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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 357
So they do. But a few hours later the second engine stops working and again the captain speaks to the
passengers: ”Ladies and gentlemen, in order to safely reach our destination we need three persons to jump off the
plane.”
An Englishman stands up. ”Sorry,” he says, ”I beg your pardon... but of course....” He turns around to the
rest of the passengers, grabs his umbrella and jumps out of the plane shouting, ”God save the Queen!”
A Frenchman gets up with tears in his eyes. ”Vive la France!” he cries and jumps out.
A man from India wearing pure white, khadi clothes, looking more like Morarji Desai than Morarji Desai
himself, walks through the plane, grabs one old woman by the throat, throws her out of the plane and shouts,
”Long live Mahatma Gandhi!”
Once a British lady was approached by a German man. As he was quite taken by her beauty, he marched over
to her and shouted, ”I love you!”
She said, ”If you really love me, jump off the cliff!”
Before he could think he kissed her hand and jumped.
A short time later the British lady was approached by an Italian. He swaggered up to her and passionately
whispered in her ear, ”Amore mio!”
She responded by whispering in his ear, ”If you really love me, jump off the cliff.”
Coming up for air between kisses he answered, ”If you really love me, you must jump with me!”
Impressed with his wit, she conceded to make love with him.
Still a short while later the British lady was approached by a British man. He made her acquaintance and
invited her for tea. After several hours of polite conversation, he said, with some reserve, ”I love you.”
She answered, ”If you really love me, jump off the cliff.”
To which he gallantly replied, ”Ladies first!”
The fourth question:
Question 4
BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE REALLY NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ORDINARY PERSON AND
ONE WHO IS ENLIGHTENED?
Narendra, everyone is born enlightened. Everyone is born absolutely innocent, absolutely pure, absolutely
empty. But that innocence, that purity, that emptiness, is bound to be lost because it is unconscious. One has to
regain it one has to gain it consciously. That is the only difference between an ordinary person and the enlightened
one.
The ordinary person came with the same potential, has got the same potential still, but he has not claimed it
yet. The enlightened one has lost it and claimed it back. The ordinary person is in a state of paradise lost and the
enlightened person is in the state of paradise regained. But you can gain it any moment, it is up to you. Nobody
can prevent you from becoming enlightened.
It is not a question of any particular talent. Not everybody is a musician and not everybody can be a musician;
that is a question of talent. Only a few are musicians and real musicians are born musicians. You can learn the
technique; if you go on and on practicing music, sooner or later you will be able to play, but you will still not be
a musician. You will only be a technician one who knows how to play but one who has no inspiration, one who
is not really in tune with the music of existence. Music is not flowing through you naturally, spontaneously.
Not everybody can be a poet and not everybody can be a scientist or mathematician; these are talents. But
enlightenment is not a question of talents. Everybody is enlightened; to be alive is enough. Life itself is the only
need, the only requirement. If you are not dead you can still become enlightened. If you are dead, then of course
wait for the next round, but nobody is so dead. People are ninety-nine percent dead, but even if you are one
percent alive that is enough. That much fire is enough; it can be kindled, it can be helped. It can be used to
create, to trigger more fire in you.
The difference between the enlightened one and the ordinary person is not one of talent. This is the first thing
to be remembered, because many people think that it is a question of talent. ”A Jesus is talented, a Buddha
is talented; we are not so talented. How can we become enlightened?” No, it is not a question of talent at all.
You cannot become a Michelangelo and you cannot become a Shakespeare unless you are born one, but you can
become a christ, a buddha.
Everybody is entitled to it, it is everybody’s birthright, but you will have to reclaim it. And the effort has to
be made consciously. You have lost it simply because you were unconscious. And if you remain unconscious, then
the difference will remain. The difference is only of unconsciousness.
Buddha is as ordinary as you are, but he is full of awareness in his ordinariness. Because of awareness his
ordinariness becomes luminous. He lives the same ordinary life, remember it. That is another illusion that people