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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 10 | Previous Next | |
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always helps people indirectly. He is not aggressive. He does not command you, "Do this, don't do that." He does not destroy your freedom in any way. He simply lives his life in the light that he has found within himself. And being with him, something transpires between you and him.
A real master is never a priest. And I have never heard about a priest who was a real master. If you are a master you cease to be a priest, and if you are a priest it is impossible for you to be a master. The priest belongs to a certain ideology -- Hindu, Christian, Mohammedan. The master belongs to no ideology. He is more conscious, not more knowledgeable. He has more being, not more knowledge. He has more soul, not a bigger memory. He may not know the scriptures -- because he himself IS the scripture! And you will not find him in the temples and the mosques and the churches.
I have heard about a very religious Negro who wanted to go to the church, but there was only one church in his neighborhood and that belonged to white people.
The priest was a kindly man -- as priests are supposed to be. When the Negro knocked on the door one day, the priest came out. The priest was in an embarrassing situation -- whether to say yes to him or no. To say yes was dangerous because the whole congregation will be against it. It was the white people's church and no black person had been allowed; that was a tacit agreement. But how to say no to this simple man whose eyes were full of tears and who said, "I want to come in and I want to pray to Jesus Christ"?
But priests are cunning people. Howsoever kind they may appear on the surface, deep down they are cunning. If they are not cunning they will not be in the profession of the priests at all, because that profession is far worse than any other profession. Even prostitutes are better than priests! At least they sell only their bodies, and priests are selling even their souls.
The priest immediately invented some strategy. He said, "Good, you can come, but not right now. First purify yourself, only then your prayer will be heard."
That was a tricky strategy. No white man was ever asked to purify himself first,
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