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be lost. Even mountains, even trees, would become uprooted with nothing to hold them to the earth. Earth itself would fall into fragments and the whole universe would simply be a chaos: there would be no order of any kind. And life is not possible without order. And consciousness is impossible unless there is something like an ultimate law which keeps everything together.
Dharma simply means the law. You cannot worship it, you can only understand it. You can live it, but you cannot worship it. That is the great contribution of Buddha to the world: religion, in his understanding, is law. You have to live it. You have to live according to the law, according to the norm of the universe. Whenever you go against it you are in misery, and whenever you are in tune with it you are in bliss.
His definition of bliss and misery is very simple. To be in tune with the ultimate law is bliss; that very harmony is bliss. And to be disharmonious, to go astray from the law, is misery. Hell is when you are running away from the universal law and heaven is when you are running towards it. And when you have become one with it, it is nirvana; it is the ultimate peak of bliss, of truth, of consciousness: satchitanand.
One has to be very very watchful to be aware of the ultimate law. Do you see the meditativeness of the trees surrounding you? Such stillness! Just as you are listening to me, they are listening to me, not even a leaf moving. The birds are singing. The whole universe is still and yet a song... silent, yet musical. A tremendous harmony permeates everything. From the grass leaf to the greatest star it is the same law.
But you have to be a little more aware. And then the very earth you move on becomes sacred. Then trees are gods. Then birds are buddhas. Then each person you meet is a potential buddha. How can you hurt anybody? How can you be destructive to anybody, disrespectful to anybody? Impossible! Then it is not etiquette; then it is simple, natural understanding.
But people are so unaware that it is difficult for them to see the greatest thing that surrounds them within and without.
The owner of a big furniture store went to New
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