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has really grown up, hence moses is losing his hold, seems out of date. Buddha is gaining a hold... seems to be very very relevant to the modern mind.
Two thousand, five hundred years have passed but the man suddenly is becoming contemporary! Nobody else is so contemporary: krishna is not so contemporary, moses is not so contemporary, not even jesus is as contemporary as buddha. Buddha has a tremendous quality, a tremendous appeal for the modern consciousness, and the reason is that he has no outer character to impose. He simply says only one thing has to be learned, and that is awareness; everything will take care of itself. Be alert and nothing can go wrong. Be unconscious and go on following all the commandments and everything will go wrong.
An unconscious person cannot be expected to do right -- that's what Buddha's message is -- so it is stupid to teach people to do this and to do that, because they are unconscious and in unconsciousness nothing right is possible. An unconscious man tends to do things wrong. Even if you give him gold he will turn it into mud; his very touch pollutes. His very unconsciousness is poisonous, so it is meaningless to teach man to become virtuous; he cannot. If he becomes virtuous without being conscious he will simply become righteous. That will be an ego trip and he will become more unconscious through it.
So Buddha does not want one to become virtuous -- he wants one to become aware... and then virtue follows, but it has a totally different quality; you are not imposing it.
One great zen master, Rinzai, said to his disciples -- this was his last message -- 'If on your way you meet the buddha, kill him .... O you, disciples of the truth, make an effort to free yourselves from every object. O you, with the eyes of moles! I say to you: No Buddha, No Teaching, No Discipline!
'What are you ceaselessly looking for in your neighbour's house ? What then is lacking to you in yourselves ? That which you have at this moment does not differ from that of which the buddha is made.'
Buddha is the greatest liberator. His own last message to his disciples was, 'Be a light unto yourself. Buddhas can only
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