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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 299
But we are cunning, mind is very cunning. It can’t accept the simple fact that we still want to avoid enlightenment.
We don’t want to be enlightened, we are afraid of the fact, but we are cunning and we cannot accept it.
Hence we find out ways ways to deceive ourselves that it is a slow process, a very slow process; that it takes not
only one life but many lives to become enlightened. It does not take time at all, what to say about a life or many
lives? It has nothing to do with time. It is immediate it can happen now!
See the point. Allow relaxation to happen, don’t try to relax. Simply relax, don’t make it a ”must.” Rest...
and if you rest you will start falling into the deep abyss of your own being, and sooner or later you will reach the
rock bottom of yourself. To experience that rock bottom of yourself is to be enlightened, is to be a buddha, is to
be a christ.
That’s why I insist again and again it can happen any moment, just to remind you that your mind is very
clever. It can deceive others, it can deceive you. Beware of the mind! It keeps you clouded, it never allows you to
see things as they are.
Enlightenment is your nature, hence there is no question of learning, no question of reaching somewhere. You
are already there, it has already happened. It is your very being, your very ground. It is in your every breath and
in every beat of your heart.
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER, WHY DON’T I FEEL ANY SURPRISES IN MY LIFE? ALL SEEMS SO DULL AND
DRAB.
Gyano, I have given you the name Gyano: Gyano means knowledge. You are too knowledgeable, you know too
much. And when one knows too much, life loses the quality of being mysterious. Then you are never surprised
by anything. Your knowledge goes on supplying you all kinds of answers; even before you have asked, the answer
is there, you seem to know everything. Knowing nothing you go on believing in borrowed knowledge, and slowly,
slowly that borrowed knowledge hypnotizes you so much that you forget that you don’t know. You start believing
in your own knowledge and it is not your own, it is just borrowed. You may have read the Bible, the Gita, the
Koran....
Krishna knew what he was talking about, but when you read you don’t know. Jesus knew what he was talking
about, but when you read the Sermon on the Mount you are simply collecting, gathering words words which are
not meaningful to you at all, which cannot have any meaning because meaning comes from experience.
Jesus says: If somebody hits you on one of your cheeks, give him the other one too. You can read it, it is a
simple statement. You can even try to follow it thousands of Christians are trying to follow it.
I have heard about a Christian saint who used to talk too much about this statement. A mischievous person
came and hit the saint on one cheek. Of course, true to his teaching, the saint gave him his other cheek hoping
that now he would understand: ”He will see how great I am, how compassionate, how considerate, how full of
love!”
But the mischievous person was also a great devil; if the saint was great he was also great. He was not in any
way inferior to the saint. He hit on the other cheek even harder.
Now this was too much! The saint immediately jumped upon him and started hitting him. The mischievous
person was surprised. He said, ”What are you doing? What happened to your teaching? What happened to
Jesus?”
He said, ”Jesus has said: If somebody hits you on one cheek, give him the other. I have got only two cheeks,
so his teaching is finished now I am free of the teaching. I will show you who I am! I have followed the teaching
literally, exactly.”
Once Buddha was asked by a man, ”How many times do you say one should forgive?”
Now, the very question is enough to show the quality of the person. He is saying, ”How many times...?” When
you ask about how many times, you are not a man of compassion.
Buddha said, ”Seven times.”
The man said, ”Okay.”
Because of the way he said, ”Okay,” Buddha said, ”Wait seventy times!”
The man felt a little reluctant about accepting seventy times, but still he said, ”Okay.”
Buddha said, ”I withdraw my words. You have to forgive infinitely; even seventy times won’t do. The way
you are accepting it, it seems that when seventy times are over you will take revenge. And you can do harm in a
single blow, you can take revenge in a single blow. You are not a man of compassion. You don’t understand me,
it is not a question of how many times.”