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

250 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
This is something which has to be understood: the Western education, the Western psychology, all emphasize
ego; they all emphasize, ”Enhance the ego, strengthen the ego.” In different names the ego is strengthened.
Willpower it is nothing but another name for ego. The whole idea is that man has to have an ego of steel,
unbendable, strong, rocklike, hard, because life is a constant struggle for survival. You have to fight, you have to
conquer.
Even a man like Bertrand Russell writes a book on science and calls it Conquest Of Nature. The whole idea,
the Western idea, is how to conquer; even nature has to be conquered. And who are you? a part of nature. A
part is trying to conquer the whole. It is like your left hand trying to conquer your whole body. Is it possible? It
is ridiculous. Science has not conquered nature, but in the very effort to conquer it, it has destroyed much.
In the East we have a totally different idea: nature has to be understood. The law what Buddha calls
dhamma, the fundamental law of life has to be understood so that you can be in tune with it. It is not a question
of conquering but of being in step with it, being in harmony with it. To be harmonious with nature is to be
blissful.
If the West has lost all bliss, all peace, nothing is responsible except this stupid idea of conquering nature.
Nature has not to be conquered. But the same idea persists in many ways in science, and even so-called religious
people go on talking about willpower. Hundreds of books have been written on willpower. It is a sheer wastage,
and not only a wastage but it is poisoning people’s minds. People like Dale Carnegie and Napoleon Hill go on
poisoning: How To Win Friends And Influence People. Deep down the idea is the same: how to win, how to
influence. Napoleon Hill has written a book: Think And Grow Rich. And what is the secret of growing rich?
When you look, you will find it is willpower; the whole secret, the magic secret is willpower. But willpower is only
another name for ego power and ego is impotent, there is no power in it. So people go on struggling unnecessarily,
fighting with each other, competing with each other, and the end result is that everybody is miserable. Hence for
the Western mind it seems very difficult to surrender.
The situation is not better in the East either. In the East for thousands of years it has been taught that
surrender is the key, so people are very easily ready to surrender, so easily ready that it has become a simple
formality; it has no significance. The Eastern man can touch the feet of the master with no intention of surrender.
He touches the feet of each and everybody; that is just formal. It is like shaking hands, it does not mean anything;
it is like saying hello. It has no meaning in it, it is formal. It is a kind of greeting to elderly people, to anybody
who is respected by others, to anybody who is known as religious, holy, saintly. People touch the feet of their
fathers, their mothers, their elderly relatives; it is just a conditioning.
So the Eastern person is in a different difficulty. His difficulty is that he does not know what surrender is; he
has not enough ego to surrender. And the Western man has too much ego; hence he feels resistant. But on the
whole the Western man is in a better position, because if he understands the point and he consciously surrenders
the ego, his surrender goes far deeper than the Eastern man’s surrender.
That is my experience of thousands of sannyasins from the East and from the West. The Western sannyasin’s
surrender is far more total. Of course it is difficult for him, it takes longer for him, but whenever it happens, it
really happens. The Eastern man’s surrender takes no time; he is always willing, he is ready, even before you have
asked, but it does not change him. He has been touching so many people’s feet; in fact, he has started feeling a
new, subtle kind of ego, ”I am so humble that I am ready to surrender. I am so surrendered.” But that ’I’ persists
now in a far more subtle way.
You ask me, Sarva, ”Why is creativity so painful?”
It is because of the ego. And then there are other problems also. If you are too knowledgeable it will be difficult
for you to be creative.
In Zen they have an ancient tradition. They say if you want to become a painter, for twelve years learn as
perfectly as possible the technique of how to paint, and then for twelve years forget all about the technique and
painting; do something else. Turn your back on painting completely; forget all about it, as if you have nothing to
do with it. And then one day start painting again.
This is something significant. For twelve years you have to learn the technique, because without the technique
your painting will be childish; but if it is just the technique, then technically it will be perfect but it will not have
any life, it will not be creative. So you have to learn the technique, let it soak in and then forget all about it so it
becomes part of your blood, of your bones, of your marrow. And then after twelve years, one day suddenly start
painting again. Now you don’t know the technique. In a way you know, existentially it has become part of you;
it is no longer knowledge. So your painting will not be just technical and it will not be childish either.
First learn the technique and then unlearn the technique. Only then one day does creativity explode. First
learn the technique of how to dance, then forget all about technique and become spontaneous. Then only....