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

60 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
Life has become phony because of us, because we are living in a very cowardly way. We are not living arduously.
We are not trying to climb new mountains, new peaks. We are not trying to explore. We have become more
concerned with comfort, with security, safety.
Buddha says: IT IS SWEET TO LIVE ARDUOUSLY.
Have you ever enjoyed climbing to the peak of a mountain? It is hard. You perspire, breathing becomes difficult,
you become tired. And then you reach to the sunlit peak and then you lie down on the grass, and what relaxation
and what joy arises in your being! The silence of the peak and the arduous climb, and you have reached, and the
joy of reaching! You could have been dropped by a helicopter, but then there would have been no joy. It would
have been comfortable.
Edmund Hillary could have reached to the peak of Everest by a helicopter it was easier but he tried the hard
way. And he writes, ”I have never known such bliss. When I reached to the peak I was all alone, the first man
on Everest.” Nobody had seen the sky from that point, nobody had seen the world from that point. It was sheer
ecstasy. He danced.
Sooner or later buses will be going there and hotels will be there and cinema houses, and it will become very
comfortable. But don’t hope that you will have the same ecstasy as Edmund Hillary had, although you will be
standing on the same spot. You will look a little silly and stupid, that’s all. And you will not believe why this
Hillary danced; you don’t see any point. All around there are hotels and tourist centers and guides and everything
is available; the whole world is there. You don’t see why he laughed, why he enjoyed, why he danced, because
you don’t feel any dance.
Life is joy only when you live it raw, when you live it in all its wildness, when you live it naturally, spontaneously.
Yes, there are bound to be difficulties, there are bound to be dangers, but they are part of life, and without them
life will not be life at all. And this is the only way to master yourself.
OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO ENJOY LIFE, LIVING IN HONESTY AND STRENGTH!
Strange words from the mouth of Buddha. They would be perfectly right from the mouth of Zorba the Greek,
but from the mouth of Buddha? OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO ENJOY LIFE, LIVING IN HONESTY AND
STRENGTH!
Just the other day I received a very angry letter from someone who was here for a few days. He is the librarian
in Dharmashala of the Dalai Lama’s library must be a scholar!
He writes to me, ”You are saying things which are not Buddhist at all. In Mahayana sutras,” he quotes,
”Mahayana scriptures, it is perfectly and clearly stated that one has to live life ascetically. And you are changing
the whole color of Buddha you are making him look as if he is a hedonist!”
I don’t care about the Mahayana sutras and the scriptures, but I know Buddha, I know his heart. I know that
space from my own experience. I am not a scholar; in fact I have never read these sutras before! Every day I have
to look at them and start talking to you. I am not concerned much with what Buddha said, but I know what
Buddha would have said. I cannot believe that he was a pessimist. He believes, of course, in a totally different
kind of life. He does not believe in the ordinary, unconscious life dishonest, inauthentic, unloving, unmeditative.
He calls that life misery, but only a certain kind of life he calls misery. True life cannot be misery, true life is bliss.
OH HOW SWEET IT IS TO ENJOY LIFE, LIVING IN HONESTY AND STRENGTH!
We have forgotten all honesty. Out of fear we have become dishonest, out of fear we have become false. Out
of fear we follow the crowd and become phony. Out of fear we wear masks so that we look like everybody else
and we are not like everybody else. Everybody is unique; nobody is like anybody else. We have fallen below the
animals as far as honesty is concerned.
Kaflin was planning a vacation and did not know what to do with his collie. He wrote to the resort hotel and
asked if dogs were allowed.
He received this answer from the manager: ”Dear sir, I have been in the hotel business for over thirty years.
Never yet have I had to call in the police to eject a disorderly dog in the small hours of the morning. No dog has
ever attempted to pass off a bad check on me. Never has a dog set the bedclothes afire through smoking. I have
never found a hotel towel in a dog’s suitcase. Certainly, your dog is welcome. P.S. If he will vouch for you, you
can come too.”
Of course, a dishonest life cannot be a life of bliss. You think you are deceiving others; you are simply destroying
yourself and destroying all possibilities of growth, because growth comes through sincerity, honesty, authenticity.
Growth comes through accepting your truth in its total nudity. And then life is certainly a joy, then life is certainly
a bliss.