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

366 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
”The same with my husband,” said Mrs. Gold. ”He never chases after women either. He is too fine, too decent
too old!”
Buddha says: POSSESSING NOTHING, WANTING NOTHING....
HE IS FULL OF POWER.
When you try to possess, your power becomes invested in meaningless things. When you desire, your power
becomes desires and desires are infinite. Each desire becomes a leakage of your power. When all possessiveness
and all desires have been understood as futile, and dropped, you become a reservoir of power. And to be a
reservoir of power is the only experience that gives you the feeling that God is because God is power. When you
also experience power within yourself, overflowing, abundant power, you know God is. If you are empty, with no
power, tired, wasted in your desires, no proof that God exists can help. All those proofs are for impotent people.
The real person needs no proof for God. He comes to know God from the experience of inner power, from his
own inner glow.
FEARLESS, WISE, EXALTED. HE HAS VANQUISHED ALL THINGS. HE SEES BY VIRTUE OF HIS
PURITY.
And when you are full of power, death disappears. Death appears only because you are so powerless. Death
appears only because your desires are exploiting your power, they are sucking your power. Desires are suckers,
parasites; they leave you empty. When you are overflowing with energy there is no death. That experience of
overflowing power makes you absolutely certain without any doubt that you cannot die. The body will go, the
mind will go, but this power that you have felt is going to remain. It is going to expand; there is no way to destroy
it. If you yourself don’t waste it in desires, death cannot take it away from you.
And when there is no death there is no fear. All fear is death-oriented, all fear is the shadow of death. When
you don’t possess anything you are fearless, when you don’t desire anything you are fearless. Nobody can take
anything away from you because you don’t possess anything. Nobody can hinder you because you don’t have any
desire. Nobody can obstruct your path, nobody is your enemy. The whole of existence suddenly becomes friendly.
And when there is power, fearlessness, wisdom arises. Wisdom means your capacity to see the truth. You
become a seer. Not that you know the Koran, the Gita or the Bible, but that now you know the inner scripture
of consciousness itself. You know the inner christ, you know the inner krishna. You know that as Mohammed was
receiving messages from God you are also receiving messages from God; you are no less than any Mohammed.
You are also a prophet and a messenger, you are also a messiah. When you are full of power you become receptive.
God can connect with you only when you have power. Right now you are powerless; there is no possibility
of any communion between you and God. Power can only be connected with power. Powerlessness cannot be
connected with power. Only the same can meet the same. You have to be something of the divine in your own
right; then only do you earn, do you deserve that God should communicate with you.
He becomes wise, exalted exalted by existence itself. Society may not respect you, society may condemn you,
society may crucify you, but who cares about society? Society is man-made. Existence itself exalts the man of
wisdom the man who has known himself, the man who has experienced God, the man who can say authoritatively,
”I know God, not through the scriptures but through my own experience,” existence exalts him.
It is said that when Buddha became enlightened trees bloomed out of season. When Mahavira became enlightened
gods descended from heaven and showered flowers on him. These are just metaphors, remember, not
historical facts, but they indicate something. Whenever a man becomes a buddha, whenever a man becomes
enlightened, the whole of existence exalts him, the whole of existence bows down to him. He has come home. The
whole of existence welcomes him.
And why does the whole existence exalt him? because existence itself is exalted through him. One of its
members has reached the ultimate peak of awakening; through him the whole existence has moved a little ahead
in evolution. Just cancel a dozen names from the history of humanity Lao Tzu, Moses, Abraham, Krishna,
Buddha, Mahavira, Christ, Kabir, Nanak... just a dozen names, cancel them, and where will mankind be? You
would all have been Reverend Bananas or Reverend Tomatoes, Reverend Potatoes, but not human beings at
all. You may know, you may not know; you may be aware, you may not be aware, but these few people have
contributed immensely to the growth of human consciousness. Without Buddha and Mahavira and Krishna and
Christ, humanity would be still hanging in the trees, just like American tourists!
They came a few days ago and they were making much noise on the roof. You knew them as monkeys, but you
could not see them because they were on the roof. I can see through the roof! I immediately recognized them
these are American tourists on their way to Goa, just paying their homage for a moment here and then gone. You
would have all been American tourists!