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

THE DHAMMAPADA: THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA, VOL. 9-12 97
After that experience he went to the church. The priest was very much afraid this man was coming again, and
he had such a beautiful aura around him that the priest was very much afraid to say, ”You are not pure yet.” His
purity was shining; it was like a sun rising on the horizon. It was so clearly there that to deny it would be a sin,
and the priest was afraid.
The man came very close to the door, just near the steps, stood there, laughed loudly, turned back and went
home. The priest was very much puzzled why he did this. He ran after him, got hold of him and said, ”Why did
you do this? Don’t you want to come in the church?”
He said, ”No, I don’t want to come in the church. I had just come to see you and the church once more, because
last night God appeared and I asked him when he himself was there I asked him, ’Can I enter into the church?
Am I pure enough now?’ God said, ’You are pure, more pure than anybody else who goes into the church, more
pure than the priest himself. But please, don’t go into the church. They won’t allow you in. I know it from my
own experience because for years I have been trying to go into that church and they don’t allow me. If they don’t
allow me into the church, how can they allow you? You drop the whole idea. I have dropped it myself!’”
Your churches, your temples are empty. They are graves of religion. Religion no more flowers there. Yes, when
a Jesus is alive there is a great flowering, when Buddha is alive there is a great flowering, but not in a Buddhist
temple, not in a Christian church.
Priests are the people who take advantage of the awakened ones. Once the awakened person goes, leaves his
body, the priests jump upon his doctrine, start making a great business out of it, start making interpretations
according to themselves.
Christianity has nothing to do with Christ, remember, and Buddhism has nothing to do with Buddha, and
Jainism has nothing to do with Mahavira. It is a strange thing, but it has been happening consistently. No
religion has anything to do with the original source. In fact, Christians are more destructive to Christ’s message
than anybody else, and the priests are the leaders of the Christians. They don’t have any relationship with Christ
they can’t have. They are afraid of Christ. They must be afraid deep down that if sometime they come across
Christ and he asks, ”What have you done to my message?” how are they going to answer it?
I have heard:
Once the phone rang in the pope’s room in the Vatican. There was nobody else there so the pope himself took
the call. It was from New York, and the archpriest from New York was trembling, his voice was trembling. He
said, ”Look! Listen! Believe me one man has come into the church and he looks exactly like Jesus Christ. What
am I supposed to do now?”
The pope pondered over it for a few moments and then said, ”Look busy!”
What else to do?
Priests have dominated humanity. They are the politicians of the inner world, just as politicians are the priests
of the outer world. And there is a conspiracy between the priests and the politicians, a mutual understanding, a
division: ”You rule man in his subjectivity and we will rule man from his outside.” They have exploited, oppressed.
They have destroyed much.
And, Veeresh, you ask me, ”Cannot the priests help humanity in some way or other?”
The only way that I can conceive is that because they are no longer needed, they should disappear. That will
be their greatest service to humanity.
The second question:
Question 2
BELOVED MASTER, I FEEL AN URGE FOR ARTISTIC EXPRESSION AND HAVE HAD A DISCI-
PLINED, CLASSICAL TRAINING IN WESTERN MUSIC. OFTEN I FEEL THIS TRAINING IMPRISONS
SPONTANEOUS CREATIVITY AND I HAVE FOUND IT VERY DIFFICULT TO PRACTICE REGULARLY
LATELY. I AM NOT SURE ANYMORE WHAT THE QUALITIES OF TRUE ART ARE AND BY WHICH
PROCESS THE ARTIST PRODUCES AND DELIVERS AUTHENTIC ART. HOW CAN I FEEL THE ARTIST
IN ME?
Barbara Limberger, the paradox of art is that first you have to learn its discipline and then you have to forget
it totally. If you don’t know its ABC you will not be able to move very deep into it. But if you know only its
technique and you go on practicing the technique your whole life you may become very skillful technically, but
you will remain a technician; you will never become an artist.
In Zen they say, if you want to be a painter, for twelve years learn how to paint and then for twelve years forget
all about painting. Just completely forget it has nothing to do with you. For twelve years meditate, chop wood,
carry water from the well. Do anything, but not painting.