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Main Index
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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 7 | Previous Next | |
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shaken, but she had one last question. "Tell me, my husband, what is it like there? What is heaven really like?"
"Don't be absurd, woman," roared the truthful spirit. "Whatever made you think I was in heaven?"
Even hell will look like heaven in the beginning, because you have created a bigger hell on earth. You are living in such misery, in such hell on earth, of your own creation, that when you enter into hell, if there is any hell, you will find great relief in the beginning. It will be only later on that you come to understand that this is hell. But we talk about everybody who dies -- that he has gone to heaven, that he has become a beloved of God, that God has chosen him, called him forth... ways of avoiding death.
But Buddha talks continuously about death. His first sutra is: YOU ARE AS THE YELLOW LEAF. Yellow leaf represents death. Any moment it is going to fall down. Dust unto dust, any moment and death is going to possess you. Tomorrow may never come, even the next moment is not certain. This is the only moment you can be certain of, next moment you may not be here. What are you doing to prepare for that great journey into the unknown?
YOU ARE AS THE YELLOW LEAF. THE MESSENGERS OF DEATH ARE AT HAND.
YOU ARE TO TRAVEL FAR AWAY.
It is a long journey, a long long journey, because whatsoever you know will be left behind: your friends, your family, your money, your power, your prestige, all will be left behind. You will be going all alone, even your body will be left behind. You will not be able to recognize your own face, because you don't know what your original face is. You know only the bodily face, that too you know through the medium of the mirror. You have not encountered your reality, you have not gone into your inner being, you have not seen yourself, you don't know who you are. All the friends gone, family, money, power, prestige, body... will you be able even to recognize that it is you? You will be simply in a chaos. Buddha asks you:
WHAT WILL YOU TAKE WITH YOU?
Tomorrow is death -- YOU ARE LIKE THE YELLOW LEAF -- next moment is death: WHAT WILL YOU TAKE WITH YOU? Have you earned anything that
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