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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 351
and joy. And each moment becomes so fragrant, so alive! Each moment becomes such a benediction that it is
impossible to imagine it, it is impossible to describe it. One has to know it to know it; there is no other way.
Nobody can explain it to you. It is not expressible, it is not explainable. It is the greatest mystery. When time
disappears, mind disappears, what is left? That which is left, that vastness... that is your real being in Buddha’s
words, your nonbeing, your no-self.
Jesus will call it the kingdom of God; that is a positive way of describing it. And Buddha calls it a state of
cessation all has ceased. AND WITH GREAT GLADNESS HE KNOWS THAT HE HAS FINISHED. HE HAS
WOKEN FROM HIS SLEEP.
Enough for today.
The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol. 12
Chapter 8 Born enlightened
Audio:Yes Video:Yes Length:43 mins
The first question:
Question 1
BELOVED MASTER, WHAT IS INNOCENCE AND WHAT IS THE WAY TO BECOME INNOCENT?
Sonja, innocence is your very nature. You do not have to become it, you are already it. You are born innocent.
Then layers and layers of conditioning are imposed upon your innocence. Your innocence is like a mirror and
conditioning is like layers of dust. The mirror has not to be achieved, the mirror is already there or rather, here.
The mirror is not lost, it is only hidden behind the layers of dust.
You don’t have to follow a way to reach your nature because you cannot leave your nature, you cannot go
anywhere else. Even if you wanted to, it is impossible. That’s exactly the definition of nature: nature means that
which cannot be left behind, that which cannot be renounced. But you can forget about it. You cannot lose it
but it can be forgotten.
And that’s exactly what has happened. The mirror is not lost but forgotten forgotten because it is not
functioning anymore as a mirror. Not that any defect has arisen in it, just layers of dust are covering it. All that
is needed is to clean it, to remove those layers of dust.
The process of becoming innocent is not really a process of becoming, it is a process of discovering your being.
It is a discovery, not an achievement. You don’t attain to something new, you simply attain to that which you
have always been. It is a forgotten language.
It happens many times: you see a person on the road, you recognize him, his face seems familiar. Suddenly you
remember also that you know his name. You say, ”It is just on the tip of my tongue,” but still it is not coming to
you. What is happening? If it is just on the tip of your tongue, then why can’t you say it? You know that you
know it, but still you are not able to remember it. And the more you try, the more difficult it becomes, because
making an effort makes you more tense, and when you are tense you are farther away from your nature, you are
farther away from that which is already there. When you are relaxed you are closer; when you are utterly relaxed,
it will surface of its own accord.
So you try hard, but it doesn’t come, so you forget all about it. Then lying down in your bath, or just swimming
in the pool, and you are not even trying to remember that man’s name when suddenly it bubbles up. What has
happened? You were not trying to remember, and you were relaxed. When you are relaxed you are wide, when
you are tense you become narrow the more tense, the more narrow. The passage between you and that which is
inside you becomes so narrow that nothing can pass through it, not even a single name.
All the great scientific discoveries have been made in this very mysterious way in this very unscientific way, so
to speak.
Madame Curie was working on a certain mathematical problem for three years continuously and the more she
tried, the farther and farther away the solution seemed. She tried every possible way, but nothing was working,
nothing was happening. And there was somewhere a deep, tacit feeling that ”The solution exists. I am not
struggling with something absurd.” This tacit feeling continued all the time as an undercurrent; hence she could
not drop the effort either. She was getting tired three years wasted for a single problem. But deep down within
herself somebody was saying, ”The solution is possible. This exercise is not futile. Go on.” And she went on
stubbornly, she persisted. She dropped all other projects, she forced herself totally into the one problem. But the
more she tried, the more impossible it became.
One night it happened, almost as it happened to Gautama the Buddha; of course, the problems were different,
but the process was the same. Buddha had struggled for six years to attain enlightenment and he had attained
nothing. Then one night he dropped the whole effort, went to sleep, and, by the morning when the last star was
setting, he became enlightened.