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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
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must have lost track of his age -- when he felt, "Now it is time to leave the body," he started moving towards the Himalayas, because there is no other place more beautiful to die.
Death should be a celebration! Death should be in nature, under the trees and the stars and the sun and the moon. The whole life he had lived with people; now he wanted to go back to nature, and before he entered into the ultimate he wanted to die amidst trees and mountains and virgin peaks.
But the king of the country ordered all the guards on all the boundaries, "Don't allow Lao Tzu to escape. Wherever he is caught, force him to write down his experiences, because he has something invaluable and we cannot allow this man to escape taking it with him."
He was caught at one of the posts and the policeman insisted, "You have to write it down; otherwise I will not allow you to leave the country."
So sitting in the policeman's hut, and the policeman with his bayonet, Lao Tzu wrote TAO TEH CHING.
The first sentence is: "Truth cannot be said, and that which can be said is not truth anymore."
No great scripture begins with such a beautiful sentence. He is saying, "If you have understood this sentence, please don't read on." He deceived the policeman. How can a policeman understand what he is writing? But he deceived. The first statement simply states that there is no need to read any more: if you have understood this you have understood all.
"The tao that can be said is no longer tao." The moment you say it you falsify it. Truth is so simple it cannot be uttered, words are complex, languages are complex. Truth is so simple it can be indicated. Hence Buddha says, "Buddhas can only show you the way," and Zen masters say, "Don't cling to our words -- our words are nothing but fingers pointing to the moon." And remember, the fingers are not the moon! The moon has nothing to do with fingers, but you can only indicate.
Truth is so simple, that's why the whole problem arises.
Chitten, you say, "Yet my mind doubts, objects to the simplicity of this understanding."
Yes, this happens: when you start understanding simple truths -- and
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