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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 5 | Previous Next | |
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heard much about you but I cannot conceive you carrying water from the well."
The master said, "But that's what I used to do before I became enlightened. Carrying water from the well, chopping wood -- that's what I used to do before and that's what I continue to do. I am very proficient in these two things: carrying water from the well and chopping wood. Come with me; my next thing is going to be chopping wood -- watch me!"
The man said, "But then what is the difference? Before enlightenment you used to do these two things, after enlightenment you are doing the same two things -- then what is the difference?"
The master laughed, he said, "The difference is inner: before, I was doing everything in sleep, now I am doing everything consciously. That's the difference: activities are the same, but I am no longer the same. The world is the same, but I am not the same. And because I am no longer the same, for me the world is also no longer the same."
The transformation has to be inner. This is real renunciation: the old world is gone because the old being is gone.
FOR BEHOLD YOUR BODY --
A PAINTED PUPPET, A TOY,
JOINTED AND SICK AND FULL OF FALSE IMAGININGS,
A SHADOW THAT SHIFTS AND FADES.
Buddha says, don't be too much attached to the body, don't get identified with the body, beware! That is a bondage. Live in the body, use the body, but be alert -- it is not you.
FOR BEHOLD YOUR BODY.... If you want to create light in yourself, this is the beginning: BEHOLD YOUR BODY -- A PAINTED PUPPET, A TOY, JOINTED AND SICK AND FULL OF FALSE IMAGININGS, A SHADOW THAT SHIFTS AND FADES.
How many people have lived on the earth? And they have all faded away, dust unto dust, they have all disappeared -- as if they had never existed at all. And the same is going to happen to you, to everybody. Today you are here, tomorrow you are gone. And then it is only in a few people's memories that you will live for a few days; they will remember you -- just a memory, a picture in their minds. And then those people will die and even the memory will fade away. After two thousand years, do you think there will be anybody who
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