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| | | Book Name: The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 4 | Previous Next | |
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But an egoist is an egoist: now humility will hide his ego.
I have heard....
A rabbi addressed his congregation. They were very moved by his sermon and one man stood up and said, "I'm Joe Smith. I came to this land without a cent. Now I am worth five million, but when I hear your words, I am nothing."
Another man stood up and said, "I started out without a cent, too. Now I am worth ten million, but when I hear your words, Rabbi, I am nothing, absolutely nothing.
Then another man rose and said, "I work for the post office. I make eighty dollars a week, but when I hear your words I am nothing, utterly nothing." And the first millionaire said to the second, "Look who wants to be nothing."
Just a postman, trying to become nothing? Then nothingness needs that you first become a millionaire. That's why in India, such a religious country, not even for a single time has a simple person been declared an AVATAR, a TEERTHANKARA. No, not yet; it has not happened -- because if you are poor, what will you renounce? All the twenty-four TEERTHANKARAS of the Jainas come from royal families, sons of kings. Buddha himself comes from a royal family; Rama, Krishna -- everybody comes from a royal family.
Why? Why not Kabir? Why not Fareed? Why not Dadu? Nothing is lacking. Only one thing is missing: they don't have anything to renounce. Look who is trying to be nothing! First you have; to renounce you must have much, you need much; YOU HAVE to have. A simple person is not really a humble person, only an egoist is a humble person. And then he tries, through his humbleness, to say that he is the greatest humble person in the world. But the same thing in a different garb continues.
Your morality never transforms you.
So Buddha says: Right morality is from within, from awareness -- not out of fear, not out of greed.
The fifth step is: right livelihood.
Buddha says: Life should be simple, not complex. Life should be based on needs, not on desires. Needs are perfectly okay: you need food, you need clothes, you need a shelter, you need love, you need relationship. Perfectly good, nothing wrong in it. Needs can be fulfilled;
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