|
Main Index
|
| |
| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
|
|
|
| |
I would have shown this man!"
Buddha said, "Ananda, can't you see this is not the same man at all? The man who had come yesterday was abusing, was insulting -- this man is apologizing. How can they be the same? Do you think insult and apology are the same? This is somebody else! Just look into his eyes -- tears are flowing from his eyes. Do you remember the other man? Fire was in his eyes! He wanted to kill me, and this man is touching my feet! And you still say, Ananda, this is the same man?"
Nobody is ever the same. To know it is knowing, to be constantly aware of it is knowing. Their food is knowing....
THEY LIVE UPON EMPTINESS. And because they go on discarding the past they always remain empty. Their emptiness has a purity of its own. They are utterly spacious, like the sky without clouds. THEY LIVE UPON EMPTINESS....
THEY HAVE SEEN HOW TO BREAK FREE. And this is the way: THEY HAVE SEEN HOW TO BREAK FREE. Drop knowledge, become a knowing awareness, alertness, watchfulness, witnessing -- all verbs, remember. Forget the past and remain available to the present and don't project the future, and you will remain empty. And to remain empty is the way of the free man.
Freedom is utter emptiness, but in that utter emptiness descends something from the beyond which Buddha leaves undescribed, unexpressed, because it is inexpressible. He does not call it truth, he does not call it God, he does not call it bliss. He does not call it any name; he simply keeps quiet about it, utterly silent. He says: Come and see.
WHO CAN FOLLOW THEM?
ONLY THE MASTER,
SUCH IS HIS PURITY.
Unless you also become a master -- master of your own inner being, of your consciousness -- unless you also become empty, you cannot go with the buddhas, you cannot fly with the swans.
LIKE A BIRD,
HE RISES ON THE LIMITLESS AIR
AND FLIES AN INVISIBLE COURSE.
HE WISHES FOR NOTHING.
HIS FOOD IS KNOWLEDGE.
HE LIVES UPON EMPTINESS.
HE HAS BROKEN FREE.
And if you can keep the company of a buddha you will also be free. You will also rise on the winds. You will also start the flight of the alone
|
|
|
|
| |