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

92 THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12
the other bird began to pine. The woman wondered if there was not some way to keep it alive so she put a mirror
in the cage.
The lovebird let out a joyous coo and cuddled up against the mirror, and lived for two years. It then died of a
broken mirror.
One can postpone but don’t go on postponing. Your life is very precious. If one lovebird dies it is better to
come to your senses rather than replace it by a mirror or by something else.
PLEASURES FLOW EVERYWHERE. YOU FLOAT UPON THEM AND ARE CARRIED FROM LIFE TO
LIFE.
Watch out. It is a risky phenomenon to remain too much attached to your pleasures, to your imagination,
because this is how you have been going from one life to another. The seed cause of birth and death is desire,
imagination, hankering for more. And remember, you are feeling so discontented in life because of your
imagination. The more imaginative you are, the more discontented you will feel.
Poets are very discontented people, so are painters, for the simple reason that they can imagine very well. They
can imagine such a beautiful world that this world, in comparison, starts looking like hell. Ordinary people are
not so discontented for the simple reason that they don’t have that much imagination. This world seems to be
good enough for them.
When imagination simply disappears from you, this world this very world is the lotus paradise. It is because
of your imagination that you go on condemning this world. And remember, your imagination will be with you
even if you are taken by the back door into heaven. You will condemn it, you will find faults. You will find a
thousand and one things which should not be. You will find loopholes, flaws. Even in paradise you are going to
be miserable. And a man without imagination, without desire, even in hell will find paradise. It is not outside
you that paradise or hell exist; they exist inside you.
If your mind is unclouded, if you can see clearly, then everywhere you will find bliss showering. Each moment
you will find paradise descending in you. Each moment you will find yourself surrounded by God. You need not
go to Kaaba, you need not go to Kashi, you need not go anywhere. God is coming to you in thirty-six streams,
but because you are asleep that which could have been a blessing becomes a curse. Be aware and transform your
curses into blessings. Just by being aware the transformation happens on its own accord.
LIKE A HUNTED HARE YOU RUN, THE PURSUER OF DESIRE PURSUED, HARRIED FROM LIFE
TO LIFE.
You think you are the pursuer, you think you are the hunter; that is not true. You think you are the possessor;
that is not true. The possessor is really the possessed: your things start possessing you. You watch, and you will
see the fact in your own life. Your things start possessing you. You don’t use them they start using you. And
you are not a hunter... in fact you are hunted by your desires; those are the real hunters. And you are running,
pursuing shadows which you will never find. And who is pushing you from the back? Who is making you run?
The real power is in the hands of your desire, imagination, in your unconsciousness.
O SEEKER! GIVE UP DESIRE. SHAKE OFF YOUR CHAINS.
One day Miss Tilly saw her big tomcat corner a cockroach in the kitchen. He was about to kill the bug when
it addressed Miss Tilly: ”Have your cat spare my life and I will grant you three wishes.”
”A million dollars?” asked the spinster.
”Granted!” said the roach, producing the money.
”I want to be young and beautiful!”
”You got it!” And she was.
”Now,” said Tilly, ”turn my tomcat into a tall, handsome prince lying next to me in bed!” It was done.
”I am so happy!” she exclaimed.
”I am glad,” said the prince beside her. ”But aren’t you sorry now you had me fixed?”
Even if your desires are fulfilled, something or other will be missing.
O SEEKER! GIVE UP DESIRE. SHAKE OFF YOUR CHAINS. The more you desire, the more you become
imprisoned. People are imprisoned in things, people are imprisoned by wives and husbands, people are imprisoned
by their power. People are creating so many prisons prisons within prisons, boxes within boxes and still they
want to be happy, they want to be joyous. How can you be joyous? Your life is suffocating! And nobody else is
responsible except you.
The kindly rebbetzyn asked, ”Tell me, my good man, why do you drink all that whisky?”
”Madam,” replied the good man, ”what else should I do with it?”
You don’t know what else you can do with your life. You know only how to create prisons. You know only how
to create more misery. You have become really skillful! For centuries, for lives together, you have done only one