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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 361
Chapter 9 Possessing nothing, wanting nothing
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POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING.
HE IS FULL OF POWER. FEARLESS, WISE, EXALTED. HE HAS VANQUISHED ALL THINGS. HE SEES
BY VIRTUE OF HIS PURITY.
HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY, OVER THE RIVER OF HIS MANY LIVES, HIS MANY
DEATHS.
BEYOND THE SORROW OF HELL, BEYOND THE GREAT JOY OF HEAVEN, BY VIRTUE OF HIS
PURITY.
HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY.
ALL THAT HE HAD TO DO, HE HAS DONE.
AND NOW HE IS ONE.
These are the last golden sutras of The Dhammapada:
POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING.
HE IS FULL OF POWER.
Why does man want to possess? It is one of the most fundamental things to be understood. Unless you
understand why there is a constant hankering to possess more and more things, money, power, you will not be
able to get rid of this insanity of possessiveness. Man wants to possess because he has not known who he is; he is
unaware of his inner kingdom. He thinks he is a beggar, hence he begs.
Desires are beggars. The more you desire, the more you prove that you are unaware of your own treasures.
That very unawareness leads you into the desert of possessiveness. It is a desert because you will not attain
to anything. You may possess the whole world, still you will remain the same hollow person, empty, your life
meaningless, your vision clouded, your heart dead, your soul unborn.
Man wants to possess because he feels tacitly that something is missing. What exactly is missing he is not able
to decipher, but something is missing that much is felt by everybody so rush and fill the gap. Naturally we start
imitating others.
Children are imitators; the only way they learn things is by imitating their parents and the people who surround
them. They are all running after money, after power, prestige, respectability. Naturally the child thinks these are
the things that have to be attained, achieved. ”Whatsoever the cost, I have to risk all. And life is short; hence I
have to focus my energies in a concentrated way. I have to move in one particular direction with my totality. I
have to be money-mad if I really want to possess money, because I am not the only one who is running after it;
millions of people are running after it. It is going to be a great struggle and only those who are cunning, clever,
crafty, are going to win the race.” So be cunning, be crafty, but anyhow you have to win the race. You have to
prove yourself, that you are somebody, that your life was not in vain.
The child learns all this in a very unconscious way from the atmosphere into which he is born. And whatsoever
the society is, the game is the same. Somewhere it is money that is more important. If you are born in America,
money is more important; that brings power. If you are born in Soviet Russia, then money is not so important;
then political power is real money, real gold. You have to be high in the hierarchy of the Communist Party, but
the game is the same. If you are born in a so-called religious country like India, then you have to become a great
saint, you have to defeat all the other saints. It is the same game now played in the name of religion. You have
to be the greatest ascetic, the most famous; you have to leave everybody far behind.
Look deep down: it is one single game being played in so-called religious countries, in capitalist countries and
in communist countries. Whatsoever the format, the structure, the game is the same. The game is the game of
the ego.
And we are tremendously interested in fulfilling our ego, but it cannot be fulfilled. It is impossible to fulfill it
because in the first place the ego is a nonentity. It is not real, it is fictitious. If you have real hunger there is a
way to satisfy it, but if your hunger is unreal there is no way to satisfy it. If you have a real disease it can be
cured, but if you are a hypochondriac and you invent diseases which exist nowhere, nobody can cure you. It is
impossible to cure you there is nothing to cure. And if somehow you are convinced that one disease has been
cured, you have the same old mind and it will invent another disease. It will go on inventing.
Ego is your invention. The hunger of the ego is your invention. You have to keep yourself occupied because
you feel in a state of embarrassment. You are not even aware of who you are how can you be at ease? You feel
a deep unease, it is always there. To hide it you keep yourself occupied with money, with power, with religion,
with politics. These are all escapes. You can find any escape there are many alternatives available but you keep
yourself occupied so that there is no need to become so conscious of your inner trembling.