Our responsibility is tremendous

Friends,

Nani Palkhiwala, one of India's foremost taxation experts, is reported to have said that in forty-two years of independence, India has not gained anything, but it has at least saved its democracy.

With great respect to Nani Palkhiwala - he is a man of intelligence and courage - I want to disagree with him on both the points.

In the first place, in the forty-two years of independence, India has defeated the whole world as far as population is concerned. When it became independent in 1947, its population was only four hundred million. Now its population is more than nine hundred million, and by the end of this century it will go beyond one billion. For the first time in the whole history of mankind, India will be the greatest nation in the world. Up to now China has been the most populated country. In this great productivity India has been victorious.

And, Nani Palkhiwala, you say India has not done anything? It has produced just like rats!

I have heard... a man was reading a newspaper in which it was said that amongst every five people there is one Chinaman. His wife heard it, and she said, "My God! That means now no more children, because four I have already produced, and I don't want any Chinaman among my children."

This is no longer true. Amongst five people in the world, one is an Indian.

This explosion of population is not a small achievement. It has doubled India's poverty; it is more poor than ever.

And, Nani Palkhiwala, you say India has done nothing in these forty-two years? It has topped the whole world.

Secondly, just after the hanging of an innocent poor man, Kehar Singh, without any evidence at all, you still say India has saved its democracy? When justice dies, democracy cannot live.

You must be fully aware of the fact that the government has created a separate law in the name of national security, which is not under the common law of the country. You can be simply put in jail forever; there is no appeal, there is no court.... From the lowest court to the Supreme Court, you cannot do anything; it is beyond law. And whenever, in any country, something like this exists, you cannot call that country democratic.

What kind of democracy is this?

And you are perfectly aware that "National Security" is nothing but another name for Emergency.

Just by changing names, who does the government want to deceive? They don't even pronounce the whole name, National Security Act, they call it only "N.S.A." - not to make people aware that side by side with the common law of the country there exists a higher power which is beyond the scope of the common law.

Just in this case of Kehar Singh's hanging... His son was absolutely certain that he was innocent, and the government had failed to provide any evidence. The son was working in the secretariat of the government itself, in the Central Government in New Delhi. He asked for leave to help the attorneys who were trying to save his innocent father. Rather than giving him leave, they put him - under National Security - into jail. He could not support the attorneys in saving his father - and there is no recourse, no appeal, nothing can be done; it is beyond law.

And, Nani Palkhiwala, you still call this country a democracy? What was wrong in asking for leave when his father was being hanged? In what way was he going against national security? To protect one's father who is innocent, to help the attorneys in the courts is going against national security?

Then anything can be called "against national security."

Unless the National Security Act is dissolved, this country is no more a democracy.

But a man in every way intelligent seems to be completely ignoring the facts, talking in beautiful words.

With the death of Kehar Singh, a great darkness has descended over the country. One does not know whether this darkness will ever end.

I want Nani Palkhiwala to come forward. He is one of the men who can challenge the government:

that there is no need of any other law in the hands of the government when the common law is sufficient. For what do all these courts exist?

A democracy has some meaning. It is based in the freedom of the individual, in the freedom of speech. But when there exists a power in the hands of the government which is beyond law, it should be called by its proper name. It becomes a dictatorship, it is no more a democracy.

And if persons like Nani Palkhiwala cannot come out with the truth before the public, then who is going to do this job?

Kehar Singh's son was released, because they had to release him. He had not committed any crime, he had just asked for leave - which is everybody's right, and particularly in a situation where his innocent father was going to be hanged. The young man has been running with the chief attorney, Ram Jethmalani, carrying all his files from court to court - absolutely certain.

Whenever he was asked by any journalist, he said, "My father is absolutely innocent. Somewhere, someone will have the courage to say that he is innocent. I am absolutely certain. If not in the high court, then in the Supreme Court; if not in the Supreme Court, at least the president will have the courage."

To the last moment, the Supreme Court of India played an ugly game. They said, "At one o'clock the decision about the appeal will be declared." Then they changed it to two-thirty, then they it changed to four-thirty. Finally they came out at six o'clock, because after that there is no way to have other recourse to some source; in the morning poor Kehar Singh would be hanged.

And the statement was a simple statement - it took the Supreme Court the whole day - that the appeal was rejected. A simple sentence... without giving any reason why the appeal was rejected.

The president was asked for a mercy appeal; even the mercy appeal was rejected. The World Court was contacted. They said, "Put us in contact with the president." And when Ram Jethmalani phoned the president, the secretary said, "It is too late" - it was only eight-thirty in the evening - "I cannot disturb the president at this late hour."

These are the public servants! Eight-thirty in the evening is a late hour... and one man's life is at stake, and the president cannot be disturbed! And still, Nani Palkhiwala, you call this country a democracy?

I hope you will come out with the truth, and say exactly what is the situation. If the intelligentsia of the country remain silent, then this dark night will become darker and darker, and there will be no dawn.

I hope that not only Nani Palkhiwala, but all other intelligent people - poets, professors, vice- chancellors, authors, musicians, painters - should come out and say, "Unless National Security is removed...

"Everything should be settled in the court according to the common law of the country; only then is this country a democracy. Otherwise it is better to call it a dictatorship."

At least people should know that they are slaves, no longer free. They should know that they have been fighting for freedom for almost one hundred years, and this bogus freedom has been given to them.

It always happens. One has to go to the roots.

India has not been successful in getting freedom. Its last attempt was in 1942, when thousands of people were forced into jails. But it did not last long, only nine days. One feels ashamed to say that this was a revolution!

China had been fighting for thirty years continuously. A freedom struggle which ends in nine days, with no conclusion, and then suddenly after five years... This is a very strange phenomenon.

If a revolution succeeds, immediately the country is free. But the revolution did not succeed and after five years the freedom was given by the British Empire. A given freedom cannot be a real freedom.

The British Empire was getting tired. Seeing the situation, that India will be getting worse and worse, the British prime minister, Attlee, sent Mountbatten with an urgent message: "Give the freedom as quickly as possible, because we don't want to take the responsibility for India's poverty" - which is going to grow every day, and by the end of this century almost half a billion people are bound to die of starvation.

This is not a freedom that is achieved; this is a freedom which has been given. It is a very poor freedom. It has been given to India as if India is a beggar. That is the root cause why there is no freedom, no democracy. Just the names go on being talked about, and nobody bothers to look at the reality.

Now the sutras:

Vairocana is another name of Gautam the Buddha.

Zen has a tremendous courage....

KOKUSHI REPLIED, "GO AND TRAMPLE ON VAIROCANA'S HEAD!"

THE EMPEROR SAID, "I CANNOT FOLLOW YOU. I cannot do that... trampling on Vairocana's head."

KOKUSHI SAID, "DON'T TAKE THE SELF FOR THE PURE DHARMA BODY."

Why are you afraid of trampling on the body of Vairocana? It is only a statue. It is your self- consideration: What will people say if the emperor tramples on the Buddha's body?

KOKUSHI SAID, "DON'T TAKE THE SELF FOR THE PURE DHARMA BODY."

Your ego is not your real authentic self. Don't listen to it, just trample on Vairocana's body, because neither is there anyone there - just a wooden statue - nor is there anyone inside your ego. It is just a soap bubble. Then you will know what it means, "the ten-bodied herdsman."

A strange answer... but I have to tell you first what this ten-bodied herdsman is.

There are ten pictures in China - I have talked about those pictures - and they are called the Zen Bulls.

A man lost his bull. In the first picture he looks all around. He can see thick deep forest, but no sign of the bull. In the second picture he finds the footprints of the bull. In the third picture he looks, and the bull is hiding behind a tree, but he can see only the back part of the bull. Then he catches hold of the bull by his horns; he becomes victorious. Soon he is riding on the bull towards his home. Next the bull is put in its place in the stall, and in the last picture the man is sitting outside his house and playing on a flute.

When these ten pictures moved from China to Japan, the tenth picture was dropped, because the tenth picture is really outrageous.

To me, only the tenth picture means something. All these nine pictures are the preparation; in the tenth picture the man is so happy that he has found his bull that he is going to the pub - just to enjoy the evening.

The Buddhists of Japan must have been a little afraid; this tenth picture is too outrageous. But the tenth picture is only symbolic. He is not going to take the drug called "ecstasy"; this bottle of wine that he is carrying is simply a symbol. When one becomes absolutely centered, one is almost drunk, drunk with an inner ecstasy.

Many have reported to me that when you get up after your meditation, "We feel a little drunk." You start moving towards the canteen, but you can see people standing by the side; they are wobbly, they don't know what is happening. Because everybody is going towards the canteen they join them, but not absolutely certain whether they want to go there or not. But because everybody else is going there, it is better to keep company....

It is dangerous to go out of the ashram. The police can get hold of you: "You are drunk!" You may say that, "I have been in ecstasy," and they will say, "Yes, that's what we are saying. You have taken the drug ecstasy. Just come along with us to the police station!"

I love the tenth picture, and I want Japanese Zen masters not to forget it, because that is the ultimate experience. That is a kind of drunkenness you never overcome. It becomes your very nature. You can dance, you can sing, you can rejoice. It is inexhaustible.

These ten pictures are called "the ten-bodied herdsman," because with every new experience you enter into a new layer of your body. The man whose bull has been lost in the first picture is just on the superficial body. As he finds the footprints, he has entered a little deeper. As he finds that the bull is hiding behind a tree, he has entered a little deeper still.

These are layers upon layers of body - just like an onion. You can peel it... a fresh layer. Peel it again... another fresh layer. Go on peeling. Finally you will find nothing in the end, but empty hands.

All the layers have been taken away. The onion consists only of layers.

The body also consists only of layers. Ten layers of the body... and you enter into a space which can only be called ecstasy. Then you are drunk forever, for the whole eternity to come.

I teach you drunkenness. There is no need for a man who has tasted his own inner being to take any drugs or alcohol.

There is only one way to stop people from drugs and alcohol, and that is meditation - to pass through all the layers of the body and enter into a space which is no-body, no-mind. Then you are so full of contentment, so fulfilled that you don't need anything anymore.

Kokushi's reply is very important:

"GO AND TRAMPLE ON VAIROCANA'S HEAD!"

People become addicted even to wooden statues, they become addicted even to stone statues. The function of the master is to take away all these addictions, and to make you free from all kinds of so-called scriptures, statues, churches, to make you utterly and absolutely rooted in freedom.

This was the effort on the part of Kokushi. To tell the emperor, "Go and trample on Vairocana's head"

... the emperor must have been shocked. "To trample on the head of a buddha? I cannot follow you."

What is the problem? Does he think that the wooden statue of Buddha is a real buddha? Neither the buddha is real... Does he think his reputation, what people will think? - "I am the emperor, and trampling on the head of the Buddha...?"

This is your ego and nothing else. Neither does the statue have any reality in the sense of being alive, nor does your ego have any reality in the sense of being true. It is just a projection. You have to drop both; only then you can find yourself behind the ten-bodied herdsman. He is referring to those ten pictures.

KOKUSHI SAID, "DON'T TAKE THE SELF FOR THE PURE DHARMA BODY."

You have an authentic being that is called "dharma body" - the body of religiousness, the body of awareness. But that is not your ego. Your ego is the barrier to knowing your authentic individuality.

Your personality is the barrier, not a bridge.

Drop the personality and forget that you are an emperor, and forget that this statue represents Buddha. It is just a wooden toy, as false as your ego. Drop both and you will know the pure ecstasy, the pure truth, your authentic relationship with existence. At the center of your being, it is waiting for you.

A MONK ONCE ASKED KOKUSHI, "WHAT IS THE TRUE BODY OF THE DHARMAKAYA BUDDHA?"

"FETCH ME THE WATER BOTTLE," RESPONDED KOKUSHI.

WHEN THE MONK BROUGHT IT TO HIM, KOKUSHI SAID, "PUT IT BACK WHERE IT WAS." THE MONK, HAVING DONE WHAT HE WAS ASKED TO DO, REPEATED HIS FORMER QUESTION.

KOKUSHI SAID, "ALAS! THE OLD BUDDHA HAS GONE LONG BEFORE!"

What transpired in this small anecdote?

The monk was asking, "What is the true body, the authentic being, which is called by Buddha, dharmakaya?" Dharma means religiousness, and kaya means body. "What is your body of religiousness?"

The master Kokushi said, instead of answering... Zen does not believe in words. It believes in creating particular devices, situations, in which that which cannot be said at least can be indicated.

To anyone in the world outside the Zen atmosphere, it will look absolutely absurd. The master says, "Fetch me the water bottle."

What kind of answer...?

WHEN THE MONK BROUGHT IT TO HIM, KOKUSHI SAID, "PUT IT BACK WHERE IT WAS."

What he has created as a situation... He asked him to bring the water bottle; when he brought it, Kokushi said, "Now put it back where it was." He is saying, "Return to the source. Go where you have come from. Just search within yourself. What is the space you have sprung out of? Go back to the same space and you will know what is the Dharmakaya Buddha."

THE MONK, HAVING DONE WHAT HE WAS ASKED TO DO, REPEATED HIS FORMER QUESTION.

He could not understand that this device has been the answer. He repeated his former question.

KOKUSHI SAID, "ALAS! THE OLD BUDDHA HAS LONG GONE!

I cannot do more than that. Perhaps the old Buddha may have been able to create another situation for you. Whatever I can do, I have done."

But he has done more than enough. He has shown the way, he has indicated that, "Reach to your original source from where you come. Go back there, and you will find the authentic being, the Dharmakaya of Buddha within you."

Rippo wrote on his death:

MOON AND BLOSSOMS SEEN NOW I GO TO VIEW THE LOVELIEST - THE SNOW.

As I have told you again and again, Zen poems are pictures in words - very colorful, very alive.

MOON AND BLOSSOMS SEEN - I have seen the moon, I have seen the great flowers, NOW I GO TO VIEW THE LOVELIEST - THE SNOW - the purity of white snow.

And when it has never melted... There are peaks in Japan where the snow has never melted, always a white line on the mountaintops. In the Himalayas it is on a far bigger scale, eternal snows which have never melted, and nobody has trodden on those snows. There are thousands of places in the Himalayas where no man has ever reached. The purity of those spaces, the silence of those spaces...

There is a valley in the Himalayas; you can see only from the very top down into the valley, thousands of feet down. There is no way to get to the valley, it is so steep. In that valley, perhaps, blossom the most colorful flowers known to man, but they have been known only from far away. That valley is called "The Valley of Gods" - a beautiful name. Those flowers nobody has ever touched; nobody has ever reached into that depth surrounded by eternal snow.

Rippo says, "I have seen the moon and its beauty; I have seen the blossoms and their colors and their fragrance. Now I am going to view the loveliest - the snow." The pure whiteness - symbolizing the eternal purity of your being.

Maneesha has asked two questions.

Question 1:

First:

Yes, Maneesha, absolutely yes! God is man's pathology, his sick mind, his helplessness, his fear, his paranoia. He needs somebody as a support in the clouds, because all supports here are temporary.

Your father may die tomorrow; you need a father that never dies, hence God is called the Father.

Your business will go bankrupt. What consolation do you have? At least you can raise your eyes towards the sky, and your hands, and pray to God. Of course no answer ever comes, but at least you have a certain consolation, that somebody is protecting you, somebody is looking after you, somebody is there you can always call on in your difficulties - just a hope, because there is no incident when God has come to help man. There is no reference all through history that any answer has come from the skies - not even to people like Jesus.

Jesus was hoping, just like an ordinary, average human being, that if he was crucified God would come to help him immediately. He believed in himself and in his God almost madly; that is the reason he was not worried. He knew that if he entered Jerusalem, he would be caught and crucified. He could have escaped, but just because of God he did not bother about the rumor. He said, "God is with me, my Father is with me."

When he was crucified, he waited and waited. He looked away... white clouds moving... but no angels playing on their harps, singing "Alleluia!" Six hours passed, and he came to the end of his patience. Finally he shouted at God, "Why have you forsaken me?" Still there was no answer.

In fact, there is nobody to answer. I am not complaining against God; there is no God to complain against. All that can be done is to make more and more people fearless, more and more people so rooted in themselves that they don't want any help. Even if God comes to help they will refuse.

Unless humanity comes to such solid individuality, God is going to be there. It is our weakness, it is our helplessness, it is our fear of death, it is our fear of diseases. All kinds of fears surround us because we have not known the space in ourselves where no fear ever enters, where there is no death, no birth, where you are eternal, where you are one with the cosmos. Then, of course, God disappears from your vision, and all organized religions become futile exercises.

Question 2:

The second question:

Yes, Maneesha, there is a connection - but it is not very obvious. The connection is a very hidden undercurrent.

When you start believing in a God which does not exist, you are also simultaneously believing that nothing evil can happen to you. You can do whatever you want; God is the savior and he is very compassionate. You can be destructive, you can be violent - and all religions have been violent.

In religious crusades millions of people have been killed in the name of God, because the believer always thinks he is killing in the name of God. His God is the only true God; all other gods are phony. And because he is destructive in the name of God, violent in the name of God, God is going to support him. On the Day of Judgment, God will take his real believers to paradise. Jesus will be the witness: "Yes, this man belongs to our herd."

I am reminded of Omar Khayyam, a Sufi mystic and poet. You may have read Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam's RUBAIYAT. Very beautiful poetry, tremendously beautiful - but if you go into it you can see the Mohammedan believer. He says in one of his poems, "Don't be worried. Drink alcohol as much as you can, enjoy women as much as you can, because God is the compassionate one. These small sins... do you think God will not forgive you? That means you are an unbeliever!"

Do you see the logic? He is saying, "Do whatsoever you want to do, God is with you" - and if you don't, that means you don't believe in God and in his compassion, and in his love.

Certainly, man has become more destructive because he can throw the whole responsibility on God.

Man becomes creative if he has the whole responsibility on himself.

To me, meditation and responsibility come simultaneously. As you go deeper into yourself, you become more and more responsible. You know that there is no God. You know that everyone is suffering around you and you have found the space where no suffering is possible.

The only thing that remains for you is to share your space, to indicate the innermost being of everyone. This I consider to be the greatest creative act in existence. If you can make somebody aware of his being, his indestructible being, his immortality and eternity, you have done the greatest creative act possible.

And you have to do it, because there is no God who can do it! Only you can do it.

Meditation throws you upon yourself. It takes away all responsibility that you have put in the name of God. Obviously, if God has created the world, then he is responsible for everything that happens in the world. If God created man, then certainly he has created his destructiveness also, his violence, his greed, his anger, his tendency towards murder, rape, suicide. For everything God is responsible, because he has planted the seeds in you of all these things. You are free of responsibility.

Do you understand what I am saying?

If God has created you, and on the Judgment Day he asks you, "Why were you so much addicted to drugs?", you can hold him by the collar and ask him, "Why did you create the tendency in me? You are responsible, I am not."

A puppet is not responsible, but the puppeteer is, because all the threads are in his hands behind the curtain. The puppet dances if he moves his hands, the puppet fights if he moves his hands differently - but you cannot say that the puppet is responsible.

If God has created the world and man and everything, then nobody is responsible for his acts; the ultimate responsibility abides in God. You can do every licentious act without any fear.

God has not been a blessing to humanity; it has been the greatest curse. Freed from God, you alone are to be responsible, you alone are to be alert and aware that you don't hurt anybody, that you don't interfere into anybody's territory, that you don't start possessing people. To possess a person is to reduce the person into a thing. Only things can be possessed - not wives, nor husbands, nor children.

Once God is no more there in the skies, you are totally responsible for every breath, for every gesture, for every act. God has taken the place of the puppeteer. It is absolutely connected with the concept of God.

God has to disappear from the mind of man; only then will you have a tremendous feeling of responsibility, of sharing, of helping people on the path. There is nobody else; only we are here on the earth... ALONE.

Our responsibility is tremendous.

It is time for Sardar Gurudayal Singh - just to be a little irresponsible!

Paddy is sitting in the pub one afternoon when he gets a phone call from his friend, Sean.

"Hello," says Sean, "is that you, Paddy?"

"Hello," replies Paddy, "is that you, Sean. What's up?"

"Ah!" says Sean. "My car has broken down and I'm stuck near Belfast and I need a hundred dollars.

Can you send it to me?"

"What is that?" cries Paddy. "It is so noisy in here I cannot hear a word you are saying!"

"I said I need a hundred dollars," Sean shouts.

"You have got a bad line," screams Paddy, "I cannot hear you!"

Suddenly, the operator comes on the line.

"Hello, this is the operator," she says. "I can hear him perfectly!"

"Okay," says Paddy, "then you send him the hundred dollars!"

Old Black Rufus is the railroad switchman for the Chicago Choo-Choo Line. One night there is a terrible accident at Rufus' crossing, involving the Mexico Midnight Express and Senator Dingbat's old Toyota car - which is totally destroyed, along with the "good old" senator.

Naturally, Old Rufus is the chief witness at the court hearing, and the entire case hinges upon whether Rufus has displayed his warning signal.

The lawyers give Rufus an intense series of questions, but Rufus sticks to his story.

"I was standing there, your honor," cries Rufus, "and I was waving my lamp around so hard my arm almost came off. But the senator just paid no damned attention!"

Later, Chicago Choo-Choo chairman, Chester Cheese, congratulates Rufus on his unwavering testimony.

"I thought for sure," says Chester, "that those darn lawyers would scare you, and make you change your story."

"No, sir! No, sir!" exclaims Rufus. "But I am glad they did not ask me if my lamp was switched on!"

Barry Bug eyes is talking to his friend, Mervyn Mildew, over a few drinks in the bar.

"How did you get on with your date last night?" asks Mervyn.

"Ah!" groans Barry, "it was terrible. It was a tragic case of mistaken identity."

"Really? Mistaken identity?" asks Mervyn. "What do you mean?"

"Well," explains Barry, "I took my date out to the most expensive restaurant in town. We went in and ordered a huge meal, but as soon as we started to eat, my date found a cockroach in her soup."

"How ghastly!" exclaims Mervyn. "What did she do?"

"She stood up," says Barry, "and shouted: 'Waiter! Remove this insect!' - and he threw me out in the street!"

Nivedano...

(drumbeat) (gibberish) Nivedano...

(drumbeat) Be silent. Close your eyes, and feel your body to be completely frozen.

This is the right moment to look inwards - with your total consciousness, with your absolute life energy, and with an urgency as if this is going to be your last moment on the earth.

Deeper and deeper...

The deeper you move, you will start feeling a new space, a new coolness, a new freshness, a great silence descending on you. And when you reach to the center of your being, you are the blessed one, the buddha.

This is your Dharmakaya, the body of religiousness. You have gone beyond the body and mind, and entered into a space where you can have only one quality, the quality of being a witness.

This is the most glorious phenomenon. This takes you beyond you, to the ultimate sources of existence.

Just be a witness of everything that is happening - the silence, the peace, the joy - and suddenly you feel invisible flowers showering on you. A new life force, utterly fresh...

But you remain just a witness. Don't get identified - just remain a watcher.

The body is not you, the mind is not you; you are only the witness. That is your eternity, that is your very nature.

To make it absolutely sure, Nivedano...

(drumbeat) Relax...

But go on keeping the witnessing.

The body is lying down, the head is there, but you are neither.

You have entered into the ultimate space of your being. From this very space you had come; now you are returning to the womb.

In this moment, Gautam the Buddha Auditorium has become a vast ocean without even a single ripple, an ocean of consciousness. Your separation from existence has melted away. You are one with the whole. You are the whole.

Collect as much blissfulness and ecstasy... and persuade the buddha that is your intrinsic nature to come with you, because the moment your center and your circumference of life become one, you are enlightened, you are the awakened one. You have fulfilled the mission of your life.

This moment you are the most blessed people on the earth.

The evening was very beautiful on its own, but your honest, intense effort to reach to the source of your being has made it a miracle, a miracle evening.

The greatest miracle I know of is to know your innermost being. All else is just street magic.

Persuade the buddha.

He has to become your day-to-day activities.

Chopping wood, carrying water from the well, you have to remain the buddha. In the marketplace or in your own house sitting silently, you have to remain the buddha.

The buddha simply means the one who is aware, the one who is awakened, the one who is just a pure witness.

Nivedano...

(drumbeat) Call all the buddhas back.

Come back as silently, as peacefully, as gracefully as possible, remaining a witness all the time.

Sit down for a few moments just to remember the golden path you have gone through, the miraculous center that you have touched - the beautitude, the blissfulness that you are carrying with your breathing and with your heartbeat, the dance that you have seen, the dance that you have become.

I call this the buddha: the ultimate dance of being.

Okay, Maneesha?

Yes, Beloved Master.