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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
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can you repeat it again, how old you are?"
The old man again said, "Four years old."
Buddha laughed and said, "You don't know the way we count life: it is four years ago that he became a sannyasin, that he was initiated into the eternal, that he was taken into the timeless. It is only four years ago that he crossed from this shore and reached to the other shore. He has lived for eighty years, but those years are not worth counting; it was a sheer wastage."
Nobody has interpreted Christianity, Judaism, Islam, in the way I am interpreting. They all believe in one life, and Christians, Mohammedans and Jews think there is only one life. That is not the case; you have lived many times, but they are not worth counting. Only one life will be worth counting: when you will be born consciously -- but you can be born consciously only if you die consciously.
So the first and the most important thing in life is to prepare for death. And what is the way to prepare for death? -- what Buddha calls "following the way." Meditate over this small anecdote.
Nan Yin, a great Zen master, was visited by Tenno, who, having passed his apprenticeship, had become a teacher. The day happened to be rainy, so Tenno wore wooden clogs and carried an umbrella.
After greeting him, Nan Yin remarked, "I suppose you left your wooden clogs in the vestibule. I want to know if your umbrella is on the left or on the right side of the clogs."
Tenno, confused, had no instant answer. He realized that he was unable to carry his Zen every minute. He became Nan Yin's disciple and he studied six more years to accomplish his every minute Zen.
This is the way. One has to be alert and aware of each and everything that one is doing. Now, Tenno has not done something very serious -- he had simply forgotten where the umbrella is, at the right side of the clogs or at the left side. You will think Nan Yin is too hard; it is not so. It is out of compassion that he asked this question.
Nan Yin's own master, when he had come for the first time to his master, had asked a similar question.
Nan Yin had traveled almost two hundred miles into the mountains
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