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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 83
That evening at home Chauncey’s wife was astonished to see her husband swallow a spoonful of the medicine,
race out of the house and dash around the block. When he returned he was so exhausted that he flopped down
onto the bed and fought to catch his breath.
On the second evening he repeated the performance: he gulped down the medicine, galloping around the block
and returning home a few minutes later.
On the third evening he changed his tactics. This time he took his medicine as usual, but instead of racing he
began to skip around the room with all the grace of a prancing pachyderm.
The wife could stand it no longer. ”Chauncey,” she cried, ”what in the world are you doing racing around the
block and jumping about like that? Have you lost your mind?”
”Of course not,” replied the weary hubby. ”I am just following the doctor’s orders. He told me to take my
medicine two nights running and to skip the third night.”
The words may be of Christ, Buddha, Zarathustra, but who is going to give the meaning to them? Chauncey
de Plotkin he will put meanings into those words! He will impose his meaning, he will project his meaning.
I am not against scriptures. How can I be? I am for all the scriptures, but I cannot say to you that through
the scriptures you can find the truth. That is not possible.
A Christian missionary and a rabbi were traveling together in a train. The Christian missionary said to the
rabbi, ”Jesus saves.”
The rabbi looked at the missionary and then said, ”But Moses invests.”
Words are bound to be colored by you, they are bound to be part of you. They may descend from very high
sources.... It is just like rainwater. When it comes from the clouds it is pure, the purest, but when it falls on the
ground it depends on the ground. If it falls in cow dung, then it may be holy for the Hindu but for nobody else!
Pure water descending from heaven will have the color of the earth on which it falls, will have the taste of the
earth on which it falls.
Exactly the same is the case with the words falling from Buddha, Jesus, Zarathustra, Lao Tzu. It depends
on your earth on your mind. And what is the state of your mind? Can you think anything original? Can you
understand anything original? Your mind only repeats that which it has heard or read, that which it has been
taught. It is a machine; it can never produce a single original thought. The original thought never comes from
the mind; it comes from the beyond.
Buddha uses the mind to communicate with you. He has to use words, obviously, and by using words he is
taking a dangerous step. For seven days he was hesitating.... When he became enlightened, for seven days he
didn’t utter a single word.
The story is that the gods came from heaven, touched his feet, and asked him to deliver the truth that he had
attained because the masses were so thirsty for it. Millions of people would be benefited.
He listened in deep silence. He simply said one thing: ”As far as I am concerned, for seven days I have been
pondering over it and this is my conclusion: that those who can understand me need not hear my words. Those
who can understand me are already meditative, they are already on the way. They don’t need my words; they
will reach anyway, with me or without. Maybe with me they will reach a little earlier, alone a little later, but
what difference does it make in eternity whether you come one year earlier or one year later?
”Those who can’t understand me are bound to misunderstand. My words will become a problem for them.
They are already confused and I don’t want to confuse them any more. My words will create more confusion in
them.”
The gods were at a loss what to say, how to persuade Buddha. They went away. They discussed it among
themselves to find out some way, and then they came back with a new argument. They said, ”You are right, there
are people, a very few people, who will understand you immediately. And yes, we agree with you totally, they
don’t need it; they will reach anyway. They are just on the borderline: one step more and they will be buddhas.
Even without you they will become buddhas, that is certain. If you could become a buddha without any other
buddha helping you, they can also become we can understand it.
”And your other point is also right: there are millions of people who will not understand you. But we don’t
agree with you that your words will create more confusion. Those people are so confused, there cannot be more
confusion. They have already reached to the rock bottom of confusion; you cannot confuse them any more. So
don’t be worried about them.
”And we have thought about a third category also. There are a few people who are just in between these two
categories: who are not so evolved that they will immediately understand you and become enlightened and who
are not so unevolved either that they will simply become more and more confused by hearing you. They are just