OSHO International Foundation presents
Excerpted from: 'Be Still and Know #2, Question 2'
A Buddha Will Always be Misunderstood? Part 2 of 2
Your society teaches
you to be blind
because the society needs blind people.
They are good slaves
because they are always dependent
on the leaders, politicians,
pundits,
priests.
They are
very convenient people,
they never create any trouble.
They are never rebels.
They are obedient,
always ready to submit
to any kind of nonsense
to any stupid politician,
to any stupid priest.
And in fact,
who else wants to be a politician
except stupid people,
and who wants to be a priest
except stupid people?
These are the dimensions for the mediocre,
for the inferior.
Those who are suffering
from an inferiority complex,
they become politicians --
just to prove that they are not inferior,
to the world and to themselves.
The society,
the establishment, wants you to be blind.
From the very beginning it teaches
every child:
"You are blind";
it conditions every child:
"You are blind."
Your whole educational system
is nothing but
a conspiracy against every child --
to keep you blind.
It does not teach you meditation,
because meditation is the art of
opening your eyes.
When somebody arrives
to awareness
he naturally feels great compassion.
All around he sees that people --
who have eyes,
who have inbuilt capacities
to see the truth,
who are
from their very birth
capable of becoming buddhas,
enlightened ones, awakened ones --
are suffering.
And the whole suffering
is ridiculous,
it need not be so.
Compassion happens
and compassion
starts communicating,
but communication is difficult,
impossible.
Buddha speaks from the hilltop
and you live in the dark valleys
where light never reaches.
He talks in words of light;
by the time they reach to you
their meaning changes.
By the time
your mind catches hold of them
it colors them
into its own color.
It is not only so about buddhas --
even ordinary communication
seems to be impossible.
The husband cannot communicate with his wife,
the parents cannot communicate
with their children,
the teachers cannot communicate with their students.
What to say about Buddhas?
People who exist on the same level,
even they cannot communicate,
because words
are tricky things.
You say one thing,
but the moment it reaches to the other person
then it is in his power
how to interpret it.
The Queen was traveling
in England's back country
when she saw a man,
his wife,
and a flock of children.
Impressed, the Queen asked,
"Are all of these your children?"
"Yes, Your Highness,"
answered the man.
"How many children do you have?"
asked the English sovereign.
Sixteen,
was the reply.
"Sixteen children," repeated
Her Highness.
"We should give you a knighthood."
"He has one," piped up the lady,
"but he won't wear it."
Or, if you have missed,
another story for you:
Thor,
the Germanic god of thunder,
was feeling restless
so he decided to have a
weekend fling.
Taking a handful of jewels
from the Valhalla
petty cash department
he slipped down to Earth,
got himself an elegant disco suit
and a few gold chains,
and began hitting the Saturday night dance bars.
After a big night on the town
he finally took home
the most beautiful woman
he had seen
and spent the rest of the night
and morning
satisfying his heroic libido.
When he got out of bed
and began dressing
he realized
that the exhausted girl
on the bed
lacked his godly sexual stamina.
By way of explanation,
he leaned down over her
and whispered, "Honey,
I think you should know --
I am Thor."
Wide-eyed, the girl exclaimed,
"Thor!
You big thon-of-a-bitch,
I can't even thtand up!"
Ordinary communication,
very mundane communication,
even in the marketplace,
is difficult.
And a buddha
wants to communicate to you something
which he has found in a state of no mind,
which he has found
when all thoughts
disappear,
which he has found when
even he himself is no more --
when the ego has evaporated,
when there is utter silence,
absolute peace,
and the sky is without clouds.
Now how to bring
this
infinite experience
into words?
No word
is adequate enough --
hence the misunderstanding.
Yes, Madira,
it is absolutely inevitable
that a buddha
will always be misunderstood.
Only those few people
can understand a buddha,
who are disciples
and devotees.
By being a disciple is meant
one
who has put aside
all his predjudices,
one who has put aside
all his thoughts,
and is ready to listen --
not to his own mind
and his mind's interpretations,
but to the words of buddha;
who is not in a state of
argument with the buddha,
who is not inside thinking
what buddha is saying,
who listens to a buddha
as you listen to classical music,
who listens to a buddha as you
listen to
the sound of
running water,
who listens to buddha
as you listen to the wind passing
through the pine trees
or the cuckoo calling
from the distance.
That is the state of a disciple.
Or
if you rise a little higher
and become a devotee...
A devotee is one
who has not only
dropped his mind
but has brought his heart, in
who listens from the heart,
not from logic but from love.
The disciple is on the way
to being a devotee.
The disciple is the beginning
of being a devotee,
and the devotee is the
fulfillment of being a disciple.
Only these few people understand a buddha.
And in understanding a buddha
they are transformed,
transported into another world --
the world of liberation,
nirvana,
light,
love,
benediction.
Source: 'Be Still and Know #2, Question 2, Copyright © OSHO International Foundation, Switzerland. OSHO is a registered TM.
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