. Don’t follow the scriptures
and the traditions. They are the root cause of making you stupid, because unless you face life directly, unless
those challenges are encountered, your intelligence will not arise because there will be no opportunity for it to
arise. Give it the opportunity. Life gives many opportunities but you go on missing the opportunities because
you live on borrowed answers.
Face life and its questions and its realities on your own, even if your own responses are not so great they cannot
be. Of course you cannot respond like a buddha, but by borrowing some answer from Buddha you will never be
intelligent enough to become a buddha yourself. Yes, you will commit many errors, many mistakes. Yes, you will
go astray many times go, don’t be worried! Life is meant for that, so that you can try. It is through trials, many
errors, many mistakes, that one learns. When you learn by your own efforts you become intelligent. And only an
intelligent person can see the beauty of meditation, can understand the significance of meditation.
IF YOU CANNOT QUIETEN YOURSELF, WHAT WILL YOU EVER LEARN?
And all learning happens through meditation; it does not happen through study. That is accumulation of
information, it is not learning. Always be alert about borrowed knowledge: howsoever precious it appears it is all
false, pseudo for you. It is not pseudo for the man who has lived it. It is true for Buddha, true for Jesus, true
for Krishna, but not for you. You will have to live....
Buddha also had the scriptures available. He could have read Krishna; the Gita was available. And he was
well-educated he was the son of a king. All the scriptures must have been available to him and great scholars