Story time There is a beautiful story about Gautam Buddha. One morning a man asked him, I am an atheist, I do not believe in God. What do you say about God? And Buddha said, God exists, and God exists more than you exist. His disciples were shocked, particularly Ananda, who was always just by his side. That very day, in the afternoon, another man came and said, I am a believer, a theist. I believe in the existence of God. What do you say about God? And Buddha said, There is no God, and there has never been any. God does not exist at all. Now it was becoming more puzzling -- not to those people, but to those who had heard both answers. In the evening a third man came. Only Ananda was present. The man touched the feet of Gautam Buddha, sat there, and said, I dont know anything about God. Will you help me a little? Buddha closed his eyes, and sat silently. Ananda was even more puzzled, because that man also closed his eyes and sat silently. One hour passed, and then the man opened his eyes and he said, How can I thank you? I dont have any words. You have answered my question. With tears in his eyes of joy and gratitude, he touched the feet of Buddha, kissed the feet of Buddha, and went away. Now Ananda was going mad! He was waiting for this moment, when there was nobody else. He closed the doors and said, This is too much. You will drive us insane! To one man you say God exists. On the same day you say to another man that God does not exist. And on the same day to the third man you dont answer, you simply sit in silence -- and he receives the answer, and with tears of gratitude he kisses your feet. What is going on? Where do we stand? What is our philosophy? And Gautam Buddha said, Relax, it is time to go to sleep. And remember, none of the questions were yours. Why did you hear the answers? Cant you be a little more alert, that I am answering the question of this particular man in a particular context? You are not that man -- neither is the question yours nor is the answer for you. Why should you bother? It has nothing to do with you. And as far as I am concerned, I have been absolutely consistent all three times. The man who said `I am an atheist and I believe there is no God needed a great hit, because his atheism is only a philosophical approach. He has been only thinking, and by thinking you cannot decide whether God exists or not. To demolish his idea... He had come for a different purpose -- he had come to get my support. He wanted me to say `Yes, you are right, so his ego would be inflated more, and his mind concept -- that there is no God -- would become more rooted; and he could proclaim to other people that `Not only do I say so, Gautam Buddha also says there is no God. He simply wanted my support. I cannot give support to any mind game, I had to shatter his mind. I had to shout at him, `God is! God exists, and he exists more than you exist. The other man was a theist, but the same mind-game. He believes, he does not know. He believes that there is a god who has created the world. He has also come for the same purpose, to have my support -- because mind itself is always doubtful and needs many props of other peoples opinions. And if a man like Gautam Buddha can support you, then the idea can become very fixed. It is not a question of what the idea was; the question is that it was only a mind game. One was atheist, one was theist, but both were playing the same game. I had to shatter the game. And so to the second man I had to say, `There is no God, never has been. The third man was a totally different story. He had no mind projection. He said, `I dont know anything about God. He was absolutely clean and innocent, and he was ready to listen. He had not come to get support for his own idea. He came to be enlightened about the fact, about the truth -- `What is exactly true about God? I myself dont know anything. There was nothing to shatter. So I taught him the real answer: to be silent. And when I became silent -- he was a man of innocence, just like a child -- seeing that I am sitting silent, perhaps this is the answer, he also sat in silence. And one hour of silence, with his innocence, gave him a clarity, an understanding, and he was full of gratitude. He received the answer although he had not asked the question. Silence is God; or to be more exact, silence is godliness. Silence is divine.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 16:04:26 +0000
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