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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
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all over space. I will be able to see him rising in the sun and I will be able to see him flying in a bird and I will be able to see him in the waves of the ocean... and I will be able to see him everywhere.
"He is simply leaving his body. It was a confinement. And how do I know it? I know it because I have known my own soul. I listened to him and you have not listened to him -- that's why you are crying."
Buddha said, "Let me repeat again: APPA DIPO BHAVA -- be a light unto yourself." Then he closed his eyes and disappeared into the cosmos. But his last statement was also his first statement. In fact that was his whole message -- the whole of his life he was repeating the same message again and again and again.
THE WISE MAN TELLS YOU WHERE YOU HAVE FALLEN AND WHERE YOU YET MAY FALL -- INVALUABLE SECRETS! FOLLOW HIM, FOLLOW THE WAY.
When Buddha says, "Follow me," he does not mean imitate him. When he says, "Follow me," he does not say let him be a model to you; make your life according to his life -- no, not at all. "Following" him has a totally different meaning.
There is a Zen story:
A Zen mystic was celebrating a certain festival which is celebrated only on your master's birthday. But people were puzzled. They asked him, "As far as we know you have never had any master. We have also heard rumors that you had approached a great master, Bokuju, many times, but he always refused to accept you as a disciple. Not only that, he used to chase you out of his hut. We have also heard that because of your continuous persistence, he had beaten you a few times, and once he had thrown you, physically, out of the window of his hut. He never accepted you, he never initiated you -- why are you celebrating this day? This is to be celebrated only on your master's birthday."
And the mystic said, "Yet, he was my master. His refusal, his throwing me out, his constant rejection, was his initiation. He was saying, 'Be a light unto yourself -- there is no need to follow me.' Because of his continuous refusal I became enlightened sitting under a tree. There was nobody to cling to.
"The only beautiful man that I have known was Bokuju.
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