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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 6 | Previous Next | |
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a conscious, deliberate choice is needed: that you turn your energies from extroversion into introversion, that you become more interested in the inner reality, that you become more interested in your subjectivity rather than in objects. You start moving, diving deeply into your interiority to find the center of your being.
And the magic is, the moment you find the center of your being you have found the center of the whole existence -- because there is only one center; my center and your center are not two centers. Anybody who moves inwards comes to the same center. On the periphery we are different people; at the center we are one.
HE IS AWAKE. THE VICTORY IS HIS. And Buddha says: The real conqueror is not the one who has conquered the world but the one who has conquered himself. He has conquered the world too, not in a visible way but in a very very invisible way. He becomes the master.
Buddha came to a town. The king of the town was reluctant to go and receive him, because he said, "I am a great king and he is just a beggar."
But his prime minister -- an old man, a wise man -- insisted that, "Either you come to receive Buddha or accept my resignation."
This was too much, because that old man was absolutely needed by the kingdom. The king was utterly dependent on the old man and his advice; he could not afford to lose him. He said, "But why? Why are you so insistent? He is just a beggar, and I am a king!"
The prime minister said, "To be frank, he is the king and you are the beggar! Either you come with me to receive him or accept my resignation, because I cannot serve such a stupid person who can't see a simple fact: Buddha is the real conqueror of the world. What do YOU possess? -- a few things; they will be taken when death comes. But what HE possesses, nobody can take away, not even death. He has conquered himself, and conquering himself is conquering the world."
The young king had to go to receive Buddha. When he was bowing down to Buddha, Buddha said, "No need to bow down to a beggar!"
He was very much shocked: "How does he know?" In that shock his eyes were opened. He looked at Buddha: that grace,
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