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