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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 297
A man came to Sri Ramakrishna with ten thousand gold coins to offer him. Ramakrishna accepted his offering
and then said, ”Now these coins are mine you go to the Ganges and throw them all into the river.” Ramakrishna
lived in a temple just on the bank of the Ganges.
The man was very much shocked. ”Ten thousand gold coins, solid gold coins, and this fool is saying, ’Throw
them into the river!’ And I have always thought that this man had become enlightened he is simply mad!” He
hesitated.
Ramakrishna said, ”When you have offered them to me they no longer belong to you. Why are you hesitating?
I can send somebody else to throw them away. You please go.”
The man went, reluctantly of course, and he didn’t come back. One hour passed. Ramakrishna inquired, ”What
happened to that man? Has he escaped with the coins? Go and inquire.”
Somebody was sent. There was a great crowd, he had gathered a great crowd, and he was throwing each single
coin, one by one, and counting them!
When Ramakrishna was told, ”This is what is happening it may take a few hours more,” Ramakrishna went
himself, hit the man on the head and said, ”Are you mad or something? When you collect coins, of course you
collect them one by one, it is a gradual process. But when you are throwing them away, why are you counting?
Just throw the whole bag! Whether they are ten thousand or a few more or a few less, it doesn’t matter. The
Ganges won’t take any note of it!”
This is the situation. When you stop gathering knowledge you also unlearn slowly, not because unlearning has
to be slow. It is only your clinging mind. It is the mind that does not want to renounce knowledge, hence it goes
on postponing. It finds beautiful rationalizations.
The idea of gradual enlightenment is one of the most beautiful rationalizations, and it appeals to the mind
because all that mind knows is gradual. The whole language of the mind is the language of time. Whatsoever the
mind can do has to be done in time, it needs time.
But enlightenment does not happen in time. When I say it can happen in a moment, please don’t misunderstand
me the moment is not part of time at all! I am saying it can happen immediately; it needs no time at all, not even
a single moment is needed. It can happen now... but you cling. You say, ”How is it possible? I have to become
slowly, slowly alert, aware, meditative. Chunk by chunk I have to transform my unconscious being. I have to
drop greed, anger, lust, jealousy, possessiveness, hatred, and there are a thousand and one things, and each thing
is going to take time. I have to drop fear, I have to drop my identification with the body and the mind, I have
to drop my attachments....” And the list is almost infinite. It will take eternity for you to become enlightened; in
fact, you will never become enlightened. The very idea that it is going to be a gradual process is only a strategy
of the mind to postpone it.
Enlightenment is always sudden. It is a question of understanding, insight, illumination. It is like sudden
lightning. It has always happened like that.
Gautam Buddha was trying for his enlightenment for six years; it was a lengthy process. He was following many
methods, many paths. He was doing whatsoever is humanly possible to do, but nothing was happening. He was
moving in circles; he was where he had started, he was not going anywhere else. He was becoming tired, utterly
tired. Finally one evening this sudden illumination happened to him that his whole effort was irrelevant.
Enlightenment is not something like an achievement; one cannot achieve it. One has to disappear for it to
happen. It is a happening and it happens only in the absence of the ego. And whenever you are doing something
the ego becomes more and more strengthened. The ego is a doer, and enlightenment happens in a state of
nondoing. It is simply the realization of who you are; it is not a question of achievement. You are already it! Just
an awakening, just a turning in!
Seeing the point, Buddha relaxed; he dropped all his methods. That is the only use of methods: you get tired
of them, you feel utterly bored with them. One day out of sheer boredom you drop all the methods.
That evening he dropped his whole spiritual search. He had dropped all worldly search six years before, but it
is the same search whether you are seeking money or meditation, whether you are seeking power or enlightenment,
whether you are running after prestige or God it is the same thing! The mind needs some object to run after.
The mind wants something to desire. It wants an objective goal; whatsoever that objective goal is doesn’t matter
XYZ, anything will do.
Seeing the point, ”It is the same mind I have renounced the world, but I have not renounced the mind, and
the mind is the real world. And these six years I have only been changing the objects of my desire, but I have not
dropped desiring. Instead of money, now I desire enlightenment. Instead of power, now I desire ultimate truth.
But is there any difference? It is the same desiring mind, the same ambitious ego; in fact, it has become more