EXCERPTED FROM: THE DHAMMAPADA THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA 3-17 July - TopicsExpress



          

EXCERPTED FROM: THE DHAMMAPADA THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA 3-17 July 2014, The Delhi City One night the great German philosopher, Professor Von Kochenbach, saw two doors in a dream, one of which led directly to love and paradise, and the other to an auditorium where a lecture was being given on love and paradise. There was no hesitation on Von Kochenbach’s part –he darted in to hear the lecture. The story is significant. It is fictitious, but no so fictitious really. It represents the human mind: it is more interested in knowledge than in wisdom, it is more interested in information than Transformation. It is more interested to know about God, beauty, truth, love, than experience God, beauty, truth, love. The human mind is obsessed with words, theories, systems of thought, but it is completely oblivious of the existential that surrounds you. And it is the existential which can liberate, not knowledge about it. The story represents everybody’s mind. But I was in for a surprise yesterday. I was reading a book Silvano Arieti, M.D., and James Silvano Arieti, Ph.D. In their book, LOVE CAN BE FOUND, they quote this story. I was hoping obviously, that they would laugh at the story and criticize the whole standpoint. But I was in surprise: they defended the story; they say the professor did the right thing. Rather than entering directly into the door of love and paradise, entering into auditorium where a lecture was being delivered on love and paradise –of course by some other professor –they saw the professor did the right thing. Why? Their reasoning is that unless you know about love, how can you know about love? Unless you know about paradise first, how can you immediately enter into paradise? On the surface it looks logical: first one has to become acquainted with what paradise is, only then can one enter into paradise. First you have to have a map. Logical, still stupid; logical only in appearance, but deep down utterly unintelligent. Love needs no information about it, because it not something outside you, it is the very core of your being. You have already got it; you have only to allow it to flow. Paradise is not somewhere else so that you need a map to reach there. You ARE in paradise, only you have fallen asleep. All that is needed is an awakening. An awakening can be immediate, awakening can be sudden –in fact, awakening can ONLY be sudden. When you somebody up, it is not that slowly slowly, in parts, gradually, he wakes up. It is not that how he is ten percent awake, now twenty, now thirty, now forty, now ninety-nine, now ninety-nine point nine, and then a hundred percent –no. When you shake a sleepy person, he awakes immediately. Either one is asleep or one is awake; there is no place in between. Hence Buddha says enlightenment is a sudden experience; it is not gradual, it is not that you arrive in steps. Enlightenment cannot be divided into parts; it is an indivisible, organic unity. Either you have it or you don’t have it. But man remained clinging to words –words which are hollow, words which carry no meaning, words which have no significance, and words which have been uttered by as ignorant people as you are. Maybe they were educated, but education does not dispel ignorance. Knowing about light is not going to dispel darkness. You can know all that is available in the world about light; you can have a library in your room consisting only of books on light, yet that whole library will not be able to dispel the darkness. To dispel the darkness you will need a small candle –that will do the miracle. Looking into the Encyclopaedia I was happy to note that it has no articles on love. That’s a great insight! In fact, nothing can be written about love. One can love, one can be in love, one can even become love, but nothing can be written about love. The experience is so subtle and the words are so gross. It is because of the words that humanity has been divided. A few people believe in a few hollow words –thay call themselves Hindus; others believe in a few other hollow words –they call themselves Jews; still others call themselves Christians and Mohammedans, and so on, so forth. And they all believe in hollow words. It is not that you have experienced anything. Your being a Hindu or a Jew or a Mohammedan is not based on your experience –it is borrowed. And anything borrowed is futile. But man has suffered much because of the words. A few people believe in the TALMUD, a few people believe in the TAO TEH CHING, a few people believe in THE DHAMMAPADA... and they have been fighting, quarrelling, criticizing –not only that, but killing each other. The whole history is full of blood –in the name of God, in the name of love, in the name of brotherhood, in the name of humanity. Osho
Posted on: Sat, 09 Aug 2014 05:53:36 +0000

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