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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 37
Pierre, a Frenchman, Tonio, an Italian, and Stash, a Pole, were traveling through the country when their car
broke down.
They found lodging at a farm, and in the course of the night the Frenchman decided to sneak into the farmer’s
daughter’s room.
The farmer heard him walking up the stairs and said, ”Who is it?”
Thinking quickly, Pierre whispered, ”Meow, meow....”
Twenty minutes later, Tonio made the same attempt. As he neared the farmer’s daughter’s room, the girl’s
father shouted, ”Who is there?”
The Italian also imitated the feline sound, ”Meow, meow....”
Stash decided that he, too, should make an attempt. Just as he got to the girl’s room, the farmer shouted, ”All
right, who is it?”
The Polack replied, ”It is me, the cat.”
The second:
Benson and his dog were sitting at a bar. He ordered two martinis. Benson handed one to the dog, who
promptly drank it, then ate the glass until only the base and the stem remained. Then he left.
”That’s the craziest thing I have ever seen,” said the bartender.
”Yeah, he’s a dumb dog,” said Benson. ”The stem is the best part.”
Third:
Mr. Benchley was quietly drinking his martini in a corner when a lady approached him and said, ”Don’t you
know that stuff you are drinking is slow poison?”
”That’s all right,” he answered. ”I’m in no hurry.”
Fourth:
The car hit her and a hundred yards away he stopped and looked back.
”Watch out!” he shouted.
The woman raised herself on her elbow and screamed, ”Why are you coming back?”
The fifth and the last:
Roxanne, a beautiful, well-built blonde, applied at a circus for the job of a lion tamer. Ralph was another
candidate.
”I will give you both a chance,” said the manager. ”The girl can go first.”
Roxanne, wearing a full-length mink coat, entered the cage. A huge lion was let in with her and immediately
the animal started to charge.
Suddenly, Roxanne opened her fur coat and stood there, completely naked. The lion stopped dead in his tracks
and began licking her feet, then her hands, then he went meekly back to the corner.
The manager was amazed. He turned towards the young man. ”Well, pal, do you think you can top that?”
”I sure can,” said Ralph. ”You just get that stupid lion out of there and I will show you.”
Now, the sutras:
These stories are about the state of humanity. They are different aspects of man’s unconsciousness, his mechanicalness,
different aspects of man’s unawareness. Man goes on living like a robot. All his behavior comes out
of a dark space within him. Hence the misery of the world. Unless that inner space is lit, becomes full of light,
there is no hope for humanity.
In the past we would survive because the weapons to kill man were not yet perfect. Now they are. Now we
have perfect atom bombs, hydrogen bombs, laser rays, death rays and what-not. Now we have become so efficient
in destroying humanity and the earth that if within this last part of the century we don’t bring a light within
millions of people’s hearts, humanity is doomed. Then there is no future. We may be living the last years of
human existence on the earth.
But this critical state can become also a great blessing in disguise. It may make us more aware, more responsible.
It may provoke us to do something so that humanity takes a surge towards the higher plane of consciousness.
Buddha’s whole message is concerned with consciousness: how to raise consciousness in humanity, how to make
him more alert, more capable of seeing things as they are, how to make him capable of becoming more spontaneous
and functioning out of awareness and not out of unawareness. We function out of unconsciousness.
All these sutras are just to prepare the ground, a right ground from where you can take off.
IF THE TRAVELER CAN FIND A VIRTUOUS AND WISE COMPANION, LET HIM GO WITH HIM
JOYFULLY AND OVERCOME THE DANGERS OF THE WAY.
Each single word has to be meditated upon. The first word is ’if’; it is a big ’if’. Buddha says: If THE
TRAVELER CAN FIND....