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anybody else; and the bodhisattva, who attains buddhahood and then tries his hardest to help others on the path. 'Bodhisattva' was the word carried by Alexander as bodhisat, which then became Josephus; then from Josephus it became Aesop. Aesop is not a historical person, but the parables are tremendously significant. That's my eighth book today.
Ninth: Nagarjuna's MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA. I don't like Nagarjuna very much; he is too much of a philosopher, and I am anti-philosophic. But his MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA, his KARIKAS for short.... MULA MADHYAMIKA KARIKA means the essence of the path of the middle -- the essential middle path. In his KARIKAS he has reached the profoundest depths of which words are capable. I have never spoken on it. If you want to speak on the essential, the best way is not to speak at all, just to be silent. But the book is tremendously beautiful.
Tenth: my last for this evening is a strange book; ordinarily nobody would think I would include it at all. It is the great work of Marpa, the Tibetan mystic. Even his followers don't read it; it is not meant to be read, it is a puzzle. You have to meditate over it. You have just to look at it and then suddenly the book disappears -- its contents disappear, and only the consciousness remains.
Marpa was a very strange man. His master Milarepa used to say, "Even I bow down to Marpa." No master has ever said that, but Marpa was such....
Somebody once said to Marpa, "Do you believe in Milarepa? If so then jump into this fire!" Immediately he jumped! People ran from all sides to extinguish the fire knowing that Marpa had jumped into it. When the fire was put out they found him sitting there in a buddha posture laughing hilariously!
They asked Marpa, "Why are you laughing?"
He said, "I am laughing because trust is the only thing that fire cannot destroy."
This is the man whose simple songs I count as the tenth -- THE BOOK OF MARPA.
Is my hour over? I can hear you saying yes, though I know my hour has not even come yet. How can it be over? I have come before my time, that's why I am misunderstood.
But as far as you are concerned, you are right;
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