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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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presence but the presence of my sannyasins will also be absolutely nondisturbing to aloneness.
In fact, aloneness cannot be disturbed at all. It is such a crystallized state of consciousness, nothing can distract you away from it, and everything helps to make it stronger. Have you watched this paradoxical phenomenon? For example, right now we are sitting here in silence... the chirping of the birds -- is it disturbing the silence or enriching it? The crow -- is he disturbing your silence, or helping and giving it a contrast? If you are really silent, then even in the marketplace you will be surprised that your silence deepens. If your silence is disturbed by the marketplace, that simply means it was not silence in the first place. It was just forced, cultivated, practiced, plastic -- it was not true.
If true silence is there, nothing can disturb it. Each disturbance comes to enhance it. It is like in a dark night you are walking on a street and a car passes by with full headlights on. For a moment you are dazed by the light, and then the car is gone by. Do you think the darkness is less than before? It is deeper than before, it is denser than before. The car and its headlights have not disturbed it at all; rather, they helped tremendously.
And this is how it is with aloneness: your aloneness will not be disturbed by the commune, and certainly not by me -- because I am not a noise. I am a melody, a music -- a music that cannot be heard by the ears but can only be heard by the heart.
It is good that you have started feeling me. It is good that you say, "Since I am a sannyasin I feel that I can't be lonely anymore, as You are always around."
Yes, you cannot be lonely anymore, but you will be more alone now that I am always with you. And aloneness is a precious treasure, the door to the kingdom of God. But forget that word 'loneliness'; it is ugly, it is pathological.
And a man who seeks friendship, love, companionship, out of loneliness is not going to find it. In fact, with whomsoever he will associate he will feel cheated and he will make the other feel cheated. He will feel tired and bored, and he will make the other feel
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