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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 261
they will say, ”If you have come to offer him something and he orders, ’Drop it!’ then drop it! You have offered
them to him, now it is his business what to do with them.” So he dropped them, but very reluctantly.
Then he offered the lotus flower. Buddha said, ”Drop it!” He dropped that flower too. Now he was standing
with empty hands and Buddha said, ”Drop it!” Now the king was at a loss. He said, ”Sir, I don’t have anything
to drop; my hands are utterly empty.” Buddha said, ”Then drop it!” Now the king thought, ”This man is crazy!
I am saying my hands are empty, still he says ’Drop it!’”
One of Buddha’s Bodhisattvas, Manjushree, laughed and he said, ”Sir, you don’t understand my master. He is
saying, ’Don’t carry this idea of emptiness, drop that too because the idea of emptiness is enough to fill yourself;
the idea of emptiness is enough to create a mind.’ Buddha is saying, ’Drop all unconditionally. And when you
have dropped all, don’t carry this idea that now nothing is left. Drop that too so you have nothing to claim.’”
That is the meaning of going beyond the beyond. That is the ultimate state of nirvana when the ego, the mind,
the personality, all cease to exist and you disappear into the mysterious, into the miraculous, into the universal.
WITHOUT FEAR, GO.
MEDITATE.
This is what meditation is all about: watching your desires, understanding their nature... and letting them fall
like dry leaves from the trees in the autumn.
LIVE PURELY.
And when meditation has happened and desire has disappeared, then live out of that innocence. Right now
you are living out of desires. You desire this, you desire that, and sometimes you desire even God, sometimes you
desire nirvana, sometimes you desire even meditation, but you live out of desires.
There is another kind of life the real life which is lived through innocence, without desiring. So whatsoever
comes on the way you enjoy, you rejoice, but you don’t desire.
LIVE PURELY that’s what Buddha calls a pure life: a life which is not lived out of desires.
BE QUIET.
Naturally you will be quiet when there is no desire left there is no turmoil left.
DO YOUR WORK, WITH MASTERY.
Then whatsoever you are doing, whatsoever you enjoy doing, do it with mastery and skill. He loved skill very
much, he loved excellence, he loved perfection. He was not a perfectionist, remember, because he was not a
neurotic person, but he loved perfection. Do everything with your totality. Whatsoever you are doing, do it with
such love, with such commitment and involvement that for the moment that is your whole life.
Once Vincent van Gogh was asked by somebody, ”Which is your best painting?”
He was doing a painting. He said, ”This one this is the best.”
After a few months the man asked again he was painting something else he asked, ”Which is your best
painting?”
He said, ”This one.”
The man said, ”But this is not right. Just a few months ago you said about some other painting that that was
your best.”
Vincent van Gogh said, ”Whatsoever I am doing at the moment is the best. It is always this, it is never that.
It is always now, it is never then.”
This is the way of perfection, the way of excellence, the way of skill, mastery. Whatsoever you are doing, do it
as if it is a question of life and death. Put your total energy into it, and it will give you tremendous bliss. Don’t
be halfhearted. Only then does creativity bloom, only then do you become a participant in God the creator.
BY DAY THE SUN SHINES, AND THE WARRIOR IN HIS ARMOR SHINES. BY NIGHT THE MOON
SHINES, AND THE MASTER SHINES IN MEDITATION.
These are code words. The sun represents the warrior. The sun is hot energy; the sun is violent energy. The
moon represents the meditator, the mystic; it is cool energy. It is the same energy, remember it is the same
energy, it is not a different energy. But passing through the moon the sunrays become cool; that is the miracle
of the moon, the alchemical change that happens through the moon. The moon simply reflects sunrays; it is a
mirror. But just by passing through the moon a radical change happens: the rays which are hot, violent, become
silent, cool, peaceful.
The sun represents the warrior, the fighter, the soldier. The moon represents the sannyasin, the meditator, the
mystic.
Buddha says: BY DAY THE SUN SHINES, AND THE WARRIOR IN HIS ARMOR SHINES.
The day belongs to the warrior, the sun belongs to the warrior. The warrior means one who is trying to conquer
others, who is trying to become a master of others. That is a stupid effort, but it is cheaper. It is easy to enslave