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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 4 | Previous Next | |
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forty-eight minutes, that's enough to become enlightened.
But the ordinary mind cannot remain alert even for a few seconds, what to say of minutes! You try: just sit silently, keep a watch close by, and you will be surprised that even seconds are not without thoughts. Only once in a while for a split second there is no thought. But the moment you see there is no thought, this thought arises: you say, "Aha!" -- finished! You say, "There is no thought!" and the mind has played a trick upon you, it has come from the back door. And if you listen silently you will see the mind laughing -- it has deceived you! No-thought is still a thought, the idea of no-thought is still a thought.
BETTER THAN A HUNDRED YEARS OF IGNORANCE
IS ONE DAY SPENT IN REFLECTION.
By "ignorance" Buddha does not mean absence of knowledge. Because the knowledgeable person is not the goal, so ignorance has to be understood in a new way -- with Buddha's meaning, with his color, with his fragrance. We call a person ignorant because he is uneducated: he cannot read, he cannot write, he does not know the three R's, he is not informed at all, he is very primitive. We call him ignorant. And we call him, the man who has a B.S., M.S., Ph.D.... and you know the meaning? B.S. means bullshit, M.S. means more of same, Ph.D. means piled high and deep. We call that man a man of knowledge. These are the people who fill our universities. And if you really want to see their faces, go and attend some convocation. Then you will see all the buffoons parading in black gowns, in strange hats.... These people are thought to be knowledgeable.
When Buddha says "ignorant" he simply means a person who does not know himself. It is not a question of becoming more informed or less informed, educated or uneducated. Kabir is not ignorant although he is uneducated. Kabir has said: MASI KAGAD CHHUYO NAHIN -- I have never touched paper or ink. And that is how it is: he never touched paper or ink, he was not able to read or write.
When somebody asked Kabir, "You can't read -- you have not read the Vedas, Upanishads, Gita, and all the great scriptures?" Kabir laughed and said, "LIKHA-LIKHI KI
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