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

328 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
could have been in the safety and the comforts and the coziness of the palace. The palace belongs to him, but he
lives in the porch believing that that’s all there is to life.
The man who lives only in sensuality, lust, who is obsessed with food, who is obsessed with his body, continuously
thinking of the body, is not yet a man. He is a good animal, but utterly blind to the potential that he is born to,
utterly blind to what he can become, unconscious of the whole range of his being.
The second circle, deeper than the body, is that of the mind. Mind has its own pleasures which are a little
higher. Again, remember, it has nothing to do with judgment. They are a little deeper, they are a little closer
to the innermost shrine. They actualize a little bit of your potential. The man who enjoys mathematics, science,
philosophy certainly has a deeper sense of joy. Plato has a deeper sense of joy than Nero.
It is said about Nero that he used to keep four physicians constantly with him even when he went to war. Those
four physicians were to help him vomit because he liked to eat so many times in the day. Now you cannot eat so
many times a day; there is a limitation. You can eat three times, four times, five times at the most; more than
that will be impossible. The body will not contain it, you will burst. So after eating, the physicians would help
him to vomit immediately so he could eat again. He used to eat at least twenty times per day. He must have been
the greatest eater in the world. But what kind of life is this? twenty times vomiting to eat twenty times! as if
he lived only in the buds of the tongue, in the taste buds.
Of course Plato is far deeper. He enjoys a contemplative life: he contemplates the stars, he contemplates the
sunrise and the sunset, he contemplates the possibility of human progress. And he enjoys it and he enjoys it so
much that many times he forgets to eat, he forgets completely that he has missed a meal.
It happened once:
Albert Einstein was brought his breakfast and he was so deep in contemplation it must have been some great
mathematical puzzle he was involved in that he was sitting with closed eyes. So the servant did not disturb him;
he left the breakfast in front of him and went away.
Meanwhile a friend came. He also saw him so deeply absorbed that he thought, ”It is better... the breakfast is
getting cold.” So he ate the breakfast and pushed the plates aside.
At that moment Einstein opened his eyes, looked at the empty plates, looked at his friend and said, ”Sorry,
you came a little late. I have taken my breakfast.”
Now, this is better than being a Nero. But there is a third layer still higher, still deeper: the layer of the heart
love, music, poetry, dance. People who enjoy art, people who can enjoy and appreciate harmony, color, people
who can see some poetry in life and existence, who can feel some celebration going on all around, of course they
are going still deeper. A Rabindranath... the poet goes deeper than the mathematician, the musician goes deeper
than the philosopher. But these are still concentric circles around your center.
The fourth the mystics in India have called it simply, ”the fourth,” turiya is the world of your being, the
innermost core. Those who enjoy meditation, neither food nor philosophy nor poetry, but who have gone beyond
all these and entered into the world of utter silence, of absolute emptiness, who know how not to be.... Yes, the
question is, ”To be or not to be?” Those who have chosen not to be, they are the meditators. They have moved
from the senses to samadhi, and that is the highest experience of life.
Buddha says: DESIRING NOTHING, DOUBTING NOTHING, BEYOND JUDGMENT AND SORROW
AND THE PLEASURES OF THE SENSES, HE HAS MOVED BEYOND TIME.
The man who has moved into his being has moved beyond time. Time exists with the body, with the mind,
with the heart, but with the being there is no time. You suddenly experience timelessness or you can call it
eternity. It is only in that state when you have transcended mind, transcended time, that you are pure and free.
For the first time you know what purity is. It is not something to be cultivated; it is something like a fragrance of
deep meditation. The joy, the song, the celebration that arises out of silence, the sound of soundless silence that
is purity, that is innocence; you have become a child again. And that is maturity too, that is growth. You have
come of age. You are really born, you are born anew.
HOW CLEAR HE IS....
Now the master has clarity because all the clouds have disappeared, the clouds created by the body.... The
body creates the darkest clouds, the densest clouds, the thickest clouds. As you go further inwards the clouds
are less dark, less thick, less dense. When you have reached the fourth, turiya, all clouds have disappeared; there
is pure clarity. You can see through and through. The whole existence becomes transparent. Nothing is hidden
from you anymore. HOW CLEAR HE IS.
HE IS THE MOON. HE IS SERENE. HE SHINES.
At this point, suddenly there is an alchemical change in his energy. Ordinarily a man lives as a sun energy; the
master lives as moon energy. These are just metaphors, but tremendously significant, very expressive indicators.