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my finger, nor do you have to worship my finger. You have to forget my finger, and look at where it is pointing.
Because of your wrong conception, the second part of your question arises: "I was never aware of the fact that being a disciple is to be as you are." No, that is not right either. You are not to be as I am, or as Jesus Christ is, or as Gautam Buddha is.
You have to be yourself. Existence never repeats. That's why, in twenty-five centuries, there has not been another Gautam Buddha and there never will be again. Existence is so creative, so innovative that it need not repeat an old model.
It happened once... a super-rich man purchased a painting of Picasso for one million dollars. Naturally, he asked a critic of paintings, "Is it authentic? -- because if not, I'm wasting one million dollars."
The critic said, "About this painting, I can say with an absolute guarantee that it is authentic. It is Picasso."
But the rich man said, "I would like to give you your fee, but only if you take me to Picasso and he confirms that it is actually his painting. I want to be absolutely certain."
The critic said, "I was staying with Picasso when he did this painting but if you insist, we can go. He is one of my friends."
They went to Picasso, and Picasso flatly denied that it was authentic. The critic said, "This is too much. I was present when you were painting this."
Picasso's girlfriend was also present and she said, "Why you are lying? I was also present when you were painting it."
Picasso said, "Who has said that I did not paint it? But it is not authentic."
They were all puzzled, "What does he mean, he has painted it and it is not authentic?"
Picasso said, "You are looking puzzled, but the simple fact is, I painted the same painting before. One rich man was asking for a painting, and I had no new ideas so I simply painted again an old idea. The authentic painting is still in the gallery in Paris; this is only a copy. It does not matter who made the copy. Somebody else could have made it or I could have made it, but it is a copy -- it is not new, an original. Hence I cannot say it is authentic."
His
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