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

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32 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 Jesus walked away very puzzled, and he saw another man who was running after a prostitute. He stopped the man and said, ”Young man, I know you perfectly well. You were blind and I gave you eyes.” And the man said, ”What else should I do with the eyes? The eyes are meant to look and search for beauty. And that woman have you not seen how beautiful she is? Leave me alone! I have no more time for you.” Jesus was very sad because he was thinking he had helped these people. He came out of the village and a man was preparing to kill himself. He asked the man, ”Life is so valuable! Why are you killing yourself?” The man looked at Jesus and he said, ”Don’t you recognize me? I had died and you are the man who disturbed my death and you brought me back from my death. It is too much! I cannot bear this life any longer. Enough is enough! And please, you have come again... and I have made every preparation to kill myself. Don’t do your miracle again I don’t want any of your miracles!” This is a strange story, but of great significance. Man is such, so blind, that he will do something wrong if he is healthy, he will do something wrong if he is alive, he will do something wrong if he has eyes he will see something wrong. Unless you are conscious you are going to do wrong. That’s why in the East, Buddha, Mahavira, Lao Tzu and people like them have never done any miracles or they have done only one miracle, and that miracle is the transformation of unconsciousness into consciousness because unless that happens everything is going to be wrong. It is giving a sword into a child’s hand: either he will cut himself or somebody else. You don’t give poison to a child to play with; it is dangerous. Man is unconscious, almost in a state of drunkenness. So what will you gain out of it if you stop smoking? O’Leary walked into a bar and ordered a beer and a whisky. He drank the beer and poured the whisky into his vest pocket. O’Leary repeated this routine several times, and finally the puzzled bartender asked, ”What is the idea?” ”None of your business!” said the Irishman. ”And what is more, you are so nosy I have a good mind to punch you in the eye!” Just then a mouse stuck his head out of O’Leary’s vest pocket and said, ”And that goes for your damned cat too!” Man is unconscious. He only appears conscious, he is not conscious at all. So rather than asking me what I have to say about it, you should watch. The most important thing is not stopping smoking; the most important thing is to watch why you smoke in the first place. If you don’t understand the cause of it and if the cause is not removed, you can stop smoking then you will start chewing gum, because the basic cause is there and you will have to do something. If you don’t start chewing gum, then you may start talking too much. I don’t smoke. If any day I have to stop talking I may have to start smoking! You will do something.... This amorous playboy cornered the girl in the back seat of his sedan and was eagerly trying his hand at her. She kept resisting and pushing him away, but he kept coming with more hands than an octopus. She finally slapped him away and hollered, ”I don’t know what has come over you. You have always been so restrained and gentlemanly.” He said, ”Yes, I know, but I just can’t help it. I am trying to give up smoking.” Smoking is keeping many people from many things which will be far more dangerous. Your hand is engaged, your mouth is engaged, your mind is engaged. And you are not harming anybody in particular, only harming yourself. That is your birthright, that is your freedom. Otherwise you will do something else. Have you watched? Whenever you feel nervous, tense, you start smoking. It helps you to cool down, to relax a little bit; otherwise life will become too much. When you are not feeling nervous, when you are enjoying, when you are relaxed, you don’t remember smoking. Hours may pass and you may not smoke for the simple reason that there is no cause. Otherwise you become afraid you may do something wrong. Better to keep yourself engaged. Mahendra, my suggestion is: first go deep down into your smoking habit. Meditate over it, why in the first place you smoke. It may take a few months for you to go into it, and the deeper you go the more you will be freed of it. Don’t stop smoking. If it disappears on your understanding, through your understanding, that is totally a different matter. If it disappears because you went to the root cause of it and you saw the point.... For example, it may be that your mother’s breast was taken away from you earlier than you wanted and it is just a substitute. To many people I have suggested and it has been of help to smokers I say, ”If you really want to stop smoking, then start sucking your thumb.” They say, ”But that will look very stupid!” That is true... smoking looks as if you are doing something great! You are doing the same thing, in fact a little more harmful. Just sucking on your
THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 33 thumb is not harmful at all, but smoking is harmful. But because everybody is smoking and it is an accepted thing and it seems to be a very grown-up thing.... Small children want to grow up, if not for anything else than just for being allowed to smoke. Seeing grown-up people smoking they feel very inferior they are not allowed. They are told, ”You are too small wait a little. This is something which only grown-up people can do.” It symbolizes a grown-up person. And if you are really smoking costly cigarettes, costly cigars, rare, exotic, then it shows your success, it shows that you have arrived. It gives you dignity. Go deep into it. It may be that your mother’s breast was taken away too early. Then my suggestion is: in the night before you go to bed, Mahendra, have a bottle with a rubber nipple fixed to it and suck it. Every night before you go to sleep become a child again. Go on sucking on it. Fill the bottle with warm milk. That’s what the smoking is doing. The warm smoke going in and out symbolizes the milk of the mother. You will have to go deep into the causes. One of the great things in life is that if you understand the root cause of something you can overcome it without any trouble, without any willpower. If you use willpower to stop it you will find some substitute you will have to find some substitute. Maybe you are not allowed to speak; in the office the boss won’t allow you, in the home the wife won’t allow you. She goes on talking, she gives you no time to talk. And you are also afraid if you talk you get into trouble; whatsoever you say is wrong. And the wife jumps upon it, takes the cue from that and starts nagging you. So in the home you have to hide behind a newspaper. Whether you read the newspaper or not is not the point, but you have to hide behind the newspaper. You have to look engaged, occupied, so you need not talk and you need not hear what the wife goes on saying. Women all over the world, except for a few countries in the West, don’t smoke, for the simple reason that they talk too much. Their lips have so much exercise, there is no need! In a few countries in the West they have started smoking and the reason is the Women’s Lib movement. They have to compete with men in everything; whether it is sense or nonsense that doesn’t matter. I am very much afraid they may start pissing standing any day, because they are equal to men! Howsoever stupid it is, they will do it. Go into the cause of it, Mahendra, and if you can find the cause it will simply melt away. But don’t stop by force let it go on its own accord, through watchfulness, through awareness. So I will not say to stop smoking or stop anything, but I will suggest always: watch, meditate, be aware, go into the roots. This is a fundamental law of life: if you can understand the root of something it disappears, it evaporates. Unless you understand the root it will continue in one form or another. The fourth question: Question 4 BELOVED MASTER, I AM IN LOVE WITH A BEAUTIFUL GIRL, BUT SHE IS POOR. THERE IS A HAG WITH LOTS OF LOOT IN LOVE WITH ME. SHALL I MARRY THE RICH GIRL OR THE POOR GIRL? Narayano, marry the rich girl and be good to the poor! The fifth question: Question 5 BELOVED MASTER, I AM IN LOVE. WHAT SHOULD I DO? Mahesh, the only cure for a man in love is marriage. If that does not cure him, nothing will. The sixth question: Question 6 BELOVED MASTER, FOR FORTY-FIVE YEARS I LIVED IN PRISON, MOSTLY MADE BY MYSELF. NOW I KNOW IT IS POSSIBLE TO BECOME MORE AND MORE FREE. BUT WHAT TO DO, WHEN YOU FEEL YOU NEED A SAFE PLACE, A GOOD CLIMATE TO GROW? ANOTHER PRISON? HOW TO BE FREE ANYWHERE, ANY TIME? I FEEL SORROW AND REBELLION IN ME ABOUT THAT. Yvonne, freedom has nothing to do with the outside; one can be free even in an actual prison. Freedom is something inner; it is of the consciousness. You can be free anywhere chained, in a jail, you can be free and you can be unfree outside the jail, in your own home, visibly absolutely free, but you will be a prisoner if your consciousness is not free. You are confusing outer freedom with inner freedom. As far as the outside is concerned you can never be absolutely free let it be clear once and forever. As far as outside is concerned you are not alone, so how can you be absolutely free? There are millions of people around you. On the outside, life has to be a compromise. If you were alone on the earth you would have been absolutely free, but you are not alone. On the road you have to keep to the left. And Yvonne will feel this is a great bondage: ”Why? Why should I be forced to be on the left? I am a free man. If I want to walk on the right I will walk on the right. If I want
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