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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 35
communist. Slowly, slowly you will be aware that you are not any thought you are not mind at all. You are a pure
witness. The experience of pure witnessing is the experience of total freedom, but it is an inward phenomenon.
And a man who is inwardly totally free has no hankering to be outwardly free. He is capable of accepting nature
as it is.
Yvonne, create inner freedom through witnessing. Sannyas is only for the inner freedom. And live out of inner
freedom and then you will be able to see the interdependence on the outside. It is beautiful and it is a blessing.
There is no need to rebel against it. Relax into it, surrender to it. And remember: only a person who is really
free can surrender.
The last question:
Question 7
BELOVED MASTER, I ALSO THINK THAT A MAN OF KNOWLEDGE IS BETTER THAN AN IGNO-
RANT MAN. AM I ABSOLUTELY WRONG?
Sanatan, a man of knowledge is a totally different phenomenon. I was saying that the man of knowledge and
the knowledgeable man are not the same. The man of knowledge is what a buddha is: one who knows. But
the knowledgeable man is not a buddha; he does not know. He has accumulated great information, but that
information is borrowed. It is from the scriptures, from the books, from others. He has not experienced it; it is
about and about. He can talk, he can write, he can sermonize, but he knows nothing. He talks about God; he
has no idea what God is. He has no glimpse even what to say about experience.
The priests all over the world of all the religions are knowledgeable people. Jesus knows, but the pope is not a
man of knowledge. He is a knowledgeable man, he has great information. He can quote scriptures.
One of the great thinkers of the West was Ingersoll. Whenever he would deliver discourses and he was a great
orator too he would make a mysterious sign in the air with his finger before he would start speaking. And when
he would end, after that again he would make something with his fingers some very mysterious thing in the air.
He was asked again and again, but he would laugh and he would not answer.
When he was dying somebody asked, ”Now please tell us, otherwise we will be always curious and wondering
what were you doing your whole life? Is there some magic in it? Why do you make some mysterious signs before
you speak and then again when you end?”
He said, ”There is no magic in it, but I could not tell it before. Now I can tell it. Before I started my speech
I was making the sign of inverted commas, and after I ended I had to close the inverted commas. I was saying
to myself and to you too that it is all just quotation, it is not my experience. The whole thing is borrowed it is
within inverted commas.”
That is a knowledgeable man. But Ingersoll is sincere, at least honest. The knowledgeable man is not better
than the ignorant man, remember, Sanatan. The man of knowledge is certainly better than the ignorant man, of
course, obviously, but the same is not true about the knowledgeable man. The knowledgeable man is even worse
than the ignorant man. The ignorant man at least knows that he is ignorant; he has no pretensions, he has no
facade. The knowledgeable man has a beautiful facade, a mask.
And the problem is: if you go on deceiving others, slowly, slowly you become autohypnotized. You start thinking
that you know. But there is no difference. The knowledgeable person is only on the surface painted with great
knowledge and the ignorant person is not painted; he is raw. The knowledgeable person is a little polished. But
deep down they are the same person. Both will be greedy, both will be full of lust, both will be full of anger, both
will be full of ego. Their lives will be nothing but ego trips. Their lives will be nothing but sexuality, violence,
greed, jealousy, possessiveness. There will be no difference at all.
Sanatan, remember, you have to become a knower on your own. If you quote me, that is knowledgeability; if
you know it on your own, that is knowing. And knowing brings freedom, knowing brings truth. Knowledgeability
is respectable; you become an expert. The more you know, the more people think you are great, but deep down
you go on living the same animal kind of life, no difference at all or maybe only one difference: you are a bigger
hypocrite than the ignorant man.
Norman Bush had a terrible stutter. His wife Rose suggested that he go and see a specialist. Reluctantly he
was persuaded to visit the best man in Harley Street who told him, ”Well, Mr. Bush, there is only one thing we
can do about this stutter of yours. You see, the problem is your balls are too big. However, we should be able to
transplant a smaller pair. That would undoubtedly cure your ailment.”
Norman was given a week to think it over and reluctantly accepted to undergo surgery. When he came out,
his speech fully restored, his wife was delighted. Then came those long nights when Rose was eager and Norman
showed no interest. As the weeks went by she grew more anxious and frustrated.