Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....
Books are living things. Unlike man, they know their destinations. Either they find their way or wait for the opportunity. They know where they would be liked, loved, treasured and above all read. Yet some lose their way and find themselves in trucks along with newspaper waste ignorant of their destination. They would scream in pain and shed tears if it is brought to their notice that the truck is bound for a fireworks factory, where they would go into the making of crackers only be blown to pieces during the festival of lights.
During one of my recent visits to the godown of a wastepaper merchant, I came across hundreds of monthly pocket novels in regional languages printed in cowdung paper (cheap newsprint) all bundled up. As I watched sympathetically the plight of such books when they were hauled up the truck, an odd little book attracted my attention. With much persuasion from my side, and with much difficulty from the merchant’s side, the book reached my hands, and gasped for air. Too stuffy in the bundle? Or was it because the coir had dug deep welts into the book?
Even now I do not know what actually pushed me to rescue the book from its impending disaster. Was it because the book was naked? Yes, it had no jacket cover, the stitches at the spine were showing up and the paper was quite brittle. Well! In spite of all its disqualifications to enter my treasure house of knowledge, it managed its way into my study for it had an attractive title: If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him.Rarely have I come across such an enticing title before, either in public libraries or in private collections. And I am sure I don’t have one such title in all the twenty four bookcases of different sizes neatly arranged in my study. I can’t quite say whether the author Sheldon B.Kopp himself had given such an alluring title to his book, or was it the suggestion of his editor, or was it the brainchild of his publisher. But whoever had done it, my hats off to him. The title of the book gave me pre-conceived ideas about the book, as it would to any reader. But as I went through, or rather pilgrimaged through its pages, I was in for a revelation.
The book seems to me an explicated version of the words of the sage, Sri Aurobindo:
“Nothing can be taught.” Swami Vivekananda had said the same in one of his addresses to students, but in different words. “Do you think the teachers are teaching? No! They are simply kindling the slumbering knowledge in you.” And this book is bent on telling its readers: “A grown-up can be no man’s disciple”. This book unravels to us a deep hidden secret. And the secret is that there is no secret. “Everything is,” writes the author, ‘just what is seems to be. This is it! There are no hidden meanings.”
Well! What then is enlightenment? It is simply this: “There is nothing to read between the lines. And the best way to see the truth is the Zen way i.e., through our everyday eyes. When the Zen master warns: “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him!” he only points out that no meaning that comes from outside of ourselves is real. “The Buddhahood of each of us has already been obtained. We need only recognize it. Philosophy, religion, patriotism, all are empty idols. The only meaning in our lives is what we each bring to them. Killing the Buddha on the road means destroying the hope that anything outside of us can be our master. No one is any bigger than anyone else is. There are no mothers or fathers for grown-ups, only sisters and brothers.”
While we admit that there is nothing to be taught, we don’t agree that there is nothing to be learned. If no one is really any bigger than anyone else is, to whom then can one turn? The answer is, to put it in the words of the author Sheldon B. Kopp, psychotherapist and teacher of psychotherapy: “Once a patient realizes that he has no disease, and so can never be cured, he might as well terminate his treatment. He may have been put in touch with good things in himself, and may even still be benefiting from the relationship with the therapist, but once he realizes that he can continue as a disciple in psychotherapy forever, only then can he see the absurdity of remaining a patient, only then does he feel free to leave.” And the solution he offers is “We must each give up the master, without giving up the search.”
A monk once asked his guru:
“What is the meaning of the First Patriarch’s coming from the West? The guru replied: “Ask the post over there.” Taken athe monk said: “I do not understand you,” to which the guru replied: “I do not either, anymore than you.” Each man shares the plight of the monk who realizes “Each of us is ultimately alone”. Once this realisation comes to the seeker, he will have no further difficulty. He will start on his pilgrimage – the voyage within, for his self-discovery. Yes! “The only victory lies is surrender to oneself….All of the significant battles are waged within the self.”
Courtesy:
‘Sri Aurobindo’s Action’
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