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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 2 | Previous Next | |
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you the third alternative. Why does it not allow you the third alternative? -- because the third alternative creates a Jesus, a Buddha, a Krishna, and their presence makes the crowd feel very mediocre, very insulted, humiliated.
So please don't decide by looking at people's appearances. More are the chances, almost ninety-nine point nine percent, that whatsoever they appear on the surface they will not be deep down. You can be certain about it; I say almost completely certain, because only point one percent can you miss -- which is not much. Only once in a while will you come across a Buddha, whose appearance is the same as his inwardness; otherwise you will come across people who are one thing on the outside and another on the inside. Don't be deceived by appearances.
An actress picks up an out-of-work tramp and takes him to her apartment because he has very large shoes on and she has been told that men with big feet have big pricks. She gives him a steak dinner with plenty of pepper and beer, and then drags him off to bed.
In the morning the man wakes up alone and finds a ten-dollar bill on the mantlepiece, with a brief note: "Buy yourself a pair of shoes that fit you."
But that's how we all go on deciding...from the outside. In fact, because we don't even know our own insides, how can we look into other people's insides? We don't know the art of looking in. First you have to practice the art with yourself. First you have to go into your interiority, your inner world. You have to go deeper and deeper into your consciousness, to the very center of it. Once you have penetrated the core of your being, you will be able to see into anybody else's core of being. Then nobody can deceive you, because then you don't see the appearance -- you see the reality.
HOW CAN A TROUBLED MIND UNDERSTAND THE WAY?
The troubled mind cannot understand anything. It is not a state where understanding is possible. Understanding does not mean knowledge. A troubled mind can become very knowledgeable -- you can go to the universities and you can see the professors, very knowledgeable -- but they are more troubled than you, far more in inner conflict
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