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an announcement on his part of his innermost longing. Now it becomes socially known that he is a seeker, and in those days seekers were helped by the society in every possible way -- with food, clothes, shelter. The whole society seemed to be running around the central longing of becoming a buddha. If circumstances wouldn't allow them now, people were waiting for the right circumstances so they could escape in the blue sky.
Today we are very small in that sense. Our desires are for money, our desires are for beautiful houses, our desires are for success in the world -- fame, name, political power. In terms of spiritual skill we have fallen, certainly. In those old days people were poor, with no science, no technology, but still they were superior in the sense that their whole longing was to search for the meaning of life. And anybody who was searching for the meaning of life... at least if you could not go so far, you could help. Helping anybody who was searching for truth was in itself considered a great virtue.
And I accept the idea. A society should live... of course everybody cannot be a monk unless my strategy is followed. And it is a little complicated to remain a witness in your ordinary life. It is easier to be a witness if you live in a monastery, or if you are a monk and you don't deal with ordinary life. You don't earn any money, you don't have any power, you live just on begging -- just one meal a day. Because the society was so poor, Buddha told his ordained monks, "You should collect your one meal" -- only one meal was allowed in twenty-four hours -- "from seven houses. Just piece by piece, so you are not a burden on anybody."
Now, just one monk going to beg from seven houses is not a burden, because every house is giving him such a small piece. Because of this fact, the seekers and searchers would not be involved in business and waste their time. Their total energy should be directed towards a single point, their central being. Society should help them because their rising consciousness is going to help the society also.
You may know, you may not know: the few buddhas that have happened in history have raised your consciousness
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