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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 53
This is a true parable about man: you also know where he is. If he is anywhere at all he is within you, not
even by the corner. If he is anywhere, he is in your consciousness, in your heart of hearts. He is your life. There
you don’t look at all, afraid you may find him. And you go on searching in Kaaba, in Kailash, in Kashi, and you
go on and on searching knowing perfectly well that you will not find him. And the search can continue and the
thrill can continue and you can go on hoping and desiring.
Buddha simply cuts all your hoping and desiring. He does not say there is no God, he does not say there is.
He simply says it is irrelevant. It does not matter whether he is or he is not; it is absolutely beside the point.
What matters is your inner transformation, and the inner transformation cannot be postponed for tomorrow; it
can happen right now.
That’s the trouble with Buddha: if you go with him you have to drop your hopes, you have to drop your desires.
You have to be in the present, utterly silent. And then life has a new color, a new joy, a new music. Then life has
a new beauty.
Right now, in the first place, you cannot meet God because you don’t have eyes to see him and you don’t have
ears to hear him and you don’t have the right heart to feel him. You are not loving enough. Your eyes are not
clear; they are so full of dust dust of knowledge, memories, experiences. Your ears only appear to hear, but they
don’t listen.
But by chance even if you meet him, what are you going to ask? A new wife, a new husband, another place to
live, a little longer life, youth...? What are you going to ask? money, power, prestige? Whatsoever you ask will
be stupid.
A black man worshipped God, praying every day for six years. He was always asking for this or that problem
to be resolved.
God became very fed up with him and decided to pay him a visit. So one day while the man was praying, God
came to his side in living flesh and said, ”Hey man, here I am! What do you want to know? Ask!”
The man could not believe his eyes, but he finally asked, ”Ah my God, why is my skin so black?”
God answered, ”Because the sun in your country is very hot and you must survive.”
”And why is my hair so short and kinky?”
”Because in the jungle you have many trees and your hair would get caught.”
”And why am I so thin and fast?”
”So that you can fight with lions and other animals in the jungle.”
”Then, God, what the fuck am I doing in New York?”
That’s going exactly to be the case with you. What are you going to ask God? All your questions will come
out of your unconscious. In fact, all questions will be absurd. That’s not the way to encounter reality. One has
to be silent, utterly silent.
Hence Buddha says, don’t be bothered about God. Be concerned with your own preparation, be prepared.
The emphasis is totally different. All the religions emphasize God, the object of search; Buddha emphasizes you,
the subject. All other religions emphasize the sought; Buddha emphasizes the seeker. And it is certainly more
significant to change yourself and prepare yourself for the ultimate encounter with reality call it God, existence,
truth, liberation, or whatsoever you would like to call it. The real thing, the essential thing, is to be prepared for
that encounter.
And if you are ready, if your heart is flowing with love and your head is no longer crazy, no longer full of
rubbish, and your eyes have clarity and your ears are ready to listen, then the whole reality turns into God; then
everything is divine. Buddha does not say anything about it; he goes on emphasizing your inner change.
These sutras are simple but immensely beautiful. Truth is always simple; it is untruth which is complicated.
The untruth has to be complicated so that you don’t find that it is untrue, so that you can’t find it. Truth is
simple, utterly simple and naked.
Buddha says:
TO HAVE FRIENDS IN NEED IS SWEET AND TO SHARE HAPPINESS.
He emphasized friendship very much. To translate his word for friendship maitri is a little difficult because it
has the quality of friendliness more than friendship. Friendship becomes a relationship, fixed; friendliness is more
flowing, more fluid. Friendship is a relationship, friendliness is a state of your being. You are simply friendly; to
whom, that is not the point. If you are standing by the side of a tree you are friendly to the tree, or if you are
sitting on the rock, you are friendly to the rock. To human beings, to animals, to birds, you are simply friendly.
It is not something static; it is a flow, changing moment to moment.
He says: TO HAVE FRIENDS IN NEED IS SWEET.