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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 275
of Hinduism. These are all slaves; they don’t know what freedom is. They are clinging to such utter nonsense,
but they are clinging so hard that they can’t see anything else. Their eyes are full of the dust of the past. They
are blind because of the past; they are blind for no other reason.
You are not missing God because you are sinners; you are missing God because you are past-oriented. And God
is available only now... here. God knows only one time, now, and only one place, here. And you are never now
and you are never here; you are always somewhere else. ’Then’ and ’there’ are significant words for you; ’now’
and ’here’ are almost meaningless to you.
The master lives now and lives here. HE LEAVES EVERYTHING BEHIND HIM. He goes on destroying the
bridges he has crossed.
HE DOES NOT TAKE OFFENSE AND HE DOES NOT GIVE IT. HE NEVER RETURNS EVIL FOR EVIL.
Obviously, if somebody insults him he does not take it. You cannot insult a master, that is impossible. How
can you insult a man who does not take it? To insult a man two things are needed: somebody to insult him and
his readiness to take it.
Once Buddha was insulted very much by a few people. They abused him badly. He listened silently and then
he said, ”Have you anything more to say? because I have to reach the other village in time. People must be
waiting there. If you still have something else to say, when I come back I will be coming by the same route and I
will inform you and I will keep a special time for you, so you can come and say whatsoever you like.”
Those people were very much puzzled. They said, ”We are not saying something, we are insulting you!”
Buddha laughed. He said, ”For that you have come a little late. You should have come at least ten years ago.
Now I am not so foolish. You can insult, that is your freedom, but whether to take it or not that is my freedom.
I am not taking it.”
And he said to them, ”In the other village which I just passed before yours, people came with sweets to offer
me. I thanked them. I said, ’I don’t need sweets and I don’t eat sweets.’ What do you think they must have done
with the sweets?”
Somebody from the crowd said, ”They must have taken them back home.”
Buddha said, ”Now what will you do? You will have to take your insults back home. I don’t take your insults
there is no other way, you have to take them back.”
When you feel insulted you have participated with the person. But you are not conscious, so anybody can
push your buttons. You function like a machine: push the button and you are on; push the button and you are
off. Anybody can enrage you, anybody can make you smile and laugh, anybody can make you cry and weep.
Anybody, any stupid fellow can do that! One just needs to know where the buttons are and almost always they
are in the same places. It is very rare to find a person whose buttons are in different places.
A Polack was driving his Volkswagen, when suddenly it stopped for some reason. He went to look maybe there
was some trouble in the engine but he could not find the engine. So he thought, ”My God, my engine has been
stolen!”
Just then another Polack stopped by his side. He said, ”Is there some trouble?”
The first man said, ”Yes, it seems my engine has been stolen.”
The man said, ”Don’t be worried. This morning I was looking at the back of my car there is a spare engine.
You can take it!”
Now in a Volkswagen the engine is not in the usual place; it is at the back, not in the front. But God has
not yet learned anything from the Volkswagen he still makes the same engine with the same buttons, maybe a
little bit different here and there, just a little change. Anybody can find... just a little groping and you can find
anybody else’s button. If you know your buttons you know everybody else’s buttons.
You will be in a difficulty only with a buddha, because you can go on pushing his buttons and nothing will
happen because he is no more identified with his mechanism. He will watch you pushing his buttons and he will
enjoy the exercise that you are giving him, but that’s all.
HE DOES NOT TAKE OFFENSE AND HE DOES NOT GIVE IT. HE NEVER RETURNS EVIL FOR EVIL.
He understands humanity so deeply. By understanding himself he has understood the miserable state of all human
beings. He feels sorry for people; he is compassionate. He does not return evil for evil for the simple reason that
he does not feel offended in the first place. Secondly, he feels sorry for you; he does not feel antagonistic towards
you.
Once it happened in Baroda:
I was talking to a big crowd. Somebody sitting just in the front row became so disturbed by what I was saying,
he became so disturbed by it he went out of control, he lost his senses. He threw one of his shoes at me. At that