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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 29
no need for you to become a buddha. Becoming is not the question at all buddha is your being. And whenever
you drop this idea of becoming, suddenly you will recognize the buddha within.
What I am doing here is not helping you to become somebody, but just to recognize who you are. All the
devices here are just devices to make you remember not devices to help you become, but only to remind you.
The family moved from the city to the suburbs and was told to get a watchdog to guard the premises at night.
So they bought the largest dog they could find.
Shortly afterwards the house was broken into by burglars who made a good haul while the dog slept.
The householder went to the kennel-owner and told him about it. ”Well,” said the dealer, ”what you need is a
little dog to wake up the big dog.”
That’s what you need! Buddha is fast asleep in you. Just a little device, a little dog will do to wake up the
big dog!
Mrs. Mulla Nasruddin and her neighbor were chatting about their teenagers.
”Is your son hard to get out of bed in the morning?” asks the neighbor.
”No,” replied Mrs. Mulla Nasruddin. ”I just open the door and throw the cat on his bed.”
”How does that wake him?”
”He sleeps with the dog.”
My work consists of such things, throwing a cat on your bed.... It is not some great work it is sheer fun!
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER, WHAT DO YOU SAY ABOUT MODERN ART?
Asang, the first thing is, it is not art. For the first time something exists in the name of art which is not art
at all. It is more a therapy than an art. Look at the modern paintings and you will be convinced of what I am
saying. The painters must be insane; they have poured their insanity on the canvas. It helps them because it
releases some tensions inside their being. It is a catharsis, but it is not art. It is therapy through art, but not art
itself.
If Picasso is prevented from painting, he will go mad. Vincent van Gogh went mad before he committed suicide.
And I have been looking into his life deeply and my feeling is he went mad because he could not paint as much
as he wanted. He had no money to paint. His brother was giving him money enough just to survive, and he was
not eating for four days per week. He would eat only for three days and four days he will fast to save money to
paint. How long can you do that? But painting was more important for him than food and it ended in madness.
He could not paint as much as he wanted, and when he saw that there was no possibility to paint anymore the
brother is tired, the family is tired and nobody wants to help him and nobody wants to purchase his paintings
he committed suicide.
The same would be the case with Picasso if he was prevented from painting: he would go mad or he would
commit suicide. Suicide is the ultimate in insanity. But his paintings are a great help, a great relaxation.
And it is not only so with painting; it is so with poetry, music, dance. Everything modern is a little crazy
because modern man is a little crazy, off the center.
Gurdjieff has divided art into two categories. The modern art he calls subjective art. The ancient art the real
art the people who made the pyramids, the people who made the Taj Mahal, the people who made the caves
of Ajanta and Ellora, they were of a totally different kind. He calls that art objective art. Subjective art is like
vomiting. You are feeling sick, nauseous; a good vomit helps you to feel good. The poison is thrown out, you feel
relieved. It is good for you, but not good for others.
Now, in the name of modern painting, you are hanging vomited, nauseous, sickening things in your rooms. In
the name of modern music you are simply getting into crazier spaces within you. It is subjective art.
Objective art means something that helps you to become centered, that helps you to become healthy and whole.
Watching the Taj Mahal in the full moon, you will fall into a very meditative space. Looking at the statue of
Buddha, just sitting silently with the statue of the Buddha, something in you will become silent, something in
you will become still, something in you will become buddhalike. It is objective art, it has tremendous significance.
But objective art has disappeared from the world because mystics have disappeared from the world. Objective
art is possible only when somebody has attained to a higher plane of being; it is created by those who have
reached the peak. They can see the peak and they can see the valley both. They can see the height of humanity,
the beauty of humanity, and the sickness and the ugliness of humanity too. They can see deep down in the dark
valleys where people are crawling and they can see the sunlit peaks. They can manage to create some devices
which will help the people who are crawling in the darkness to reach to the sunlit peaks. Their art will be just a
device for your inner growth, for maturity.