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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 363
Every country, every race has convinced itself that Moses, Krishna, Lao Tzu, Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed are
not ordinary people. In some way or other we have been trying to prove that they are extraordinary. Not that we
are much interested in their being extraordinary, we are simply interested in one thing: if they are extraordinary
then we need not worry. Then we can go on the way we are going, we need not change. We can simply remain
the same, as we are. To avoid a radical change we create these great rationalizations.
I say unto you that they are all as ordinary as you are or as extraordinary as you are. No difference at all. Just
a very small difference which is not a difference really: you are asleep and they are awake. You can be awakened,
you can wake up unless you decide not to wake up. But right now it is difficult for you to understand that you
are buddhas.
The function of the master is to remind you that you may be believing that you are slaves, but you are not
that is only your belief. You are masters. The function of the master is to remind you, to go on reminding you
again and again that you are buddhas. If you are behaving like fools that is your choice. You have the freedom
to behave like fools, but you also have the freedom to transform your being totally, to become as centered as a
Buddha.
Looking at yourself it will be difficult to believe, looking at your life it will be difficult for you yourself to
believe that you can ever be mature, that you can ever be a master, that you can ever say about yourself:
POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING. You are always wanting. People are so ridiculous that if they
become convinced about wanting nothing, then they start wanting this state of wanting nothing. But it is the
same game; now the desire has come from the back door.
I have heard:
After Beethoven finished his joyous Fourth Symphony he went through a dry period. Inspiration left him, his
imagination went blank and he could compose no new music. This was too much for his restless energy and he
fell to drinking at the local taverns where he often wound up in bar fights or went off with whores.
One night, after losing a bar fight and being rejected by the cheapest whore in town, Beethoven sat spending
his last pennies on cheap wine. As he was the last customer in the empty tavern, the bartender came over to him
and said, ”Hey, buddy, you are always causing trouble around here. What do you do for a living anyway?”
Beethoven looked up, his face bruised, his lip bleeding, and said through clenched teeth, ”I am a composer.”
The bartender said, ”You, a composer?! Ha-ha-ha Ha!”
That’s how the Fifth Symphony was born!
Looking at you it is very difficult to believe that you are buddhas bruised face, bleeding lips, even rejected by
the cheapest whore, drinking cheap wine. Who will believe that you are a buddha? But I believe it! And not
only do I believe it. I know it.
Just something is needed to trigger it. Just something is needed to wake you up.
Beethoven went home and again the inspiration was back, again the sources were flowing.
The master cannot do anything directly, but he can push you, pull you in indirect ways, to help you to see
the point. Once seen it becomes yours and unless it becomes yours it is of no use, it is of no meaning, it has no
validity.
You are so unaware of yourself. That’s why you are running after money, power, prestige. Become a little more
aware of who you are. Give a little more attention to yourself.
Lukowski went to the bank to cash a check. Since Lukowski had no account at the bank, the clerk asked if he
could identify himself.
”Say,” asked Lukowski, ”is there a mirror around here?”
”Yes,” said the teller, ”on the post beside you.”
Lukowski glanced in the mirror and heaved a sigh of relief. ”Yeah,” he said, ”it is me all right.”
That is how you recognize yourself, always looking in the mirror. The mirrors differ. You look in the eyes of
other people; if they think you are a good man, you think you are a good man. If they think you are beautiful,
you think you are beautiful. If they think you are intelligent, you think you are intelligent. All that you know
about yourself is collected from others others who don’t even know themselves.
This is a very strange world: you are asking people, ”Who are you?” and they don’t know themselves, and you
depend on what they say about you you depend on it. You go on collecting information. That’s why it hurts
when somebody says you are a fool. Why does it hurt? Let him say that you are a fool; just by his saying it
you don’t become a fool. But why does it hurt then? It hurts because all that you know about yourself depends
on public opinion. Now that opinion comes from the same source from the outside from where you have been
collecting the opinion that you are very intelligent. Now you are in a contradiction, that’s why you are upset,