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| | | Book Name: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 1 | Previous Next | |
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could have been used to search, to find out.
Buddha says once you understand that you are lost and you have to find your own way and there is no help coming, you become responsible. Prayer is an irresponsibility. To pray is just to avoid. To pray is to be lazy. To pray is just an escape.
Buddha says effort is needed. And it is also insulting to pray. So in the buddhist structure nothing like prayer exists, only meditation. You can meditate, you cannot pray.
This is the difference between meditation and prayer. Prayer needs a belief in god, meditation needs no belief. Meditation is purely scientific. It simply says that there are states of mind where thinking stops. It simply says there are ways to stop the thinking, to drop thinking and to come to a silent state of mind... a tranquil, serene state of mind. And that state of mind gives you what truth is, gives you the glimpse, opens the door -- but it is only by your own effort.
Man is alone and has to work hard, and if you miss, only you will be responsible. If you don't arrive, you cannot blame anybody because there is nobody to blame.
The path of Buddha is the path of the shramana -- one who believes in his own effort. It looks very austere, arduous. One starts feeling afraid. In our fear we need somebody's help. Even a belief that somewhere some god exists, gives us relief.
I have heard:
The seasick passenger lying listlessly on his deck chair stopped a passing steward. Pointing into the distance, he said, 'Over there -- it's land, isn't it?'
'No, sir,' replied the steward. 'It's the horizon.'
'Never mind,' sighed the passenger, 'it's better than nothing.'
But the horizon is nothing. How can it be better than nothing? It only appears, it is not there. Nothing exists like the horizon; the horizon is just illusory. But that too, to a seasick passenger, seems to be good. At least something -- better than nothing.
Belief, to Buddha, is like the horizon. Your gods are like horizons, mirages. You believe in them because you feel alone. You don't know they are; you create them because you need them. But your need cannot be a guarantee of their
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