THEREFORE, SUBHUTI, LISTEN WELL
AND ATTENTIVELY, says Gautama the Buddha.
These are strange words -
strange, because Buddha is addressing a bodhisattva. They would not have been
strange if they were addressed to an ordinary human being. One can understand
that the ordinary human being needs to listen well. To listen is so difficult.
To listen means to be herenow. To listen means to be without any thought. To
listen means to be alert and aware. If these conditions are fulfilled, only
then you listen.
The mind goes on like a maniac
inside, a raving maniac. The mind goes on spinning a thousand and one thoughts,
and the mind goes on moving all over the world - in the past, in the future.
How can you listen? And whatsoever you listen to, it will not be right
listening at all. You will listen to something else which has not been said at
all, you will go on missing that which is said - because you will not be in
tune. You will listen to the words of course, because you are not deaf, but
just that much is not listening.
That's why Jesus goes on saying
to his disciples: "If you have ears, listen. If you have eyes, see."
Those disciples were neither blind nor deaf. They had eyes as healthy as you
have, ears as good as you have. But Jesus' words are not strange; they are
relevant. He is talking to ordinary people; he has to bring their attention, he
has to shout. But Buddha's words are strange - he is addressing a bodhisattva,
a great being, a bodhi-being; one who is just on the verge of becoming a
Buddha.
What does it mean exactly when
he says: "THEREFORE, SUBHUTI, LISTEN WELL AND ATTENTIVELY?"
To listen well ordinarily means
to listen in a receptive mood, in deep receptivity. When you listen, if you are
arguing, if you are judging, if you are saying, "Yes, this is right
because it fits with my ideology and this is not right because it doesn't appeal
to me logically. This is right, this is not right. This I can believe, this I
cannot believe...." If you are continuously sorting out things inside, you
are listening but you are not listening well.
And you are listening with your
past mind interfering. Who is this judging? It is not you, it is your past. You
have read a few things, you have heard a few things, you have been conditioned
for a few things. It is the past continuously interfering. The past wants to
perpetuate itself. It does not allow anything that can disrupt it. It does not
allow anything new; it allows only the old that fits with it. That's what you
go on doing when you judge, when you criticize, when you discuss inside and
debate.
To listen rightly means to
listen obediently. This word obedience is beautiful. You will be surprised to
know that the original root from which the word obedience comes is OBEDIRE - it
means 'a thorough listening'. Why does obedience mean thorough listening? Are
they the same thing? Yes, they are. If you listen totally, thoroughly, you will
obey. If truth is there, you will obey. You will not need any decision on your
part.
Truth is self-evident. Once
heard, it automatically follows that you will follow it. Once heard, you will
become obedient to it. Hence this word obedience comes from obedire - listening
thoroughly.
Or as the Jewish tradition
says, 'to bare your ear'. If you have really opened your ear and there is no
interference and no disturbance inside, and no distraction from anywhere, you
have not only opened your ear, you have opened your heart. And if the seed
falls into the heart, sooner or later it will become a tree, sooner or later it
is going to bloom. It may take a little time for it to become a tree. It will
have to wait for the right season, for the spring to come, but it will become a
tree. You will obey it if you have heard the truth.
That's why the mind does not
allow you to hear it, because the mind is aware of the fact that once truth is
heard then there is no way to escape. So if you want to escape, it is better
not to hear. Once heard, you are caught into it; then there is no escape. How
can you escape when you know what truth is? Then the very phenomenon that you
know what truth is, creates a discipline in you. You start following it. And it
is not something that you enforce upon yourself; it comes on its own accord.
The earlocks have to be
removed. What are the earlocks? The fear of truth is the basic lock. You are
afraid of the truth - notwithstanding what you say, notwithstanding that you
again and again say, "I want to know the truth." You are afraid of
truth because you have lived in lies. And you have lived in lies so long that
all those lies are afraid, trembling - if truth comes they will all have to
leave you. They have become owners of you. Just as darkness is afraid of light,
so lies are afraid of truth. The moment you come closer to truth, the mind will
become very much disturbed. It will create much stir, it will raise much dust,
it will create a cloud around you so that you cannot hear what truth is.
The earlocks have to be
removed. The basic lock is fear. You are locked in fear. Buddha has said that
unless you are fearless you will not attain to truth. And look at your
religions, at what you have done. Your so-called religions are all based in
fear. And through fear there is no way to truth; only fearlessness knows what
truth is. When you bow down in a church or in a mosque or in a temple, to a
statue, to a scripture, to tradition, from where is your bowing coming? Just
watch inside - and you will find fear and fear and fear. Out of fear there is
no faith, but the so-called faith is all based on fear. That's why it is very
rare in the world to come across a man who has faith, because faith happens
only when fear has disappeared. Faith appears only on the death of fear.
Faith means trust. How can a
fearful man trust? He is always thinking, he is always cunning, he is always
protecting, defending. How can he trust? To trust, you need courage. To trust,
you need to be brave. To trust, you need to be able to risk. To trust, you need
to move into danger.
Just the other day I was
looking at a Chinese ideogram for crisis and I was intrigued by it, because the
Chinese ideogram for crisis consists of two symbols: one means danger, another means
opportunity. Yes, that moment is a critical moment when you are facing danger
and opportunity both. If you don't go into danger you will miss the
opportunity. If you want the opportunity you will have to go into danger. Those
who know how to live dangerously, only they are religious. Fear is the basic
earlock. Then there are others, but they arise out of the fear - the judging,
the argumentation, clinging with the past, not allowing the new any entry in
your being.
In many many forms, in many
many languages, the word for obedience is an intensive form of the word
listening. HORCHEN, GEHORCHEN, obedire, etcetera - all these words simply say
passionate, intense, total listening. One thing more. You will be surprised to
know that the word absurd is the exact opposite of obedience. ABSURDUS means
absolutely deaf. So if you say something is absurd, you are simply saying,
"I am absolutely deaf to what this is going to tell me." Replace an
absurd attitude with an obedient attitude and then you will be baring your ear,
then you will be utterly open.
But it is good to say to an
ordinary human being, "listen attentively." Why does Buddha say this
to Subhuti? There is something very significant to be understood. A word has no
meaning in itself; the meaning is created only when the word is addressed. To
whom it is addressed will determine the meaning. So you cannot find the meaning
in any dictionary, because dictionaries are not written for bodhisattvas; they
are written for ordinary human beings.
So what does this mean -
'LISTEN WELL AND ATTENTIVELY?' It means a few things which have to be
understood. One: when a man like Subhuti is there, there is no question of
earlocks, not at all. There is no question of his openness to Buddha, there is
no doubt about it, he is open. There is no doubt that he is no longer arguing
with Buddha; he is totally with him, flowing with him. But when a person has
attained to bodhisattvahood, when one has come very close to buddhahood, there
arise a few new problems.
Each new stage of consciousness
has its own problems. This is the problem with a bodhisattva: he is open, he is
receptive, he is ready, but he has become uprooted from the body. His heart is
open, his being is open, but he is no more rooted in the body. He has become
detached from the body, the body is just hanging around. He does not live in
the body, he is almost unidentified with the body - that is the problem.
When someone says to you,
"Listen well," he means that your body is listening but you are not
listening. When Buddha says it to Subhuti he means, "You are listening,
but your body is not listening." It is just the opposite. When you listen,
your body is here, you are not here. The words reach to the ear, they make
sound and noise there, and from the other ear they go out. They never cross
your being; your being does not touch them. With a man like Subhuti just the
opposite is the case. His being is there but his body is not there. He has lost
track of the body. He forgets, he tends to forget the body. There are moments when
he will not think of the body at all. He will be there but the body will not be
there. He has come to bodilessness.
Now, listening is possible only
when body and soul both are together. In you the body is present, the soul is
absent. In Subhuti the soul is present but the body is absent. That is the
meaning of Buddha when he says, "Subhuti, listen well." Bring your
body here. Let your body function. Get into the body, be rooted in the body,
because the body is the vehicle, the body is the instrument, the medium.
And Buddha says, "... and
attentively." Is Subhuti lacking in attention? That is not possible
otherwise he would not be a bodhi-being. A bodhi-being is one who has attained
to attention, who is aware, who is alert, who is conscious, who is no more a
robot. Then why does Buddha say. "Be attentive, listen attentively"?
Again a different meaning has to be understood.
A man like Subhuti tends to go
inwards. If he is not making an effort he will drown into his being, he will be
lost there. He can be outside only if he makes an effort. Just the opposite is
with you. With a very great effort you can rarely move into your inner being.
For a single moment thoughts stop and you are lost into the inner splendor. But
it rarely happens, and after long arduous efforts, meditation, yoga, this and
that, and then only for a few moments you have that beauty, that benediction.
The sky opens, the clouds disappear and there is light, and there is life and
there is utter joy. But only for rare moments... again and again it is lost. If
you make great effort to be attentive, you attain the inner experience.
With Subhuti, just the opposite
is the case: he is lost inside himself, he is utterly drowned by his inner joy.
Unless he makes an effort he will not be able to listen to what Buddha is
saying. He is perfectly capable of listening to Buddha's silence. If Buddha is
silent there is communion, but if Buddha is saying something then he has to
make effort, he has to pull himself together, he has to come out, he has to
come in the body, he has to be very attentive. He is drunk with the inner wine.
Hence Buddha says these strange
words: "LISTEN WELL, AND ATTENTIVELY." And this is for the first time
that I am explaining to you these words. For twenty-five centuries nobody has
commented on these words. They have been taken ordinarily, as if Buddha is
saying to anybody, "Listen well, attentively." Buddha is not talking
to an ordinary human being.
For twenty-five centuries
nobody has commented rightly. People have been thinking they understand the
meaning of the words. The meaning of the words changes; it depends by whom they
are used, for whom they are used. The meaning of the words depends on the
context and the circumstance. The words don't have any meaning in themselves.
The words are meaningless. The meaning arises only in a particular situation.
Now this situation is very
rare. Buddha has used these words thousands of times; every day he had to use
these words to people - "Listen well, attentively." So those who have
commented on The Diamond Sutra have missed. I think the commentators were not
knowers. They knew the language but they were completely unaware of this
strange situation. Buddha has not addressed some ordinary human being; Buddha
has addressed somebody who is very close to buddhahood, who is just on the
boundary of it, entering into buddhahood.
And he starts the statement
with therefore: "THEREFORE, SUBHUTI, LISTEN WELL AND ATTENTIVELY."
Now this 'therefore' is also very illogical. therefore is only logical when it
comes as a part, as a concluding part, of a logical syllogism: All men die.
Socrates is a man, therefore Socrates is mortal. Then 'therefore' is perfectly
right. It is part of a syllogism, a conclusion. But here there is no logic,
nothing has preceded it, there has been no premise. And Buddha starts with the
conclusion - THEREFORE?
That too has a strangeness
about it. And that is Buddha's way. That is how in The Heart Sutra he addressed
Sariputra - "Therefore, Sariputra....". Now he says, "Therefore,
Subhuti...." Subhuti has not said anything for which 'therefore' is
needed, Buddha has not said anything for which 'therefore' is needed, but
something is present in Subhuti's being. 'Therefore' is related to that
presence; nothing has been uttered. A master responds to what is present in
you. A master responds more to your silence than to your words. A master is
more interested in your quest than in your questions. A master is more
interested in your needs than in your questions. This 'therefore' indicates a
subtle need in the innermost being of Subhuti. Maybe Subhuti himself is not
aware of it, maybe Subhuti will take a little time to become aware of it.
The master has to go on looking
into the disciple's being, and the master has to respond to the inner need -
expressed, unexpressed, that is not the point. Maybe left alone the disciple
will take months to find out the need; or even years, or even lives. But the
master looks not only into your past, not only into your present, but into your
future too. What is going to be your need tomorrow and the day after tomorrow,
this life and the next life - the master provides for the whole journey. This
'therefore' is related to some need in Subhuti's inner being.
Now the sutras:
'BECAUSE A BODHISATTVA WHO
GIVES A GIFT SHOULD NOT BE SUPPORTED BY A THING, NOR SHOULD HE BE SUPPORTED
ANYWHERE.'
This is the need for which
Buddha has used "THEREFORE, SUBHUTI, LISTEN WELL AND ATTENTIVELY."
Deep down Subhuti must be having this idea, a very subtle idea - "If I
give to people what I have attained, great will be my merit."
This may not be inwards, this
may not have yet become a thought; it may be just a feel, a ripple, deep
inside. "If I give the Dhamma as a gift to people..." and that is the
greatest gift, Buddha had said. The greatest gift is to give people your
enlightenment, to share it. It has to be the greatest. Somebody shares his
money, it is nothing. Even if he is not going to share, the money will be left
here when he dies. Somebody shares something else. But to share enlightenment
is to share eternity, to share enlightenment is to share God, to share
enlightenment is to share the ultimate. Buddha has called it the greatest gift.
Now he is saying to Subhuti to
share whatsoever you have attained. And create a decision, chittopad, create a
great decision in your being that you will not leave this shore unless you have
liberated all the human beings. Make a great decisive act in your being before
you start disappearing. Before your boat starts moving to the other shore,
create a great desire to help people. That desire to help people will function
as a chain with this shore. Before it is too late, create chittopad. Bring your
whole energy into it - that "I will not leave this shore whatsoever the
temptation of the other shore."
And there is great temptation.
When all has changed and you have become capable of moving to the other shore
for which you have been longing and longing for millions of lives, the
temptation is great not to be here at all. For what? You have suffered enough,
and now you have the passport to enter into nirvana. And Buddha says,
"Deny the passport, throw it away, and make a great decision that you will
not leave this shore until and unless you have liberated all the human
beings."
Listening to this, a subtle
desire must have arisen into Subhuti's heart, at the deepest substratum of his
being, that "that will be a great thing. How much merit I will get out of
it, how much PUNYA, how much virtue." That must have been a small ripple.
It is even difficult for Subhuti to read it, to read what it is. It must have
flashed, an intuitive flash, just for a second or a split second, but it has
been reflected in Buddha's mirror.
A master is a mirror.
Whatsoever is in you is reflected in him. Sometimes he will not answer the
question that you have asked because your question may be just a curiosity and
has nothing to do with your inner being, or your question may be just an
exhibition of your knowledge. Or your question may be just to prove to others,
"Look what a great seeker I am. I ask such beautiful questions." The
question may not be existential, it may be just intellectual. Then the master
is not going to answer lt.
And sometimes the master will
answer a question that you have not asked; not only not asked, but that you
have never known existed in you. But it will relate to your innermost need and
requirement.