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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 365
No Christian is interested in Mahavira, no Jaina is interested in Christ, no Mohammedan is interested in
Buddha, no Buddhist is interested in Mohammed. You are interested only in the rope that was tied around your
neck when you were a child. You are still carrying it, it has become your identity.
Who are you? If you write it down, then you will write your name which has been given by others you were
born without a name. And you will write your degrees which have been conferred by others you were born
without any degrees. If you write down the whole description of yourself you will be surprised: there is nothing
that depends on your own experience, all is dependent on others. This is not self-knowledge, this is self-deception.
Unless you drop this whole deception and start discovering yourself from ABC you will never be able to know this
beautiful experience of: POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING. This continuous wanting of something
is simply to stuff your inner emptiness. And this constant hankering to be on top is nothing but a projection
of a deep feeling of inferiority. All the politicians suffer from inferiority complexes; all the Alexanders and the
Napoleons and the Hitlers and the Stalins, without any exception, they suffer from deep inferiority complexes.
Somewhere deep down they know that they are nothing; they have to cover this nothingness with something
beautiful. They know they are like a wound, they have to cover the wound with beautiful flowers.
A politician was very much in love with his dog. One day he went to the market to buy some dog biscuits.
He entered a shop and shouted, ”Have you got biscuits for dogs?”
The shopkeeper calmly replied, ”Do you want to eat them here or do you want to take them home?”
Politicians fight like dogs. They are dogs, and they have to be, because it is a very difficult struggle that they
have to go through. They have to be very stubborn and stupid, doggedly stupid and doggedly stubborn, only
then is there a possibility that some day they may reach the top. Of course, they will not find anything there, but
they will go on smiling because now it is meaningless to say, ”I have not found anything here.” People will laugh.
People will say, ”We knew it from the very beginning there is nothing.” That’s how people are. They always say,
”We knew it from the very beginning. We told you before that you were a fool trying to climb an empty ladder
on the last rung you would not find anything.” So one who has reached the last rung has to go on smiling as if
he has achieved something, just in order not to show his idiocy; that he has been an idiot, that he has wasted his
whole life.
There is no need to struggle really, life is spacious enough. If we drop these foolish ideas of hierarchy, of who is
on the top and who is the first and who is the president and who is the prime minister... if we drop these stupid
ideas of hierarchy, if we simply start living whatsoever we are, wherever we are, life can be infinitely rich because
the whole energy available can transform this earth into a paradise.
Noah was closing the gate of the ark ready to leave when the elephant appeared on the horizon running like
mad.
”Come on,” encouraged Noah, ”faster!”
The elephant walked the last few steps into the ark. At that moment the mosquito who also was late rushed
in, stumbling upon the elephant’s ass sting!
The elephant turned back in anger and said, ”Don’t push, please. There is plenty of room for everybody!”
Even elephants understand there is plenty of room for everybody and just a mosquito! There is enough room
for you if there is enough room for an elephant don’t push. But these political mosquitoes, they go on pushing
like mad; their whole life depends on pushing. Go on pushing till you reach the end and then there is nothing.
There has never been anything, but we are brought up, educated, conditioned, to be ambitious, to be egoists.
Yes, people drop desiring and wanting only when they are almost on their deathbeds, but then it is too late.
The old idea of sannyas was that you should become a sannyasin after seventy-five years. Buddha changed it;
he brought a revolution into the very concept of sannyas. Hence India has never been able to forgive him. Even
now India has not forgiven him, although he was born in India. He was the best flowering of Indian genius, no
other person can be compared to him. In the whole history of the Indian subcontinent he is the brightest star,
but India rejected him. There were many reasons to reject him; one of the most important was that he destroyed
the old idea of sannyas.
The old idea of sannyas was, when you are too old to live, when life itself is slipping out of your fingers, then
renounce. Buddha said, ”What is the point of renouncing then? Life is renouncing you. Now why are you trying
to deceive yourself? You deceived yourself your whole life do you still want to deceive yourself?” Buddha said,
”If you want to renounce life, renounce it when desires are very young, when possessiveness is very strong, when
your whole being is ambitious. That is the moment. If you cannot do it then, you have missed one life.”
Mrs. Silver and Mrs. Gold were gossiping over the back fence as they hung out the wash.
”My husband, ah, such a faithful man!” boasted Mrs. Silver. ”He never even looks at another woman.”