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

260 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Those who understand, they start accepting the uniqueness of the other, they start respecting the uniqueness
of the other. They know they are different, yet they have decided to be together. And it is beautiful that they
are different because that variety gives richness to life.
But you go on creating a world around yourself, an illusory world. Buddha is talking about that world when he
says: WHEN THE WORLD DISSOLVES he means when the mind dissolves with all its projections EVERY-
THING BECOMES CLEAR.
When all your projections are gone you have a clarity, an immense clarity, no clouds in your consciousness. You
can see through and through. That seeing is freedom, that seeing is salvation, that seeing is nirvana, that seeing
is coming home.
GO BEYOND....
Go to that seeing. Go beyond the mind, go beyond the known, because the mind consists of the known. And
go beyond the knowable because whatsoever is knowable will sooner or later become known and will again create
the mind. So go beyond the known known means that which has already become your mind and the knowable
that which is potentially going to become your mind sooner or later. Go beyond the known and the knowable so
that you can enter into the unknowable, into the mysterious. The beyond represents the mysterious.
THIS WAY OR THAT WAY....
Buddha is not a fanatic; he says it doesn’t matter which way you follow. Remember: you have to go beyond
the mind. Follow any way! This is his beauty it is very rare. You will not find this quality in religious fanatics;
he is not a fanatic at all. He says it is immaterial what way you follow, whether you swim to the other shore or
you go by a boat or a steamship or how you manage... that is up to you. Go to the other shore; that is the point.
Every path is valid if it leads to the other shore, every path is valid if it leads you beyond the mind.
And there are only two paths. One is awareness, meditation Buddha’s path. And the other is love, devotion,
the path of the Sufis. There are basically only two paths, but Buddha is very clear. He says: THIS WAY OR
THAT WAY....
By ”this way” he means his path; by ”that way” he means the path of love, of devotion. That is not his path,
but he does not prohibit you. He does not say that you cannot reach by the other path. He does not say, ”My
path is the only path.” He does not say, he does not claim, ”Only those who come with me will reach and everyone
else will fall into hell.” No! He says, ”You can follow other paths too. Just keep one thing in your consciousness
that you have to go beyond.”
TO THE FARTHER SHORE WHERE THE WORLD DISSOLVES AND EVERYTHING BECOMES CLEAR.
BEYOND THIS SHORE AND THE FARTHER SHORE, BEYOND THE BEYOND, WHERE THERE IS NO
BEGINNING, NO END.
”Beyond the beyond” is Buddha’s expression for God; he never uses the word ’God’. But ”beyond the beyond”
is exactly what the word ’God’ represents. Why does he say ”beyond the beyond”? Is it not enough to call it ”the
beyond”? It is not, because when you say ”the beyond” it seems you have comprehended it; it means your mind
has comprehended. When you say ”the other shore” it means that it is the other shore, but it is something like
this shore; at least it is also a shore so it must be something like this maybe a little bit different, more beautiful,
with more trees, with more greenery, with more beautiful flowers and fragrance but a shore is a shore.
”This shore” and ”that shore” your mind can comprehend. Hence he says: Anything that is comprehensible to
the mind has to be left behind. The beyond is comprehensible.
BEYOND THIS SHORE AND THE FARTHER SHORE you have to go beyond both the shores BEYOND
THE BEYOND, WHERE THERE IS NO BEGINNING, NO END.
When a man came to Buddha he had been practicing meditation for years he said, ”You have told me, ’Attain
to nothing,’ and I have attained it. Now what else do I have to do?”
Buddha said, ”Now throw it away! Go out and throw it away!”
He was puzzled. He said, ”I have spent years in attaining it!”
Buddha said, ”The only purpose in attaining it is to throw it then only will you be really in a state of nothing;
otherwise, this nothing has become something you have attained it. It is not real nothing. How can you attain
real nothing? Real nothing is not attainable, it is not graspable. It is beyond grasp, it is beyond comprehension.
So go out and throw it!”
A king came to Buddha with many diamonds in one hand, very precious, very rare, and with a lotus flower
in the other hand, out of season. He wanted to offer the diamonds. Buddha said, ”Drop it!” So he dropped the
diamonds reluctantly, because it was such a great treasure thinking, ”This man does not understand what he is
saying.” But ten thousand monks are there and now not to drop them will look miserly and people will laugh and