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

336 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Nobody else has used jokes in a spiritual way; hence sometimes people are shocked. When they come for the
first time to listen to me, naturally they are shocked because they want to hear something very serious as if they
are not serious enough already! They want to hear something esoteric, something nonsensical, something which
makes no sense to them; then they think there must be great meaning in it. When something is incomprehensible
to them they think this is great philosophy! Whenever they come across something written in stupid jargon,
esoteric, occult, spiritual, they become very much interested. They think they are going to find some treasure in
it.
The treasure is not hidden in big words, the treasure is hidden in you. And it is to be discovered, not through
big words, it is to be discovered through wordlessness, it is to be discovered through silence.
And haven’t you felt after deep laughter that a sudden silence comes to you in the wake of it? the silence after
a storm. For a moment it is as if the mind stops functioning... you are utterly relaxed, in a deep rest.
Those are the moments, Masta, when you start feeling the presence of God. Those are the first glimpses that
God is. There is no other proof.
Hence my commune is going to remain a shock to the traditional people. They have seen many spiritual
communes, but they were all serious. Jesus will understand what I am saying, but not the pope of the Vatican,
because these fools go on saying that Jesus never laughed. And I tell you, on my own authority, that he must
have been one of the most hilarious persons. Who else can laugh so beautifully as Jesus? Who else has the right?
He was not a deadly kind of saint; he lived, and lived very close to the earth. He lived with all kinds of ordinary
people with drunkards and gamblers and tax collectors and prostitutes and he loved eating and drinking.
Indian spiritual phonies are very much against drinking. That’s why they cannot believe that Jesus is enlightened.
Many Jaina monks have asked me, ”Why do you say that Jesus is enlightened, as Buddha and Mahavira
are? He used to drink wine!” There is nothing wrong in it, one just has to learn the art of drinking wine. One
should not drink too much; the golden mean has to be followed. Nobody has ever heard that Jesus was lying in
the street! He must have known how much to drink and when to drink and when not to drink.
And moreover, wine is absolutely vegetarian; far more vegetarian than milk which Hindu, Jaina and Buddhist
monks think is the purest food. It is animal food! It is closer to nonvegetarian food than to vegetarian food. It
is part of the human body or the animal body. Wine has nothing wrong in it. And if one is foolish one can drink
too much water and can get into trouble. So it is not a question of drinking.
And what is wrong with enjoying eating? He must have enjoyed eating because we have many references that
every night with his disciples the gathering used to continue late into the night, eating, drinking.... And do you
think he was eating and drinking and they all were eating and drinking and everybody was sitting serious and
somber and saintly? Is this the way to drink and eat and enjoy it? They must have been telling jokes and they
must have been gossiping and they must have been talking like human beings.
He was very human in that sense, far more human than Buddha and Mahavira. They look more abstract,
more in the sky and less on the earth. He was very earthly. He used to stay in the house of a prostitute, Mary
Magdalene. Now, your Vatican pope will not have that much guts! Even though he is a Polack, that much guts I
don’t think he will have!
But when people come here, these people who think themselves spiritual, they come with their ideas, their
prejudices that there should be no laughter, no dancing, no singing. And when they see sannyasins hugging, then
this is too much as if there is something wrong in hugging! When they see people holding hands with deep love
they are shocked. Spiritual people should be very anti-life, utterly life-negative; they should not affirm life in any
way. And my whole effort here is to affirm life in all possible ways.
Masta, a few jokes for you:
Once there was a little girl who came across the word ’frugal’ and asked her mother what it meant. She was
told that it meant ”to save.” The next day the child was asked to write a story at school, and handed in the
following:
”Once upon a time a princess was lost in the woods and as night fell she became frightened. She began to run,
crying out, ’Frugal me! Frugal me!’
”A passing prince heard her pleas and ran to her rescue. He frugaled her and they lived happily ever after.”
”Hey, Giulio, where did you get the black eye?”
”Aw, I was at my girl’s house,” explained the young lover, ”and we was-a dancing together real-a tight-a when
her father walked-a in!”
”So?” ”So,” said the Italian, ”the old-a guy’s deaf-a. He couldn’t-a hear the music-a!”
A Texas cowboy was walking down a Tijuana street. Suddenly young Pablo walked up to him and yanked on
his sleeve.