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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
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person's first effort will be to know something that cannot be destroyed by death, and to be centered into that something which is deathless, to be rooted in that, so you are not destroyed.
BUT THE WISE MAN, FOLLOWING THE WAY, CROSSES OVER, BEYOND THE REACH OF DEATH.
Death is the most important phenomenon -- far more important than birth, because the birth has already happened; now you cannot do anything about it. But death has to happen -- something can be done about it, some preparation. You can be ready to receive it, you can be consciously in a state of welcome for it.
You missed the opportunity of birth, don't miss the opportunity of death. And if you can receive death in a meditative state, you may be able to receive your next birth -- which will be followed by death -- consciously. If you can die consciously, you will be born consciously. Your next life will have a totally different flavor. And a person can be born only once after he has died consciously -- only one more life.
The Christians, the Jews, the Mohammedans, believe in only one life. My interpretation is that when you have died once consciously -- and are reborn consciously -- THAT life is real life; only that is worth counting. All other lives before it were not worth counting. That's why these three traditions have not counted them. It is not that they don't know about them -- Jesus is perfectly aware of past lives -- but they are not worth counting. You were asleep, you were dreaming, you were unconscious. It was not LIFE; you were somehow dragging yourself in sleep.
Buddha used to tell his disciples: Count your life only after you have taken sannyas.
Once it happened:
A great king, Bimbisara, had come to see Buddha. He was sitting at Buddha's side talking to him and an old man came, bowed down, touched Buddha's feet, an old sannyasin. And as it was the habit of Buddha to ask, he asked the old man, "How old are you?" And the old man said, "Just four years old, sir."
Bimbisara could not believe his eyes, could not believe his ears: "This old man who looks almost eighty, if not more, is saying he is four years old?" He said, "Pardon me, sir,
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