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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
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Kierkegaard has exactly called it trembling; in that trembling he thinks religion is born. Yes, in that trembling religion is born, but that religion is pseudo, that religion is not true.
Religion is born when you are centered, rooted, not trembling. Religion is born in great understanding, not in fear. Religion is born when you start feeling that the existence responds with love, that it is not uncaring, that it is not cold; that it is very warm, that it is very welcoming. It is our very life -- how can it be uncaring towards us?
But the so-called religious people go on asking God for protection; hence God is called "The Great Protector." The religious people go on asking God for eternal life because they are trembling, they are scared of death... and death is coming every day closer and closer. Soon it will encompass you, it will drown you into darkness. Before that you have to find a secure ground, a home. That becomes your search for God.
Buddha is not interested in such a search. He says rather than listening to the ill, pathological mind and going according to it in search of God, it is better to drop this pathological mind. It is better to drop this whole pathology, be free of it -- because in that freedom is seeing, in that freedom is knowing.
Free from mind you become a knower. You become so absolutely certain of immortality, of timelessness, of deathlessness, that there is no need for any God to protect you -- you are already protected. In that protection you bow down to existence in gratitude. In that protection, in that caring, in that love that goes on flowing invisibly from the universe towards you.... It nourishes you every moment. It is the universe that you breathe in and out, it is the universe that flows in your blood, it is the universe that becomes your bones, your very marrow. The moment it becomes your own experience, you have become religious.
And now you know that God is, but this is a totally different God. It is not a father figure -- it is not a figure at all. It is not a person but a presence, a loving presence overflowing the whole cosmos. Now it is not a person controlling, a dictator dictating. It
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