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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 353
or disagree. I will not believe or disbelieve. I will not be a Catholic or a communist, I will not be a Hindu or a
Mohammedan. I will simply not follow any ideology.” Because, whoever you follow, you will be gathering dust
around yourself. Stop following.
Here, being with me, you are not my followers, remember it. Friends certainly, but not followers. You are in a
love affair with me, but it is not a question of following. And my work here is not to teach you something, but to
help you to discover yourself. Just drop all knowledge. It hurts because you have carried that knowledge for so
long and you have been bragging so much about that knowledge your degrees, MAs and PhDs and DLitts, and
you have been bragging about all those degrees. And suddenly I am saying to you: Drop all that nonsense.
Just be as simple as a child. Just be again a child as you were born, as God sent you into this world. In that
mirrorlike state you will be able to reflect that which is. Innocence is the door to knowing. Knowledge is the
barrier and innocence is the bridge.
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER, CAN I ALSO BECOME A GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA?
Govind, yes and no. Yes because buddhahood is nobody’s personal possession. Gautama does not have it as
a personal attribute; he is not the owner of it and he is not the only buddha. There have been many buddhas
before him, there have been many buddhas after him. The word ’buddha’ simply means the awakened one.
You are asleep. Naturally, if you can be asleep you can wake up. One who is capable of sleep is also capable of
waking up; the very phenomenon of sleep implies the capacity to wake up. If you are incapable of waking up you
will be incapable of sleeping too; they are two sides of the same coin.
So, Govind, if you can sleep, if you can dream, you can wake up, you can be a buddha. Hence I say yes but you
cannot be a Gautama the Buddha; Gautama you cannot be. You can be Govind the Buddha, but not Gautama
the Buddha; that is not possible. Nature never repeats. They say history repeats and it certainly repeats because
history consists of stupid human beings. What else can they do? They can only repeat. But nature never repeats;
it never creates the same person again, the same form again. Nature is immensely innovative.
That’s the meaning when we say God is a creator. A creator is never repetitive, he never creates the same
painting again and again. He goes on creating something new, he is always on a new venture.
Govind, God has never created another person like you and will never create another person like you. He loves
individuality, he loves uniqueness. That’s his way of showing respect to you, tremendous respect. And it is not
only so with human beings: go into the garden, watch the leaves minutely you will not find even two leaves
exactly the same. Not on the whole of the earth will you find two leaves exactly the same, or two pebbles exactly
the same on all the seashores.
Everything is unique, everything has its own signature. Just as your thumb is unique and its print is unique
there is nobody else who has the same print what to say about your soul? Even about such small details God
is so careful or you can say ”nature,” if ”God” has lost its appeal for you. If the word ’God’ has lost its appeal
for you, ’nature’ is as beautiful, or ’existence’, or whatsoever you want. Buddha likes the word ’dhamma’ the
universal law. Lao Tzu loves the word ’Tao’ the harmony of existence, the inner order.
The universe is not a chaos, that much is certain. Whether there is a God or not is irrelevant, the universe is not
a chaos. That’s why we call it a universe. It has a certain unity, hence ”universe,” otherwise we would have called
it a ”multiverse.” It is not a chaos, there is an order running inside it, a thread which joins everything together.
Even the smallest grass blade is joined to the biggest star. Nothing is separate, and yet everything is unique
and individual. This is the tremendous beauty of existence: it loves and respects the individual, it nourishes the
individual.
Hence, Govind, you cannot be Gautama the Buddha, but there is no need to be Gautama the Buddha. That
will be ugly, that will be imitative. Never try to imitate because then you will always be only a carbon copy and
never something original. And unless you are something original you are not using your life’s opportunity to its
maximum, you are wasting it.
Don’t be a Christian be a christ. And don’t be a Buddhist be a buddha. The Christian is trying to be like
Jesus Christ, the Buddhist is trying to be like Gautam Buddha, and this is not possible. What is possible is that
you will become an imitator, an actor. And you can act beautifully. You can walk like Buddha, you can talk like
Buddha, you can sit like Buddha. You can use the same words, the same language, the same gestures, but still
deep down you will be Govind, not Gautam. And you will know it! That all that you are doing is just on the
outside. And it is ugly because it will create a kind of hypocrisy in you.
Hence all Christians are hypocrites and all Buddhists are hypocrites. All followers are bound to be hypocrites
because they are divided persons, split persons. And whatsoever they show is only on the surface, and whatsoever