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

282 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Indians don’t have the sense of laughter. In India we don’t have any Indian jokes. All the jokes that are told
in India are borrowed, there is no such thing as an Indian joke. Indians are serious people, very religious people,
holy people. How can they descend to such low things as joking? They talk about God, they talk about moksha,
they talk about nirvana... they can’t laugh. These are not laughing matters! You cannot laugh about God. But
if you can’t laugh about God you will never understand God.
The Indian statues of Buddha are totally different from the Chinese or the Japanese statues of Buddha. You
must have noted the difference; the difference is great. The Indian Buddha has a very athletic body. His belly is
very small, almost nonexistent. He never had a belly laugh. If there is no belly how can you have a belly laugh?
But the Chinese Buddha has a big belly, and not only a belly even on the statue you can see ripples of laughter
on the belly. Even in marble you can see he is laughing, the belly is laughing.
No Indian will agree with the Chinese statue. He will say, ”This is not right, Buddha was not like this, with
such a big belly....” The Chinese Buddha looks like a clown but I have great respect for the Chinese Buddha.
The Chinese Buddha has absorbed Lao Tzu, Chuang Tzu, Lieh Tzu. He is pregnant with Lao Tzu, that’s why
that big belly. Inside his belly there is Lao Tzu. And you cannot keep Lao Tzu quiet. He must be laughing and
kicking and doing things; hence the ripples on the belly.
Lao Tzu has the sense of humor. Maybe because of that Lao Tzu could not become the founder of a great
religion. There exists no religion in his name. Yes, a few rare people have followed his path, but there is no
organized church, for the simple reason that Lao Tzu seems so nonserious. He used to ride on a buffalo. Now,
can’t you find a horse? Anybody could have afforded at least a donkey but a buffalo...? And that too, not in
the right position, but sitting backwards! The buffalo is going one way and Lao Tzu is looking the other way. He
must have created laughter wherever he passed. People must have gathered to see the scene, what is happening.
And Chuang Tzu far surpassed his master. There has never been such a beautiful man as Chuang Tzu. All that
he has said is utterly absurd, ridiculous! but with profound meaning. First you will laugh and then slowly you
will see the point that he is indicating, in a very joyful way, towards certain truths which can only be indicated
in a joyful way. If you are serious you cannot make people understand the beauty of existence, the celebration of
existence.
Life is not a tragedy, it is a comedy. It is not tragic. But religious people have depended on the very idea of
life being tragic: it is misery, utter misery what is there to laugh at? Hence they attracted the people who are
incapable of laughter, of living, of loving.
My effort here, Amitabh, is just the opposite. I want you to learn as much from Buddha, as much from Lao
Tzu, as much from Krishna, as much from Chuang Tzu as possible. I would like you to absorb all the great
experiences that have happened in the past, so that a higher synthesis becomes possible. In that higher synthesis
laughter is going to be one of the most essential qualities. With truth, courage and virtue, laughter also has its
own place.
In that sense Jews are beautiful people. They have the greatest sense of laughter in the whole world. They are
on the one extreme; on the other extreme are the British people. So many letters I have received, angry: ”Beloved
Master, you don’t understand the British.” Who cares to understand? And why should I understand the British,
for what? Is nothing else left to understand?
I have been telling so many jokes about the Italians, but not a single angry letter. They understand that jokes
are jokes! If you understand too much you cannot joke. A little bit of misunderstanding is needed.
Now, one of the most British of all the British sannyasins, Prembodhi, has written, ”You don’t understand the
British at all.” You simply prove my point!
Somebody else has written, ”This is not right. You say that no British woman is a woman; they are all ladies.”
I was simply paying respect!
And I think it is a well-known fact that nothing should be said against the dead. For the dead you should
always show respect. That’s what I was doing! Why are you angry about it?
I repeat again: it is very difficult, almost impossible, to find a British woman only ladies are there. All men
may not be gentlemen; men after all are men, boys are boys! And old boys more so! But as far as women are
concerned, they carry the culture, the religion, they are the foundation stones. The British woman has a certain
face. No other woman has that kind of nose... they all need plastic surgery!
Amitabh, the only problem with the Jews is when it comes to the question of price. Then they will go on
haggling for centuries. Enlightenment will be just in front of them, but they will haggle for the price.
So that is the problem, Amitabh; there you have to be aware.
A Scot went into a tailor’s and asked to see a suit.