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

352 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
That night Madame Curie dropped the idea, the whole project she closed the chapter. ”Enough is enough!
Three years wasted is too much for one problem.” There were other problems which were waiting to be solved. It
was finished in her mind, although the tacit understanding was still there just like a constant murmur. But she
had followed it long enough, it was time. One has only a limited time; three years is too much for one problem.
Deliberately she dropped the idea. As far as she was concerned she closed the whole project. She went to sleep
never to be bothered by that problem again.
And in the morning when she got up she was surprised. On a piece of paper on her table, the solution was
there, written in her own handwriting. She could not believe her eyes. Who had done it? The servant could not
have done it he knew nothing of mathematics, and if Madame Curie had not been able to do it in three years,
how could the servant have done it? And there was nobody else in the house. And the servant had not entered
in the night the doors were locked from inside. She looked closely and the handwriting resembled hers.
Then suddenly she remembered a dream. In the dream she had seen that she had got up, gone to the table,
written something.... Slowly, slowly the dream became clear. Slowly, slowly she remembered that she had done
it in the night. It was not a dream, she had actually done it. And this was the solution! For three years she
had been struggling hard and nothing was happening and the night she dropped the project, it happened. What
happened? She became relaxed.
Once you have dropped the effort you become relaxed, you become restful, you become soft, you become wide,
you become open. It was there inside her, it surfaced. Finding the mind no longer tense, it surfaced.
Innocence is there, you have simply forgotten it you have been made to forget it. Society is cunning. For
centuries man has learned that you can survive in this society only if you are cunning; the more cunning you are,
the more successful you will be. That’s the whole game of politics: be cunning, be more cunning than others. It
is a constant struggle and competition as to who can be more cunning. Whosoever is more cunning is going to
succeed, is going to be powerful.
After centuries of cunningness man has learned one thing: that to remain innocent is dangerous, you will not
be able to survive. Hence parents try to drive their children out of their innocence. Teachers, schools, colleges,
universities exist for the simple work of making you more cunning, more clever. Although they call it intelligence
it is not intelligence.
Intelligence is not against innocence, remember. Intelligence is the flavor of innocence, intelligence is the
fragrance of innocence. Cunningness is against innocence; and cunningness, cleverness are not synonymous with
intelligence. But to be intelligent needs a tremendous journey inwards. No schools can help, no colleges, no
universities can help. Parents, priests, the society, they are all extrovert; they cannot help you to go inwards.
And buddhas are very rare, few and far between. Not everybody is fortunate enough to find a buddha. Only
a buddha can help you to be an intelligent person, but you cannot find so many buddhas who want to become
primary school teachers and high school teachers and university professors; it is impossible.
So there is a substitute for intelligence. Cunningness is a substitute for intelligence a very poor substitute,
remember. And not only is it a poor substitute, it is just the opposite of it too. The intelligent person is not
cunning; certainly intelligent, but his intelligence keeps his innocence intact. He does not sell it for mundane
things. The cunning person is ready to sell his soul for small things.
Judas sold Jesus for only thirty silver coins just thirty silver coins. And a Jesus can be sold. Judas must have
thought that he was being very intelligent, but he was simply cunning. If you don’t like the word ’cunning’ you
can call him clever; that is just a good name for the same thing, for the same ugly thing.
The society prepares you to be cunning so that you are capable of competing in this struggle for existence, the
struggle to survive. It is a cut-throat competition, everybody is after everybody else’s throat. People are ready to
do anything to succeed, to be famous, to climb the ladder of success, name and fame. They are ready to use you
as stepping-stones. Unless you are also cunning you will be simply used, manipulated. Hence the society trains
every child to be cunning, and these layers of cunningness are hiding your innocence.
Innocence has not to be achieved, Sonja, it is already there. Hence it is not a question of becoming, it is your
being. It has only to be discovered or rediscovered. You have to drop all that you have learned from others, and
you will immediately be innocent.
Hence my antagonism towards all knowledge that is borrowed. Don’t quote the Bible, don’t quote the Gita.
Don’t behave like parrots. Don’t just go on living on borrowed information. Start seeking and searching for your
own intelligence.
A negative process is needed; it is to be achieved through via negativa. That is the Buddha’s way. You have
to negate all that has been given to you. You have to say, ”This is not mine; hence I have no claim over it. It
may be true, it may not be true. Who knows? Others say it is so; unless it becomes my experience I cannot agree