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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 77
The woman was curious, naturally, as to what was happening. She had never seen such a thing before! So she
went back just silently so she would not disturb the man. And what she saw... she could not believe her eyes! She
said, ”My God, I have been married for thirty years, and now I know how you fill up these things! I was always
wondering how you fill up these things again and again and again! Now I know!”
Your conclusions are as superficial as that! That poor man is not filling it up! You pass through experiences,
but you never go deep into them to find out the truth, what really happens.
You must have made love many times, but have you ever thought about it? what really happens that gives
you calmness, a certain pleasure, a certain joy? Nothing much... just a mounting tension is relaxed. First you go
into mounting it higher and higher, and then you fall from that height in a deep, deep valley of calmness. But
this calmness is available to any meditator without creating any tension.
Hence, meditation takes you beyond sex; nothing else can ever take you beyond sex. Everything else is a
substitute for sex. Somebody is running after money money is his sex; and somebody is running after power
power is his sex; and somebody is running after something else. Those are all sexualities, substitutes for sex.
These people can easily avoid sex because they have found their own new version.
IF YOU ARE FILLED WITH DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS SWELL LIKE THE GRASS AFTER THE RAIN.
BUT IF YOU SUBDUE DESIRE, YOUR SORROWS FALL FROM YOU LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM
A LOTUS FLOWER.
The word ’subdue’ has to be rightly understood. It does not mean repression; it means understanding, it means
transforming. It means transcendence. It means that you have become master of your own soul, that now nothing
dominates you sex, power, money, nothing dominates you. It does not mean that you have to renounce the world;
it simply means that you have to renounce your unawareness.
Desire disappears as you become more and more aware. When awareness is one hundred percent, there is no
desire at all. YOUR SORROWS FALL FROM YOU LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM A LOTUS FLOWER.
Ordinarily, people are not raising their consciousness. On the contrary, they live through conscience, not
through consciousness. To live through conscience is to live according to the mob psychology, is to follow the
crowd. Conscience is created by the crowd; consciousness is an individual phenomenon you have to create it.
The society won’t help you at all; it will hinder you in every possible way. The society does not want conscious
people at all. They are rebellious, they are dangerous for the status quo, for the establishment, for the church, for
the state, for the nation. They are dangerous because they have gone through a revolution and their very vibe
creates revolution in others.
The society lives through conscience. It gives you the idea about what is right and what is wrong: ”Do this
and don’t do that.” It goes on giving you commandments. It gives you detailed information about what is right
and what is wrong. And in fact that is absolutely absurd, because life goes on changing every day.
What was wrong in the times of Moses is no longer wrong today, and what was right in the days of Krishna is
no longer right today. Nobody can give you a detailed map of what is right and what is wrong. In fact, something
may be right in the morning and may be wrong in the evening. Next moment it may not be right! Life is a flux,
and conscience is a static thing. Consciousness goes on moving with life; it is a flow.
Murphy says: A conscience cannot prevent sin it only prevents you from enjoying it.
Conscience prevents nothing; it simply prevents you from enjoying your life. You remain the same; you simply
become more miserable! That’s why your saints have such long, long faces, look so serious, sad, dead. Nothing
has changed in them: they don’t radiate life, they don’t radiate love, they don’t radiate peace. They only show
you what conscience can do. It can kill you, it is a slow poisoning.
Buddha does not believe in conscience; he believes in consciousness. But buddhas talk about consciousness and
you always understand conscience. In fact, there are languages like French in which conscience and consciousness
are not two words; ’conscience’ means both, consciousness and conscience. That’s actually the process, how you
understand.
A man lost in the woods finally arrived at his destination, The Old Log Inn. On his arrival, however, he was
all beaten up, with swollen eyes, bloody nose and mouth.
The alarmed receptionist demanded, ”My God, what happened to you?”
The man replied, ”I was lost and found a couple making love in the woods, and all I asked was ’How far is The
Old Log Inn?’”
Please remember, consciousness does not mean conscience. Don’t translate it as conscience; it has been translated
so for centuries.
And then sorrows fall away from you LIKE DROPS OF WATER FROM A LOTUS FLOWER. So naturally
they disappear, they don’t leave a trace behind.