|
Main Index
|
| |
| |
|
| |
of Lao Tzu, Buddha was understood in China. Lao Tzu had said all that Buddha said later. Therefore when Buddha's tidings reached China and the people heard his words that the soul does not exist -- people understood.
Lao Tzu's teachings were based on the statement: "There is nothing." This was difficult to be digested by Indians. We are ready to concede that thoughts should be extinct -- but 'I' should exist! Liberation is very good -- but 'I' must be! 'I' must remain. Buddha pronounced in this country: "Even the Soul is not. This also is a thought." Understand this a little.
That, 'I am the soul,' is also a thought. Verily, there is a place where even this thought is not -- and That is the Soul! This seems very contrary, that where even the thought that, 'I am the Atman', is absent, that is the very Atman! But this will manifest by itself. You begin to negate things one by one till ultimately you negate yourself. It is like this: A lamp burns, there is a flame. The flame first burns up the oil. The oil finishes then the flame burns up the wick. Then you know what happens? The flame is no more. The flame first burns up the oil, then the wick and then its own self.
Leave the thoughts first; then leave your own self too. When we let-go of our own self, nothing is left behind except a formless condition -- a formless Existence. A silent, tranquil power, that is Existence, remains: where no eddy of the ego is formed. The peculiarity of an eddy is, that whatever you throw into it, it quickly grabs and throws into its vortex. The 'I' is a whirlpool. Throw what you will in it and it will start whirling immediately. No eddy remains in the No-Thought, No-Ego state. Then there is the experience of Tao, the experience of Dharma or the experience of that which Buddha refers to as 'Dhamma'. There is the experience of 'the Law'; there is experience of That which the Rishis refer to as 'Rit' (That Which Is) or what Mahavira refers to as 'Kaivalya'. Kaivalya means -- Nothing is saved. Only 'the being' remains -- where there are no denominations no attributes. Only Existence remains.
Just being -- just as we would peep into a deep hole or look at the
|
|
|
|
| |