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| | | Book Name: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 3 | Previous Next | |
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but Buddhism doesn't exist in India -- because the religion of the Hindus is one of the most materialistic religions in the world.
You just look in the Vedas: all prayer, all worship, is just asking for more, for more, from gods or from God -- all sacrifice is for more. All worship is desire-oriented. "Give us more! Give us plenty! Better crops, better rain, more money, more health, more life, more longevity -- give us more!" The whole Veda is nothing but desire written large. And sometimes very ugly. In the Veda not only do the so-called rishis go on praying "Give us more!" -- they also pray: "Don't give to our enemies! Give more milk to MY cow, but let the enemy's cow die or let its milk disappear!"
What type of religion is this? Even to call it religion looks absurd. If this is religion, then what is materialism? And even so-called ascetic people who have renounced the world... and there were many in the days of Buddha. He himself had gone to many masters while he was searching, but from everywhere he came back empty-handed -- because he could not see that anybody had really understood the nature of desire. They themselves were desiring; of course, their desire was projected in the faraway future, the other life, but still the object of desire was the same, the desiring mind was the same. It is only a question of time.
A few people desire before death, a few people desire after death, but what is the difference? -- that does not make any difference. They desire the same things -- THEY DESIRE! The desire is the same.
Buddha went to many teachers and was frustrated. He could not see religion flowering anywhere, blossoming -- they were all materialistic people. They were great ascetics: somebody was fasting for months, somebody was standing for months, somebody had not slept for years -- they were just skeletons. You could not call them worldly and materialistic if you looked at their bodies; but look at their mind, ask them, "Why are you fasting? Why are you trying so hard? For what?" and there arises the desire to attain to paradise to heaven, to have eternal gratification in the afterlife.
Listen to their logic and they all
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