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| | | Book Name: The Dhammapada - The Way of the Buddha, Vol 7 | Previous Next | |
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upon you, it is going to rebound on you a thousandfold. The world is constantly throwing things back to you. If you throw flowers, flowers will be coming back. If you throw stones, stones will be coming back. And why are you throwing stones, why are you so violent? Why you are behaving in such a mischievous way? You are thinking, "This is the way to win, this is the way to compete. This is the way to be victorious in the world."
In the first place, out of millions of struggling people one percent will be able to become Alexander the Great. All the remaining ones will fall in great frustration. And secondly, the one who after arduous effort comes to the peak, finds the peak utterly empty, although he will not say so, because that looks silly. You worked so hard, you struggled so much, and then you arrived and became president of a country -- and then telling people that there is nothing here.... You are bound to say, "Aha! I have arrived, what beauty, what joy!" You HAVE to say it, just to save your face.
And people are ready to do anything to win. They can crawl like dogs, they can wag their tails like dogs, they can do anything to win. And ask the winners -- they are utterly empty, but not honest enough to say that nothing has been achieved.
McNellis shuffled home one night in a drunken stupor, carrying the biggest ham Mrs. McNellis had ever seen.
"Now then, out with it," she exclaimed. "Where did you get that ham?"
"Won it at the tavern, drinking with the boys, me darlin'."
"And how did you come to win it, may I ask?" she continued.
"Me love," said McNellis proudly. "It was given to the man with the biggest organ. Everyone at the bar opened up and...."
"Kevin Patrick Michael McNellis!" shrieked his wife. "You don't mean to tell me you took out that thing in front of everybody?"
"Now, darlin'," said the Irishman, "not the whole thing. Just enough to win."
The Buddha says:
NEGLECTED, THE SACRED VERSES RUST.
FOR BEAUTY RUSTS WITHOUT USE
AND UNREPAIRED THE HOUSE FALLS INTO RUIN,
AND THE WATCH, WITHOUT VIGILANCE, FAILS.
IN THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT
THERE IS
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