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

370 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
experience too. It is possible. You all have the potential of being a buddha. Don’t settle for anything less than
that.
Shake yourself and wake up!
Enough for today.
Chapter 10 Forget all about it
Audio:Yes Video:Yes Length:42 mins
The first question:
Question 1
BELOVED MASTER, YOU CONTINUALLY SPEAK OF DROPPING THE EGO, BUT HOW CAN I DO
SO WHEN I CAN’T DISTINGUISH BETWEEN WHAT IS THE EGO AND WHAT IS MY TRUE NATURE?
Anand Vedant, the ego cannot be dropped. It is just like darkness you cannot drop darkness, you can only
bring light in. The moment light is, darkness is no more. You can say this is the way of dropping darkness, but
don’t take it literally. Darkness does not exist at all it is absence of light. Hence you cannot do anything directly
to it. You can only do something to light either bring light in or take light out. If you want darkness, put the
light off; if you don’t want darkness, put the light on. The ego cannot be dropped.
Meditation can be learned. Meditation functions as a light, meditation is light.
Become light, and you will not find the ego anywhere.
If you want to drop it you will be in trouble, because who is this one who wants to drop it? It is the ego itself
now playing a new game, the game called spirituality, religion, self-realization. Who is asking this question? It
is the ego itself, befooling you. And when the ego asks how the ego can be dropped, naturally you think, ”This
can’t be the ego. How can ego ask for its own suicide?” That’s how ego goes on deceiving you.
Your self-nature has no questions, it needs no answers. Your self-nature is absolutely light, full of light. It
knows no darkness, it has never met any darkness.
Bodhidharma reached China. He was one of the greatest buddhas of all the ages. After Gautam Buddha,
Bodhidharma seems to be the most precious person in the Buddhist heritage. When he reached China, his fame
had reached far ahead of him. Even Emperor Wu who ruled over the whole of China came to receive him at
the boundary. And the conversation that transpired between the two is of immense importance. It has to be
meditated upon again and again. It has a tremendous message for you all.
Emperor Wu was not only a great emperor, he was very religious too, and he had done much for Gautam
Buddha’s message. In fact no other person except Emperor Ashoka had done so much for Buddhism as Emperor
Wu had done. He transformed the whole of China into a Buddhist world. He made thousands of temples for
Buddha, he made hundreds of monasteries millions of Buddhist monks were supported by the royal treasury. He
translated all the Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Thousands of scholars worked for years, almost their whole
lives. He had done great work. Naturally, he wanted to know from Bodhidharma, ”What is my merit?”
The first thing that he asked Bodhidharma was, ”I have done so much, what is my merit? What have I gained?
What virtue?”
Bodhidharma looked at him very sternly. If you have seen Bodhidharma’s pictures you will be puzzled. He
looks more like a lion than like a man very fierce; his eyes are very penetrating, like swords. He must have cut
Wu down to his proper size just by his look.
Wu started trembling, he had never come up against such a man. He had conquered many enemies, he had
conquered many dangerous kings, but Bodhidharma was the most dangerous person he had come across. It was
a cool morning, but he started perspiring.
And Bodhidharma said, ”Merit? Virtue? You are stupid! Now this is the ego and nothing else getting nourished
and fat in the name of religion and spirituality. You are bound for the seventh hell, mind you!”
Wu could not believe his ears, could not believe his eyes. He said, ”But thousands of other monks have come
from India and they have all said, ’Wu, you have done a great service to Buddha’s religion. You are a beloved of
Buddha, you are blessed by Buddha.’ But you are saying just the opposite!”
Bodhidharma said, ”Forget all about those monks! They were buttressing you, they were praising you because
they knew that that’s what you expected from them. They are cunning and crafty people. They know nothing of
Buddha and his message. I am a buddha myself, I am not a Buddhist monk. I speak on my own authority, and I
say to you: You are cursed!”
Emperor Wu asked, ”Do you mean to say there is nothing holy, nothing spiritual, in all these beautiful acts?”
Bodhidharma said, ”No action is holy, because every action arises out of the ego. When you forget all about
actions, when you disappear and things start happening on their own and you cannot claim that they are your
actions, only then does something of immense value, of immense beauty penetrate your life.