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

368 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Buddha said, ”If your thoughts disappear you can start seeing others’ thoughts because others’ thoughts are
then like things. It is because of your thoughts that you cannot see others’ thoughts. You are so covered with
your own thoughts that there is no space for others’ thoughts. But you please go!”
The man said, ”Now I cannot go. How can I leave such a master?”
Buddha said, ”But my suggestion is still this, because you will again think of leaving. You had better leave.
Only one thing I have to remind you of: you took sannyas in your past life too and the same difficulty was there,
and you renounced sannyas. Now the same difficulty has arisen and it will arise again and again. You have not
learned anything from your past life.”
As Buddha was saying this, the man suddenly felt a tremendous upsurge of the memories of the past life. He
could see, he could remember that yes, this had happened. The whole situation was the same. The master was
different, the serai was different, the mosquitoes must have been different, but the king was the same person and
the difficulty was the same.
The king said, ”That’s enough, now I am not going to leave; I am going to stick to it. Now whatsoever
happens.... I have lived in palaces many times and I have not gained anything so I am not going to waste this life
anymore.”
And he became enlightened one day. He persisted; a great perseverance must have been needed.
HE HAS COME TO THE END OF THE WAY, Buddha says, OVER THE RIVER OF HIS MANY LIVES,
HIS MANY DEATHS.
What have you been doing all your past lives? You have been just a driftwood at the mercy of the winds, no
sense of direction. You have not achieved any integrity. Don’t waste this life; make something out of it, create
something out of it.
Bailey, a violin player from New York, finally found a job in a small restaurant orchestra. But on his first night
of work he played so terribly that the other musicians decided to fire him on the spot.
Bailey explained to them that he could really play much better, but he had been traveling for two months and
had not been able to even touch his instrument. Tomorrow he would practice the whole day to get back in shape.
The second day of work came and he sounded just as bad. Now he was really going to get fired, but he explained
to the others that his wife had been nagging him the whole day so that he had been unable to play even one note.
Now this was something that the other musicians had much understanding for, so they gave him another chance.
Bailey said that tomorrow his wife would go to her mother’s so he could practice the whole day.
But the third day Bailey sounded so bad that now even the waiters complained. That was it he did get fired.
Just as he was about to leave one of the other musicians walked up to him and said, ”Excuse me, but just out
of curiosity, do you really make a living as a musician?”
”Yes,” replied Bailey.
”Oh, but where do you work?”
”Well, three nights here and three nights there,” answered Bailey.
And that’s what you have been doing for many nights: three nights here and three nights there, somehow
earning your livelihood, somehow just trying to hold yourself together. But for what purpose? What have you
achieved? What has been the gain? Certainly you have passed time, but life is such a valuable phenomenon, it is
not just to pass through. It is an opportunity to grow, to be.
BEYOND THE SORROW OF HELL, BEYOND THE GREAT JOY OF HEAVEN, BY VIRTUE OF HIS
PURITY.
... The master transcends. BEYOND THE SORROW OF HELL, BEYOND THE GREAT JOY OF HEAVEN....
He is no longer interested in pain and pleasure. Remember, if you seek pleasure you are bound to suffer pain in
the same amount; they always come in the same proportion. If you have so much pleasure you will have to suffer
so much pain; that is unavoidable. This is a fundamental law of life, life keeps a balance. The more pleasure you
have, the more you will have to suffer pain.
Hell and heaven are not geographical places but psychological experiences. And they are not separate either,
they are two sides of the same coin. If you have one, the other is there just waiting for the right opportunity to
assert itself.
The man of understanding, the man of awareness, the man who has gone deep into meditation, into no-mind,
becomes aware of this whole phenomenon; he drops the whole coin. He is neither interested in hell nor in heaven.
He is neither worried about hell nor desirous of heaven, because he knows if you desire heaven you will suffer in
hell.
This is something tremendously beautiful remember it. The so-called religious people are all desirous of heaven
and the heavenly joys; they are not religious at all. And these are the people who will suffer in heaven... in hell.