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| | | Book Name: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2 | Previous Next | |
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eternal bliss, then why is this subject unpleasant? One should be happy to talk about it. In fact it is unpleasant to talk about it, and just to hide the unpleasantness, one has invented many theories, beliefs, that after death one goes to eternal heaven. Everybody has to somehow convince himself that he will not die.
Buddha's teaching is that you have to accept the fact that you will die. Not only that -- that all that you think you are, absolutely, in toto, is going to die. Buddha is very stern about it.
If you ask Mahavir, he will say that body will die, mind will die, but your soul? -- no, your soul will remain. Now there is some protection. We can think, 'Okay, the body will die. We would like it not to die, but we can accept. Body is not me.'
In India you can find many monks, sadhus, just contemplating: 'I am not the body. I am not the body. I am the soul eternal.' Now, what are they doing? If they really know that they are the soul eternal, then why this constant repetition? Who are they trying to befool? Why this constant repetition that 'I am not the body'? If you are not, you are not -- finished.
No, they don't believe really; they are trying to autohypnotize themselves. 'I am not the body.' Repeating it continuously for many years, they may come to an autosuggestion that 'I am not the body', but that is not going to be their experience. It will remain just an autosuggestion. They have befooled themselves, they have fallen into a delusion.
And then they are saying, 'I am the eternal soul -- infinite, satchidananda -- true, always true, existential, always existential, blissful, always blissful. They are fighting with death and they are trying to find some place where they can hide against death.
Buddha's approach is totally different. He says there is no place to hide. You have to go headlong into it. And Buddha says your body will die, your mind will die, your so-called soul will die -- everything, in toto. You are going to die. Nothing is going to remain.
This is very very difficult to even conceive. But Buddha says, if you can conceive this, and if you are ready for this, only then you will be able to
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