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that money could not be used in any way. But we can have for his funeral procession a Rolls Royce -- at least once, a one-way drive. He will not come back."
The second son said, "Don't be stupid. What does it matter to a dead man whether he is riding the Rolls Royce or just a bullock cart. An unnecessary waste! You are too young, you don't understand."
The third son said, "So you propose a bullock cart. My feeling is: we are four, we can carry him on our shoulders. The cemetery is not far away."
The old man was listening to everything. He suddenly sat up in the bed and said, "Where are my shoes?"
One son said, "Shoes? Are you going to die with your shoes on?"
He said, "No. I simply want my shoes, because I am still alive enough to walk down to the cemetery! Listening to the great discussion that is going on, the cheapest way is..."
But whatever you do, Shosha is right:
TO WAKE, ALIVE -- again --
IN THIS WORLD.
WHAT HAPPINESS!
WINTER RAIN.
Question 1
Maneesha has asked:
BELOVED BUDDHA,
GAUTAMA THE BUDDHA DIED BY POISONING. YOU HAVE SURVIVED IN SPITE OF BEING POISONED. IS THERE ANY CONNECTION BETWEEN THE TWO? IS THERE A PARTICULAR SIGNIFICANCE IN THE TIMING OF YOUR DECLARATION THAT GAUTAMA BUDDHA IS LIVING ON IN YOU?
Maneesha, it is true Gautam Buddha died of poisoning. The fact is, he was too old, eighty-two years old, and tired. Forty-two years just walking from village to village... He could not fight back against the poison. But his work was incomplete.
In fact the work of a buddha is always going to be incomplete. It is an intrinsic part of spreading the fire of awakening. You cannot conceive that the whole world will become awakened, but people like Gautam the Buddha are the dreamers of the impossible. They hope against hope. He had to leave because his body was tired and old and could not survive the poisoning. But he left with a dream that he may find somewhere someone to carry on his dream of growing more lotuses in the world. These twenty-five centuries he has been wandering like a white cloud, searching.
It is my great destiny that he has
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