---
section: Library
booktitle: "The White Lotus"
booktype: "Discourses"
bookcode: "WLOTUS"
dategiven: "10 November 1979 am"
place: " in Buddha Hall"
chapternum: "Chapter #11"
chaptertitle: "Truly Right"
acode: "7911100"
shorttitle: "WLOTUS11"
audio: "Yes"
video: "No"
esttime: ""
displaytitle: "The White Lotus: Chapter #11"
---

```style
.sutra {
  font-style: italic;
  white-space: pre-wrap !important;
}
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<p class="sutra">QUESTION: WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG?
ANSWER: DISCRIMINATION WITH NO-MIND IS RIGHT. DISCRIMINATION WITH MIND IS WRONG. WHEN ONE TRANSCENDS RIGHT AND WRONG, HE IS TRULY RIGHT. IN A SUTRA IT SAYS, 'WHEN ONE DWELLS ON THE RIGHT ROAD, HE DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE "THIS IS RIGHT, THIS IS WRONG".'</p>
<p class="sutra">QUESTION: WHAT IS A SAGACIOUS STUDENT, AND WHAT IS A DULL STUDENT?
ANSWER: A SAGACIOUS STUDENT DOES NOT DEPEND ON HIS TEACHER'S WORDS, BUT USES HIS OWN EXPERIENCE TO FIND THE TRUTH. A DULL STUDENT DEPENDS ON COMING TO A GRADUAL UNDERSTANDING THROUGH HIS TEACHER'S WORD: A TEACHER HAS TWO KINDS OF STUDENTS; ONE HEARS THE TEACHER'S WORDS WITHOUT CLINGING TO THE MATERIAL NOR TO THE IMMATERIAL, WITHOUT ATTACHING TO FORM OR TO NONFORM, WITHOUT THINKING OF ANIMATE OBJECTS OR OF INANIMATE OBJECTS... THIS IS THE SAGACIOUS STUDENT; THE OTHER, WHO IS AVID FOR UNDERSTANDING, ACCUMULATES MEANINGS, AND MIXES GOOD AND BAD, IS THE DULL STUDENT. THE SAGACIOUS STUDENT UNDERSTANDS INSTANTLY; HE DOES NOT RAISE INFERIOR MIND WHEN HE HEARS THE TEACHING, NOR DOES HE FOLLOW THE SAGE'S MIND, HE TRANSCENDS BOTH WISDOM AND IGNORANCE. EVEN THOUGH ONE HEARS THE TEACHING AND DOES NOT CLING TO WORLDLY DESIRES, DOES NOT LOVE BUDDHA OR THE TRUE PATH, IF, WHEN HE HAS TO SELECT ONE OUT OF TWO, HE SELECTS QUIETNESS FROM CONFUSION, WISDOM FROM IGNORANCE, INACTIVITY FROM ACTIVITY AND CLINGS TO ONE OR THE OTHER OF THESE, THEN HE IS A DULL STUDENT. IF ONE TRANSCENDS BOTH WISDOM AND IGNORANCE, HAS NO GREED FOR THE TEACHING, DOES NOT LIVE IN RIGHT RECOLLECTEDNESS, DOES NOT RAISE RIGHT THINKING, AND DOES NOT HAVE ASPIRATIONS TO BE A PRATYEKA-BUDDHA OR A BODHISATTVA, THEN HE IS A SAGACIOUS STUDENT.</p>


One of the most puzzling, confusing mysteries of life is a buddha talking to those who are not buddhas yet. It is almost like talking to a man who is fast asleep. Yes, if you shout loud enough something of your voice, something of your words may penetrate the slumber of the sleeper -- they may even reach his mind -- although they will have to pass through many many dreams. They will be distorted, disfigured, they will not be the same, and the meaning that the sleeper is going to give to those words is going to be his own. But there is no other way.


There are only three possibilities. The sleeping one talking to another who is also asleep; that is the first possibility. That's what goes on happening all over the world: sleepers talking to other sleepers, somnambulists trying to communicate with other somnambulists. Only great conflict arises out of it, much arises out of it, much noise:
... A TALE TOLD BY AN IDIOT,
FULL OF SOUND AND FURY,
SIGNIFYING NOTHING.


Yes, that's exactly what happens.
The whole world is in chaos, because people who don't know what they are saying go on saying things to others who can't hear, who are not in the state to hear. And we go on interpreting according to our own prejudices, we go on imposing our meanings on the words of others. The others function only as screens and we project our own films on them.
I have heard an ancient story:


Once a great emperor, a chakravartin, who ruled the whole earth, decided that if the whole world stopped all kinds of noise even for a single minute, that silence would be some incredible experience. But how to convince people to stop totally for one minute -- the whole world stopping for one minute, no talking? Even though he was a great emperor, it was not feasible. He inquired of his wise men.


They said, "That seems to be an impossible task. How can we manage it? How will we guard? Who can prevent people from talking and making noise? Millions of people! Your army is big, but compared to the people your army is nothing."


Then a mystic rose and said to the king, "I can manage it. I know the secret."


He whispered the secret into the ears of the king and the secret worked. The secret was very strange -- as the ways of the mystics are always very strange. On the surface they look like one thing, deep down they are something else -- maybe exactly the opposite of how they appear on the surface.


The mystic told the king, "You make an announcement that on a particular day at twelve o'clock midday, the whole world has to shout together the sound 'Hoo' for one minute. The whole world has to shout it! Nobody is allowed not to shout, everybody has to participate."


The king said, "What are you talking about? I want the world to fall into absolute peace for one minute!"


The mystic said, "I know people! You just follow what I am saying, and what you want will happen."


And it really happened. The king made the declaration, the day was fixed, and people waited eagerly for that moment. The whole world shouting "Hoo" for one minute -- it was going to be something extraordinary! Everybody thought, "I am not going to shout, I will listen. Why miss such an opportunity? The king himself wants to listen, why should I miss the opportunity? And who is to find out? When the whole world is shouting Hoo, who is to find out that I have not been a participant?"


And that's how everybody thought. At exactly twelve o'clock, for one minute there was absolute silence -- not even a single noise. The mystic had managed it. And the king was transformed by the silence it was so deep -- its beauty, its music, its exquisite grace. It became the beginning of his own meditation.


If just the outside noise stopping for one minute gives you such stillness, such sweet silence, what will happen when your inside mind stops making noise? It was a turning point in the life of the emperor.


But ordinarily the world is continuously making noise; everybody is making noise. The people who make much more noise than others are thought to be leaders, politicians; they are thought to be great men. You will be thought great by newspapers and later on by historians only if you have a nuisance value, if you can create trouble. If you can create trouble like Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin or Mao Zedong, then you will be thought to be a great leader. If you can create trouble like Ayatollah Khomeini, then you will be thought to be a great saint. Your value depends on how much nuisance you can create in the world. Everybody wants to be somebody, hence everybody has to pretend, to shout loudly. Everybody has to prove that "you can't treat me as a nobody."


It is amongst this madness, amongst these insane people, that one who has become awakened has to convey the message. It is almost an impossible feat. It is a miracle that once in a while somebody is capable of listening.


The first possibility is: sleepers talking to other sleepers. They talk much, they talk nonsense; obviously they can't talk sense. Two sleeping persons -- they can only make absurd noises. There can be no possibility of any communication.


Hence in the world there is no communication: the husband shouting at the wife, the wife shouting at the husband -- and nobody understands anybody else. The world lacks understanding absolutely, totally. Understanding is nil. People somehow go on dragging themselves. Yes, they become adjusted to each other, but it is not understanding. It is just out of continuous failure, despair, disappointment, that they make a few arrangements, because everybody has to live and a few arrangements are needed to live.


The second possibility is: two buddhas talking. Then communion is possible, but two buddhas never talk. Sleepers talk too much, communication is not possible. Two buddhas can commune with each other, but they never talk. They can't talk, there is nothing to say. They are both at the same peak, they are both seeing the same sunset, they are both in the same ecstasy -- what is there to talk about? Whatsoever you say, the other knows already; whatsoever the other will say, you know already. Yes, sometimes it has happened in the past that buddhas have met.


Once Kabir and Farid, two buddhas, met, and for two days sat in absolute silence. Not a single word was uttered. When they parted, their disciples asked, "What happened? What went wrong? Why didn't you say a single word?"


They both said to their disciples, "It was unnecessary, it would have been a waste of breath -- what I know, the other knows. Neither I am anymore nor he is anymore. We are both part of one reality. We taste the same flavor, we experience the same joy. And we know it is inexpressible any way, hence we sat in silence. Silence was our communion."


And then the third possibility is: a buddha talking to one who is asleep or someone who is asleep talking to a buddha. Someone who is asleep can only ask questions. That is what is happening in this beautiful dialogue between a disciple and Bodhidharma. Someone who is not awake can only ask questions; he has no inkling of any answer. His whole life is full of questions. Just as leaves grow on trees, questions grow in your sleepiness, in your unconsciousness.


And the buddha can answer, he cannot question. He knows nothing of questions; he is the answer. He has arrived home. The first is meaningless, the second is impossible. The third is possible but very puzzling -- puzzling because the buddha speaks from his peaks and the sleeper listens in his sleep, in his dreams, desires. Lost in the darkness of the valley, he knows nothing of the sunlit peaks, he has no idea of the purity of those altitudes; he lives in the polluted world. He knows words, but he is unaware of the real, true meaning of the words. Yes, he knows the word love, but he knows nothing of love. He knows the word prayer, but he has never experienced it -- and without experiencing it you cannot know it. He knows the word God -- empty, hollow, just a husk with nothing inside it -- but he knows nothing of God. It is only the word that he goes on repeating.


And the problem is that when the buddha says 'love' he means something totally different than what you mean when you use the word love. Those words don't meet, they don't crisscross anywhere. They go on running like parallel lines, meeting nowhere. And yet you can think you have understood, because the word is the same. You can go on believing that you have come to a great understanding, yet that understanding is only intellectual. To understand a buddha intellectually is not to understand him at all; he has to be understood existentially.


The disciple has not to be only a questioner, he has to move closer to the master. The question is a wall; he has to drop all questioning. He has to start merging, melting into the being of the master, so that he can see through his eyes, can feel through his heart and have a little experience of the beyond, of the transcendental.


This is the last dialogue between the disciple, the unknown disciple, and Bodhidharma.


The first question: WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG?


You all have been told what is right and what is wrong. Yes, Christians will say one thing, Mohammedans another and Jainas still something else. Hindus have their own ideas of right and wrong, and so do the Confucians and Zoroastrians. There are so many ideologies in the world, and they all have their own ideas of what is right and what is wrong. And you have been told -- because you were born in a certain family, into a certain conditioning... from the very beginning you have been conditioned. So you all carry some idea, clearly or unclearly, consciously or unconsciously, of what is right and what is wrong. And still you don't know what is right and what is wrong, because you have not discovered it on your own; you have been told.


And these are such deep experiences that nobody else can decide them for you. You will have to grope in the darkness of your being to find a window through which you can look at the open sky. You will have to seek and search for a door from which you can have an insight of what is right and what is wrong.


If you simply listen to people... they are asleep. What they are saying is not their own; their parents had said those things to them. And neither their parents had their own experience, nor their parents... and so on and so forth. What they are telling you is only a repetition. They are functioning like gramophone records. They repeat a certain formula because they know nothing else, and they are not courageous enough to say to you, "We don't know."


It needs guts to announce your ignorance. It needs the courage of Socrates to say, "l know only one thing: that I know nothing." But it is very difficult to find a father like Socrates. It is very difficult to find a man like Buddha or Jesus to teach you. In your schools, in your churches, it is impossible because these people cannot be confined to schools and churches. These people have known.


But the first step towards knowing is knowing that you are ignorant. Then you are ready, open, vulnerable. Then something can happen to you. Then truth can reveal itself to you. But you are so full of rubbish -- you all think that you know. This is the first thing to be dropped.


Your parents, your teachers, your priests, know nothing, and out of their ignorance and out of their pretentious knowledge -- false, pseudo, borrowed -- they go on teaching you. They say one thing, you will understand another. You will say one thing to your children and they will understand another. That's how truth becomes more and more deteriorated. That's how truth becomes a lie.


When Buddha utters something it is coming from the very source of life and existence. But the moment he utters something, a process sets in -- a process which is going to destroy the truth. The hearer will hear it in his own way, then he will say it to somebody else. Now twenty-five centuries have passed, and in twenty-five centuries how many generations have passed! And each generation has been giving its so-called knowledge to the next generation. Now if Buddha comes back he will really have a belly laugh. He will not be able to believe that these are his words. If Bodhidharma comes back he will be surprised, he will be utterly dumb for a moment: "Are these my words?"


... Because my feeling, reading these questions and answers, has continuously been this: that the disciple, although he is trying to be very true to the master's words, is still editing. The words don't have that lion's roar in them, and that was the basic quality of Bodhidharma. They look too mild to be coming from his mouth; they look almost dull. They don't have that sharpness. He was a sword! He was one of the strangest buddhas to have ever happened on the earth. These words seem to be so mild, so soft.


There are only two possibilities: either he was very ill, dying, and was not able to shout.... But the second possibility is closer to the truth. The second possibility is that the disciple was writing in his own words what Bodhidharma has said. These are the disciple's notes; Bodhidharma has not written them, he has not written a single word. The disciple must be editing. Of course he has tried to be very sincere -- he has not added anything which goes against Bodhidharma -- but he may have deleted a few things, of which we can never be certain. Looking at his questions, he does not seem to be of great intelligence.


"Miss Jones," said the science professor, "would you care to tell the class what happens when a body is immersed in water?"
"Sure," said Miss Jones, "the telephone rings."


An experienced prostitute tells a younger beginner that the moment to ask men for money is "when their eyes go glassy."


The next day she asks the beginner how she made out.


"Rotten," she says, "when their eyes go glassy, I go stone-blind."


People function from their state of being, from their understanding. And what understanding have they got? None at all.


Scene: an army induction centre. The new recruits are lined up by the tough sergeant and told to count off into groups of four.


They count off briskly: "One -- two -- three -- four! One -- two -- three -- four! A-wahann!"


The sergeant strides up to the yodelling number one and looks him up and down in revulsion. "Are you 'one'?"
"Of courthe I'm one. Are you one too?"


The moment a word reaches you it immediately changes its color; it becomes part of your gestalt. It immediately starts representing you -- not the speaker but you. Beware of this fact.


And the only way to get rid of this -- and one needs to get rid of this if one is really a seeker of truth -- the only way to get rid of this is to drop all ideas that have been given to you by others. Empty your mind of all concepts of right and wrong.


Be again a child, knowing nothing, collecting seashells on the seashore, running after a butterfly, enchanted by small things -- a colored stone. Be as innocent as a child: you don't know what is right and you don't know what is wrong. And then there is a possibility to know.
The student asked:
<p class="sutra">WHAT IS RIGHT AND WHAT IS WRONG?</p>


Religions have their own predetermined ideas: "This is right and this is wrong." And what is right in one religion is wrong in another. There are three hundred religions on the earth and at least three thousand sects of those religions. It is not coincidental that there are also three thousand languages on the earth; maybe there is some interrelationship. These three thousand sects may be just three thousand religious languages. And each religion has its own definition of right and wrong, and that definition never suits another religion.


Now Jainas think that eating meat is wrong, but Mohammedans, Christians, Jews, won't agree with it. Their scriptures say: God created animals to be eaten by human beings. Jainas say that to fast is the best way to purify your soul. Now, there are religions which will not agree, because how can fasting purify your soul? Maybe it can purify your body of its toxins, its poisons, but how can it purify your soul? What has food to do with the soul? They seem to be absolutely unrelated.


Jainas say that to live without any possessions, to live absolutely naked, is the only way to attain moksha, ultimate freedom. Now, no other religion will agree with it, because what has nudity to do with moksha? All animals are nude! It has nothing spiritual about it. And man was for centuries nude. The primitive man lived in nudity, but they were not all attaining to liberation. How can you attain to liberation just by being nude? And so on and so forth.... The ideas of right and wrong are very sectarian. Bodhidharma's answer is a nonsectarian approach.
Bodhidharma says:
<p class="sutra">DISCRIMINATION WITH NO-MIND IS RIGHT.</p>


A very strange statement, a paradoxical statement -- because discrimination is always of the mind. It is the mind which discriminates: "This is right and this is wrong." Bodhidharma is making a tremendously pregnant statement. He says:
<p class="sutra">DISCRIMINATION WITH NO-MIND IS RIGHT.</p>


And he is really very close to the point, as close as language can reach. When you function without any mind, when you function out of pure awareness, whatsoever you do is right. That's what he calls "discrimination with no-mind" -- that is right. Not that you decide to do right, not that you decide not to do wrong. When there is no mind in you, no prejudice, no ideology, no thoughts; a pure silence.... Out of that silence, the spontaneous act. Out of that silence, the response to reality from moment to moment. That is right.


Look at the beautiful definition of right: it has nothing to do with the act, it has something to do with consciousness.


All the buddhas try to change the emphasis from the outer to the inner, from action to consciousness -- even from conscience to consciousness, because conscience is extrovert; it is created by the society. You have a Hindu conscience or a Mohammedan conscience or a Christian conscience. But consciousness is simply consciousness, neither Hindu nor Christian nor Mohammedan.


Consciousness, just pure consciousness: a mirrorlike phenomenon reflecting that which is; and out of that reflection the act, the total act. That is right. See the emphasis. The emphasis is not on the act: what to do and what not to do. Bodhidharma simply drops that. It is not a question of doing this or not doing that, because one thing may be right in one moment of consciousness and may not be right in another moment. In one situation, in one context, in a certain space, one act may be right; and in another space, in another context, the same act may be wrong. So acts can't be decisive.


It all depends on your consciousness and the situation that is encountered by you. The decision is going to happen between you and the situation. And the decision has not to be deliberately taken according to certain ideology, according to certain conclusions, according to certain prejudices, concepts, the decision has to arise in the purity of consciousness, in the state of no-mind, then it is right. If it is not coming out of no-mind then it is wrong. This is a very significant opening: it can open doors and doors and doors to mysteries.


See the difference. The ten commandments talk about acts: Don't do this, don't do that. Bodhidharma is not saying: Don't do this, don't do that -- because who knows, tomorrow the same act may be needed. Situations change; life is a constant flux. What is right today may not be right tomorrow, hence acts cannot be fixed -- and that's what all so-called religions have done.


People even ask that I should decide what is right and what is wrong for my disciples, for my sannyasins. I am not going to decide what is right and what is wrong. I am simply helping you to create the pure consciousness, because out of that consciousness, whatsoever happens is right. And whenever you lose that purity, that height, that flight of consciousness and start crawling in the darkness of the earth, then all that you do is wrong.


It is possible that an unconscious man may be doing something which is thought to be right by society, but he cannot be doing right according to Bodhidharma and according to me. Society may respect him for doing right, but we cannot say that he is doing right because he has no right consciousness to do it: the very foundation is missing. His action may on the surface appear to be right, but his intention cannot be right; and it is intention that is decisive. He may donate money to the poor, and of course everybody will say that this is right. Donating money to the poor -- who will say it is not right?


But Bodhidharma will say: Only if he is sharing out of joy, not out of an egoistic attitude, is it right. If he is sharing, not pitying the poor; if he is sharing for the joy of sharing itself, not obliging the poor, then it is right. But if there is a hidden motive of obliging the poor -- if there is a hidden intention to gain something in the other world, some virtue, to gain entry into paradise -- if he is doing something like that, the act on the surface will seem to be good, but it is not good. It is wrong because it comes out of a wrong consciousness, it is arising out of a wrong context. It can't be right.


There are millions of Christian missionaries serving poor people for wrong reasons. Their reason for serving poor people is because this is the way to attain to heaven. This is greed, this is not service! And on the surface they are good people, nice people, very helpful people, doing good works in every possible way, but deep down their desire is nothing but a great greed, a greed projected towards the other world. They are so greedy -- more greedy than the ordinary people, because the ordinary people are satisfied with a little bit of money, a good house, a garden, a car, this and that; a little prestige, power, becoming a prime minister or a president, and they are perfectly happy, satisfied. But these people are not satisfied with such small things --  mundane, momentary; they condemn all these things. They want eternal peace, they want eternal bliss, they want the eternal company of God.


And there is going to be great competition, because God must be surrounded by a great crowd of saints. Who is going to be close to God? In fact, this is what Jesus' disciples asked him, The last night before he departed from his disciples, this was the question uppermost in their minds.


I always feel sorry for Jesus: he was not so fortunate as Buddha, as Mahavira, as Lao Tzu, as far as disciples are concerned. He had a very poor lot!


Jesus is going to be crucified tomorrow. He has told them that this is the last night and that he will be caught; he predicts it. And do you know what they are asking? They are not concerned about Jesus' crucifixion: how to protect him, how to save him, or what can be done now; they are not worried about that. They ask him, "Lord, tomorrow you are leaving us. Just one question before you go; let it be settled. Of course, we know you will be on the right hand side of God in heaven, but who will be next to you? Who amongst us will be the one blessed to be next to you?"


This is pure greed! This is spiritual politics -- more ugly than ordinary politics, because ordinary politics is gross and you can see it immediately when it is there, but this type of politics is very subtle and very difficult to see.


Serve, if service is your response out of no-mind. Don't desire anything out of it. Do it for the sheer joy of doing it.


That's what I am trying to create here. You are all involved in all kinds of work in this commune, and this is only the beginning, just the seed of the commune; soon it will grow into a big tree. But the basic foundation is being laid. You are all working, but it is not service because of some greed. You are not here to attain anything in the other world. I am teaching you how to enjoy each moment for its own sake; the joy has to be intrinsic.


Just the other day Gyan Bhakti made a silver box for me to keep Jintan in. And she came crying tears of joy that she was able to do something for me. There is nothing to be gained -- I cannot promise her that "Gyan Bhakti, you will be exactly on the right side of me in heaven."


There is no heaven, and there is no God as such, as a person. Even I am not going to be on his right side! And basically I am a leftist; I don't believe in the right side at all. The right side is the male chauvinist idea, because the right side represents the left-side mind, which is reason, mathematics, calculation. The left hand represents poetry, love, dancing, music, sculpture. But there is no God, and there is no right and left to God.
There is no other world except this.
This very body the buddha.
This very earth the lotus paradise.
And this very moment is all eternity.


Live out of no-mind, then whatsoever happens is right. And live out of the mind, then whatsoever you do is wrong.


Hence I am not in favor of people like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, not at all. She knows nothing of meditation. She is a good woman, doing hard work, but deep down there is greed. Without meditation you cannot get rid of greed. Yes, serving orphans, widows, poor people, ill people, old people, lepers -- anybody will say this is good except Bodhidharma or except me. It is only apparently good; deep down it is greed. And sometimes I wonder: if lepers disappear through scientific advancement, and if communism comes and poor people are no longer there, and if biochemistry finds ways so that people can always remain young and never become old, then what will happen to people like Mother Teresa? They will be at a loss! They will not find anybody who will need their service. They will be in difficulty: they need these people, it is their need. These people are needed for them to be great servants.


Hence religious people -- the so-called religious people -- want the world to continue in poverty, because if the world continues to be in poverty they will have something to serve. They want people to remain ill, starved. Now science has enough technology to change the face of the earth, but the religions won't allow it because their whole business will evaporate. If science makes this earth almost like a paradise, then Mother Teresa will not be needed.


I will still be needed. In fact, I will be needed more, because when people have nothing to do then the world of doing nothing, of meditation begins -- because meditation is the art of simply being.
<p class="sutra">SITTING SILENTLY, DOING NOTHING,
SPRING COMES, AND THE GRASS GROWS BY ITSELF.</p>


If the world becomes really happy, joyous, rich, affluent, then people like Bodhidharma and me will be needed more. If the world lives in luxury then millions of buddhas can bloom. But it is difficult to understand this.


It is easy to understand Mother Teresa and the Nobel prize that has been given to her. Gurdjieff was not given a Nobel prize, nor Ramana Maharshi. Krishnamurti has been doing only one thing his whole life: trying to make people more aware and conscious. Nobody has ever thought of giving a Nobel prize to him, because this work is subtle, invisible. Real work is always of the roots -- you can't see them. And just ordinary people like Mother Teresa are awarded Nobel prizes; I don't think that Buddha would get a Nobel prize if he came, or Bodhidharma -- impossible.


Our whole idea of right and wrong is so superficial that we cannot see deep into the very essence of what is good and what is not good. Bodhidharma is giving you the essential core:
<p class="sutra">DISCRIMINATION WITH NO-MIND IS RIGHT. DISCRIMINATION WITH MIND IS WRONG. WHEN ONE TRANSCENDS RIGHT AND WRONG, HE IS TRULY RIGHT.</p>


See the point, meditate over it: WHEN ONE TRANSCENDS RIGHT AND WRONG... when one has no idea of what is right and what is wrong. ... Because those ideas are always in the mind; they are mind things. When you have no idea of what is right and what is wrong, when you are utterly innocent, then you are right, truly right. To be innocent, silent, contentless, just a consciousness: that's what Bodhidharma says is truly right.
IN A SUTRA IT SAYS, "WHEN ONE DWELLS ON THE RIGHT ROAD, HE DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE...."


One simply lives out of his consciousness, not being worried whether one is right or wrong. Who cares? One simply follows one's spontaneity; one flows with it without any worry about whether it is right or wrong. Only wrong people worry about right and wrong. Right people never worry about anything; they simply live their life. They live their life without any imposition. They live their life without any morality, immorality. They live their life without any character. They live in a characterless freedom.
<p class="sutra">IN A SUTRA IT SAYS, "WHEN ONE DWELLS ON THE RIGHT ROAD, HE DOES NOT DISCRIMINATE 'THIS IS RIGHT, THIS IS WRONG.'"</p>


He never thinks about what is right and what is wrong. He simply goes on living silently, joyously, ecstatically, and then whatsoever he touches is transformed into gold. Dust becomes divine in his hands. And in the hands of your so-called saints even gold turns into dust. In the hands of your so-called saints and mahatmas, nectar becomes poison.


The second question: WHAT IS A SAGACIOUS STUDENT, AND WHAT IS A DULL STUDENT?

Bodhidharma says:
<p class="sutra">A SAGACIOUS STUDENT DOES NOT DEPEND ON HIS TEACHER'S WORDS BUT USES HIS OWN EXPERIENCE TO FIND THE TRUTH.</p>


A very fundamental criterion: the really intelligent disciple DOES NOT DEPEND ON HIS TEACHER'S WORDS. He listens to his teacher's words, but more than his words, he listens to his being. More than his words, he listens to his silence. More than his words, he observes his gestures. More than his words, he looks into his eyes. More than his words, he watches how he walks, how he sits, how he talks, how sometimes he remains silent. His approach is not intellectual, his approach is existential. And because he DOES NOT DEPEND ON HIS TEACHER'S WORDS, he USES HIS OWN EXPERIENCE TO FIND THE TRUTH.


The masters have always been saying that you have to find the truth on your own. Be a light unto yourself. Nobody can give you the truth; truth is not a transferable property. It is not some possession that you can inherit; you have to discover it. Everybody has to discover it again and again on his own.


That is the difference between scientific truth and religious truth. Scientific truth is discovered by one person and then it becomes the property of the whole world. Albert Einstein discovered the theory of relativity; it took years for him to work it out. Once discovered, it is the property of the whole of humanity. Now anybody can understand it, anybody can read about it; there is no problem about it. Scientific truth is objective, it is outside. Once discovered, everybody can see it and everybody can understand it -- just a little intelligence is needed, a little effort is needed -- but you need not REdiscover it.


That is the difference with religious truth: it is subjective, it is inner; you cannot put it in front of others. So when a man becomes a buddha only he knows what has happened -- or other buddhas will know what has happened -- but it never becomes an objective phenomenon which others can watch.


You who are in deep love with me, you know what has happened to me, but you cannot prove it to others; it is not an objective phenomenon. If you try to prove it you will feel very inadequate. It is easy to disprove it: it is impossible to prove it.


You cannot prove that Christ attained. Thousands of books have been written, but nothing has been proved yet. For two thousand years more books have been written on Christ than on anybody else, but what has been proved? There are still people who think that he was insane. There are still psychologists who think that he was neurotic, psychotic, schizophrenic -- and they think so very seriously and they have many arguments to prove why it is so.


He used to hear voices, which only insane people hear. He used to talk to the sky, which only mad people do. And he was a megalomaniac, according to these great scholars, psychologists, psychiatrists, because he suffered from a very puffed-up ego. He declared that "I am the only son of God." Now, what pretentiousness! He declared that "I have come to save the whole of humanity." What ego! And this man talks about humbleness, humility, and goes on saying, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth" -- and he was not a meek man at all!


So the people who want to prove that he was schizophrenic have enough proof. One day he says, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth," and another day he enters into the temple of Jerusalem, beats the moneychangers and throws them out of the temple. Can you think that this man is a meek man? He talks about humbleness, humility, poverty of the spirit, and declares that "I am the king of the Jews," that "I am the real king." That is enough proof that this man has many minds, split minds. He talks about forgiveness, he says that God is love -- and becomes so angry with small things. Not only with people, he became so angry with a fig tree, because his disciples were hungry, he was hungry, and there was no fruit on the tree. Now this man is insane, because the tree is not in any way willfully preventing the fruits from growing at this time; it is not the time for the fruits. They come up to the tree with great expectation, and there is no fruit. Jesus takes it as an insult. The son of God comes, and what kind of fig tree is this? No respect! He goes into a rage, he curses the tree. The tree burns because of his curse: a green tree turns into a dead tree immediately. Now what kind of man is this? He must be mad! Can you think of him as a buddha? That will be difficult to prove.


Two thousand years of scholarship have not been able to prove it. But anybody can disprove it -- it is very easy -- because the experience of christ-consciousness is very inner. It is so deep and so interior that only he knows what is happening inside him -- only he or those who are crowned with the same glory, who have attained to the same samadhi, to the same consciousness will be able to understand. But how many of those people are there in the world?


Mahavira looks mad because he lives naked. Not only that, he pulls his hair out; he does not go to the barber because he wants to be absolutely independent. Now, what ego! You can immediately translate it as a very egoistic attitude: he does not want to depend on anybody else, he wants to be absolutely independent. It is better to pull your own hair out even though it hurts, but he will not go to the barber. Can't he keep a razor, a pair of scissors with him? No, because he can't possess anything. He does not possess anything, he lives without possessions. To possess something is to be ordinary, so he lives without possessions. Now the only thing left is to pull your hair out.


And he does not take a bath, so sooner or later there will be lice in the hair and it will become dirty and dusty, and he has to pull it out. Why doesn't he take a bath? Seems to be really insane! He does not take a bath because he thinks there is no need to decorate the body. He does not take a bath because he thinks water has very very small living cells in it; they will be killed. And he does not want to do harm to anybody at all, not even those small cells. Water consists of many many bacteria, cells, living organisms; so, not to disturb them, not to destroy them, he will not take a bath.


And there is a certain kind of insane person whose characteristic is that he pulls his hair out. Sometimes women do it when they are really in rage -- they pull their hair. That is a temporary madness. But this man continuously does it; he seems to be permanently mad. You can easily prove that Mahavira is mad; it is very difficult to prove that he has attained, because that is his inner experience. Yes, somebody else who has gone so deep, who has dived so deep into his being, may be able to see the point, but even he cannot prove it.


Truth, religious truth, is subjective: you know it only when you know it. Nobody can give it to you.
Bodhidharma says:
<p class="sutra">A SAGACIOUS STUDENT DOES NOT DEPEND ON HIS TEACHER'S WORDS, BUT USES HIS OWN EXPERIENCE TO FIND THE TRUTH.</p>


The voluptuous brunette dreamed that a tall, dark, handsome man appeared at her bedside, pulled the covers off her and carried her to a big Cadillac. Then he drove to a secluded spot in the country, threw her into the back seat and leered at her.


"What are you going to do now?" she asked in a quivering voice.


"How should I know?" he answered. "It's your dream."


The words that you hear from the masters are not the masters' words, they are your words. It is your dream. You can interpret, you can accumulate, you can become very knowledgeable, but it is all your dream. Never for a moment forget that.


And you are asleep and you are split and you are subjectively unconscious: you are in a real mess. It is a miracle that you go on keeping yourself together, that you don't start falling to pieces here and there. You must be using imported glue, because Indian glue can't do that! It is impossible.


A taxi passenger was being buffeted to the right and to the left as his driver careened down the avenue at breakneck speed. When the gentleman was granted an instant to catch his breath, he finally complained to the driver.


"You ain't got no cause to worry," said the man. "I ain't goin' to land back in no hospital now, after eighteen months in one overseas."


Only partially reassured, the rider grumbled, "How dreadful. You must have been seriously wounded."


"Nope. Never got a scratch," grinned the cabbie. "I was a mental case."

I have heard a similar type of story:


One airplane takes off and as it starts rising higher, a great laughter is heard from the cockpit. The passengers become a little worried: "What is the matter?" So one passenger opens the door of the cockpit and asks the pilot, who is almost rolling about laughing, "What's the matter? What's so funny?"


He said, "I've just escaped from the mental asylum and now they can't find me!"


You can imagine the passengers -- what must have happened to them! But whether one is really a confirmed insane person or not does not make much difference; the difference is only of degree. All are insane. Unless you become a buddha you are insane. And whatsoever you go on understanding through the words will not be the words of the master. They are your own interpretations -- echoes heard in your insanity.


The real, intelligent disciple is not interested in words, he is interested in actual experience. He is interested in self-actualization. He uses the time with the master to rise higher and higher in consciousness. His effort is not that of becoming more knowledgeable; his effort is that of becoming more conscious, more authentic. He tries to attain more being than more knowledge. The stupid student acquires knowledge and the intelligent student acquires being. And it is being that can save you, not knowledge.
<p class="sutra">A DULL STUDENT DEPENDS ON COMING TO A GRADUAL UNDERSTANDING THROUGH HIS TEACHER'S WORD.</p>


Real knowing is never gradual; it is a quantum leap, it is discontinuous with your past. The old simply disappears and the new appears. Gradual understanding is a trick of the mind. Gradual understanding is not understanding but only an accumulation of information.


Buddhahood, enlightenment, is sudden; it is never gradual. Yes, if you go on listening to the master, his authenticity, his sincerity, his love for you, his compassion, is going to create a great impression on you; it is going to create an impact on you. And slowly slowly those words will start gathering inside you. Gradually you will start feeling that now you understand a little more. But what is happening really is that now you believe a little more, not that you understand.


A master speaks with authority -- not the authority of the scriptures, not the authority of tradition, but the authority of his own experience. His words carry authority because he is a witness to his own words. What he says he knows, what he says he has seen, hence the impact.


But the impact can be in one of two ways: either you accumulate those words full of authority and then you become knowledgeable.... But to be knowledgeable is only to be a believer, not a knower. And no belief is ever going to liberate you; it binds you. And no belief is real trust; it is not faith, it is fake. Belief is fake faith.


The farmer's son entered the kitchen where the table had been set for dinner. The farmer, already seated, asked him, "Son, did you remember to close the door on the chicken house this evening? You remember what happened the last time a fox got in there, don't you?"


"Yes, father, I know. The door is closed," replied the boy.


Several minutes passed, then the old farmer got up and put his coat on. Walking out the door, he suddenly turned and remarked, "It's not that I don't believe you, son, I just want to be sure."


But what is the difference between these two? He says, "It is not that I don't believe you, son, I just want to be sure."


You can believe in the words of the masters, but how are you going to be sure? Unless you experience there is no surety, there is no certainty. Doubt will persist; it will become an undercurrent, it will sabotage all your beliefs. Then the time wasted with the master is really wasted. Otherwise, each moment with the master can be of tremendous value.


Don't gather words; that is the sign of the stupid student. Inquire into your being. Learn from the master how to be thirsty for the self. Learn from the master how to go on the great adventure of self-discovery. Accept his challenge, not just his words.
<p class="sutra">A DULL STUDENT DEPENDS ON COMING TO A GRADUAL UNDERSTANDING THROUGH HIS TEACHER'S WORDS. A TEACHER HAS TWO KINDS OF STUDENTS; ONE HEARS HIS TEACHER'S WORDS WITHOUT CLINGING TO THE MATERIAL NOR TO THE IMMATERIAL, WITHOUT ATTACHING TO FORM OR TO NON-FORM, WITHOUT THINKING OF ANIMATE OBJECTS OR OF INANIMATE OBJECTS... THIS IS THE SAGACIOUS STUDENT....</p>


He simply listens to the master's words as you listen to the wind passing through the pine trees or you listen to the sound of running water or you listen to the songs of the birds in the morning. You simply listen with no greed to accumulate, with no greed at all. Just a pure listening. You don't bring your mind in, you don't interfere. You don't try to make any sense out of it. What sense is there when the wind passes through the pine trees and you hear the music? What sense is there? When it is raining and you hear the sound on your roof, what sense is there? Yes, there is tremendous beauty but no sense. It is a great experience, but there is no ordinary meaning attached to it. And what meaning can you give to it? You will project your ideas.


The wind knocks on your door, and if you are waiting for your girlfriend or your boyfriend you may think that maybe they have come. You run to the door, you open the door, and you are frustrated: it was only the wind blowing, knocking on the door. You projected an idea.


A respectable old man heard that his only son had started visiting brothels. One evening the old gentleman got word that the boy was in that area of the town which was full of houses of ill repute, and, eager to get him back into the sanctity of his home before the family name was irretrievably ruined, he dashed downtown to find him. Charging along at full steam, distracted and angry, he was accosted by a lady of the evening popping out of her doorway.


"Hi, pop," she carolled pleasantly. "Are you looking for a naughty little girl?"


Unthinkingly he replied, "No, I'm looking for a naughty little boy."


The girl recoiled in horror and exclaimed, "You nasty old man!"


What meaning you are going to give to words? You don't know anything of the inner -- all meanings will be false. Listen without giving any meaning. Just listen, and it becomes a meditation.


Right now, if you are just listening with no idea of your own coming continuously in between me and you, if you have put your mind aside, if there is a direct contact and I am not being taken by you via the mind, if the connection is direct, then something far more valuable than words can ever contain will be imparted to you.


It is like a magnetic field in which suddenly your heart starts dancing. To be with the master is a magnetic field in which you start moving closer and closer, not deliberately but spontaneously.


... THE OTHER, the stupid one, WHO IS AVID FOR UNDERSTANDING, ACCUMULATES MEANINGS, AND MIXES GOOD AND BAD, IS THE DULL STUDENT.


One who is greedy to have more and more knowledge is bound to mix good and bad. What the master says is good, right, because it comes from no-mind; and what the student hears is bad, wrong, because he hears through the mind. Then both get mixed up and you become a hotchpotch. Rather than becoming more integrated you become more split, more of a chaos. Rather than attaining to a higher order of being, you start falling into a more and more disorderly state.
<p class="sutra">THE SAGACIOUS STUDENT UNDERSTANDS INSTANTLY....</p>


Remember the difference. The stupid thinks that he will understand gradually -- a little bit today and then tomorrow, and then the day after tomorrow -- but the really intelligent disciple understands immediately. When the mind is not interfering there is no question of time coming in.


Mind is time, let me remind you again. If you bring mind in, time will come in, then postponement, then gradualness. If the mind is not there, where is time? Then I am here, you are here, and there is only the present. Then this now joins me with you. Then this now starts pulsating with my energy and your energy. Then this now becomes a dance. Then this here becomes a song. The 'now' and the 'here' are the only true time and true space -- true because now time is eternity and space is infinity.
The intelligent person understands immediately:
<p class="sutra">... HE DOES NOT RAISE INFERIOR MIND WHEN HE HEARS THE TEACHING, NOR DOES HE FOLLOW THE SAGE'S MIND....</p>


Such a beautiful statement! Bodhidharma says: I am not telling you to drop your stupid mind. I am not telling you to drop your inferior mind. He is saying: Even if you have a very wise mind -- the sage's mind -- drop that too... because mind can never be wise. It can pretend, it can deceive. There is nothing like a sage mind -- the sage has no mind. The sinner has a bad mind, the saint has a good mind, the sage has no mind. That is the difference between these three words.
He does not allow any kind of mind:
<p class="sutra">... HE TRANSCENDS BOTH WISDOM AND IGNORANCE.</p>


See the point, see it immediately: because there is no mind, you cannot be ignorant; because there is no mind, how can you be wise? You have gone beyond the duality. Ignorance gone, wisdom gone, you simply are. Just as the roseflower is, the rock is, you are.
<p class="sutra">EVEN THOUGH ONE HEARS THE TEACHING AND DOES NOT CLING TO WORLDLY DESIRES, DOES NOT LOVE BUDDHA OR THE TRUE PATH, IF, WHEN HE HAS TO SELECT ONE OUT OF TWO, HE SELECTS QUIETNESS FROM CONFUSION, WISDOM FROM IGNORANCE, INACTIVITY FROM ACTIVITY AND CLINGS TO ONE OR THE OTHER OF THESE, THEN HE IS A DULL STUDENT.</p>


If you choose between wisdom and ignorance, if you choose between inactivity and activity, if you choose at all between right and wrong, you are a dull student. Choice makes you dull.


Krishnamurti repeats again and again that choiceless awareness is ultimate freedom. Don't choose and be free; choose and you have chosen your bondage. Choose and you are imprisoned immediately. Each choice is a prison.


Sannyas is not a choice: it is dropping of all choices. It is simply a gesture of dropping all choices, likes and dislikes. It is moving beyond duality.
<p class="sutra">IF ONE TRANSCENDS BOTH WISDOM AND IGNORANCE, HAS NO GREED FOR THE TEACHING, DOES NOT LIVE IN RIGHT RECOLLECTEDNESS, DOES NOT RAISE RIGHT THINKING, AND DOES NOT HAVE ASPIRATIONS TO BE A PRATYEKA-BUDDHA NOR A BODHISATTVA, THEN HE IS A SAGACIOUS STUDENT.</p>


When there is no choice, no greed, not even for the right-mindfulness that is Buddha's basic teaching: sammasati -- right-mindfulness.... Even for that, in the ultimate state of intelligence, there is no choice. Not even the desire to be a buddha or to be a bodhisattva. No desire for nirvana, no desire for God -- desire as such has disappeared. One lives moment to moment, without any desire. Tremendous is his richness.


There are people who have much but still desire more; their poverty is beyond belief. And there are people who don't have much and still don't desire anything more; their richness is beyond measure.


A man who has no desires has come home. He has become a chakravartin. He has conquered the world without conquering anything at all, because the whole kingdom of God is his, all inexhaustible treasures are his.
The only secret key is choiceless awareness.


These answers of Bodhidharma can be reduced to this single phrase: choiceless awareness. But don't cling to the words, experience it, because it is only experience that liberates.
Enough for today.
		

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> Copyright 1964-1990 Osho (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh)
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