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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 12 | Previous Next | |
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now I am free of the teaching. I will show you who I am! I have followed the teaching literally, exactly."
Once Buddha was asked by a man, "How many times do you say one should forgive?"
Now, the very question is enough to show the quality of the person. He is saying, "How many times...?" When you ask about how many times, you are not a man of compassion.
Buddha said, "Seven times."
The man said, "Okay."
Because of the way he said, "Okay," Buddha said, "Wait -- seventy times!"
The man felt a little reluctant about accepting seventy times, but still he said, "Okay."
Buddha said, "I withdraw my words. You have to forgive infinitely; even seventy times won't do. The way you are accepting it, it seems that when seventy times are over you will take revenge. And you can do harm in a single blow, you can take revenge in a single blow. You are not a man of compassion. You don't understand me, it is not a question of how many times."
You can read Buddha, THE DHAMMAPADA, you can recite it every day; you will become knowledgeable. All questions will disappear because you will have all kinds of answers, but all those answers are borrowed. Hence they will destroy the beauty of life and they will destroy your sense of awe and wonder, which are the most essential religious qualities.
If someone asks me which is the most fundamental religious quality, I will say wonder. And knowledge kills wonder. You start knowing about everything and the more you know, the more your life will be dull and drab, because all that dust of knowledge that gathers around you makes your mirrorlike consciousness so clouded -- there are so many layers of knowledge -- that you lose the quality of childlike wonder. You can't see the beauty of flowers, you can't see the beauty of a sunset, you can't see the miracle of existence. And existence is full of miracles, and surprises are everywhere, all around you.
Just look, but look with open eyes. The knowledgeable person is blind; the most blind person in existence is the knowledgeable person.
Gyano, I have given you the name just to remind you again and again that that is your problem,
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