BUDDHA AND BUDDHIST MASTERS
The Diamond Sutra 03
Third Discourse from the series of 11 discourses - The Diamond Sutra by Osho.
You can listen, download or read all of these discourses on oshoworld.com.
Because a bodhisattva who gives a gift should not be supported by a thing, nor should he be supported anywhere…. The great being should give gifts in such a way that he is not supported by the notion of a sign.
And why? Because the heap of merit of that bodhi-being, who unsupported gives a gift, is not easy to measure….
The Lord continued: What do you think, Subhuti, can the Tathagata be seen by the possession of his marks?
Subhuti replied: No indeed, O Lord. And why? What has been taught by the Tathagata as the possession of marks, that is truly a no-possession of no-marks.
The Lord said: Wherever there is possession of marks, there is fraud; wherever there is no-possession of no-marks, there is no fraud. Hence the Tathagata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.
Subhuti asked: Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?
The Lord replied: Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.
For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas…. And these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of merit under one single Buddha only.
On the contrary, Subhuti, those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith, be such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, such as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands of buddhas.
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.
And they all, Subhuti, will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.
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 howsoever you listen, 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 ear locks have to be removed. What are the ear locks? 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 ear locks 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 ear lock. 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, obeir, 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 able to listen, then you will be baring your ear, then you will be utterly open.
It is good to say to an ordinary human being, “Listen attentively.” But 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 ear locks, 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 in words, this may not have yet become a thought; it may be just a feel, a ripple, deep inside. “If I give the dharma 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 the divine, 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 it.
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.
Buddha says:
Because a bodhisattva who gives a gift should not be supported by a thing, nor should he be supported anywhere….
The support means motive. The support means that “I will be getting something out of it.” Then you have missed the whole point. Then it is a bargain, then it is no more a gift. And nirvana can only be a gift, it cannot be a bargain. It is not business. You have to give it for the sheer joy of giving it. You should not carry any motive to gain anything out of it. If you are carrying any motive to gain anything out of it you cannot help anybody; in fact you yourself still need help. You are not liberated yet, you don’t have the passport for the other shore yet. You can misguide, but you cannot guide.
The real gift is an overflowing. You are so full of your enlightenment that it simply goes on overflowing. It is anybody’s to take. And you feel obliged when somebody takes it from you because he unburdens you. When a cloud comes and showers on the earth it feels thankful to the earth, because the earth has received and the cloud is unburdened. Yes, exactly like that.
When enlightenment is arising, it goes on welling up. You can go on sharing as much as you want, and it goes on again and again coming up, again overflows, again overflows. There is no end to it. You have come to the eternal source. Now you should not be a miser and you should not be motivated and you should not have any idea to get anything in return.
Because a bodhisattva who gives a gift should not be supported by a thing, nor should he be supported anywhere…. The great being should give gifts in such a way that he is not supported by the notion of a sign.
He will not think, “This is a gift,” and he will not think that “I am the giver and you are the recipient.” No, all these ideas and notions should be dropped. There is no giver, no gift, no recipient; it is all oneness. The one you are helping is also you. The one you are giving to is another form of you…as if you are giving from the left hand to the right hand. There is no need to feel great about it. There is no giver, there is no receiver and there is no gift.
The great being should give gifts in such a way that he is not supported by the notion of a sign.
And why? Because the heap of merit of that bodhi-being, who unsupported gives a gift, is not easy to measure….
Now this is a problem you will have to face again and again. The problem is, your merit is great if you don’t think about it. If you think about it, it disappears. If you desire it you will never get it. If you don’t desire it, it goes on showering on you.
On the lower plane, Jesus’ statement is right. That statement has been given to ordinary people: “Ask and it shall be given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” But Buddha is speaking to Subhuti, and he is exactly saying, “Ask and it shall not be given. Seek and you will not find. Knock and the doors will turn into a China wall, they will never open.” And remember, the difference comes from the audience. Jesus is talking to common people, Buddha is talking to a very uncommon person.
The Lord continued: What do you think, Subhuti, can the Tathagata be seen by the possession of his marks.
Subhuti replied: No indeed, O Lord. And why? What has been taught by the Tathagata as the possession of marks, that is truly a no-possession of no-marks.
The Lord said: Wherever there is possession of marks, there is fraud; wherever there is no-possession of no-marks, there is no fraud. Hence the Tathagata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.
These will look like puzzles. They are not. They appear to be puzzles but they are not. But on those heights from where Buddha is speaking everything becomes contradictory; contradiction becomes the only expression. One has to be paradoxical on those plenitudes of being. Logic loses all meaning. If one insists on being logical then one cannot move on those plenitudes and one cannot express that truth. That truth is bound to be contradictory.
Buddha asks, “Subhuti, is a tathagata to…be seen by the possession of his marks?” Buddhist scriptures say that a buddha has thirty-two marks of being a super-man. Those thirty-two marks, are they to be the deciding factor?
For ordinary human beings it is okay, because you don’t have any other eyes; you can see only the outward sign. You live by signs, marks. But for a man like Subhuti who can see inward, who can see in the Buddha, those marks should not be relevant anymore. And moreover, to possess anything is not the quality of a buddha – not even those thirty-two marks. They are irrelevant. A buddha has to be utterly ordinary, because he possesses nothing. That is his real mark, not to possess anything. Not to possess even buddhahood, that is the real mark of buddhahood. This is how things become contradictory.
A real buddha is one who does not claim even to be a buddha, because all claims are fraudulent. To claim is to be a fraud. A buddha claims nothing, he has no claim. He desires nothing. He is not in any way interested in exhibiting. He is not interested in convincing anybody about who he is. He is utterly there – you can partake of him, you can join him in his dance, you can share his celebration – but he is not there to prove anything. To prove anything only proves that you have not attained yet. He is not defensive.
And those outer marks can be created by people who may not be buddhas. Anything can be created. For example, Buddha’s breathing is utterly silent, as if he does not breathe at all. But that can be done by any yogi who is not a buddha. You can practice breathing, you can practice exercises, and you can bring the breathing to almost a halting point. You can defeat Buddha.
His breathing is slow because he has slowed down, not because he has practiced any breathing exercises. His breathing is slow because he is not going anywhere, because all desires have disappeared; that’s why his breathing is slow, almost invisible. The reason is not that he is a great yogi, no. The reason is that desires dropped, there is no hurry. He is just on a morning walk, he is not going anywhere. He has no future, no worry.
Have you watched? When you are worried your breathing becomes disturbed. When you are angry your breathing becomes violent. When you make love and passion arises, your breathing becomes very very disturbed, feverish. A buddha’s passion has become compassion, his desires have dropped, disappeared…as if ripe leaves have fallen from the tree. And his breathing has slowed down, slowed down, slowed down.
But if this is the sign, then any pretender can show the sign. Buddha sits utterly silently, his posture is unmoving, he remains in one posture. But this can be done by anybody, just a little practice is needed, but by that practice you will not become a buddha.
So Buddha says:
The Lord said: Wherever there is possession of marks, there is fraud…
If somebody claims, “I possess these marks of Buddha. Look, I am a buddha!” then there is fraud, because the very claim is a proof of fraud.
…Wherever there is no-possession of no-marks there is no fraud. Hence the Tathagata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.
Why does Buddha suddenly ask this question of Subhuti? A desire must have arisen in Subhuti, mm? – these are the things to be understood. A desire must have arisen in Subhuti. He is just on the verge of becoming a buddha. A desire must have arisen: “Soon I will possess thirty-two marks. Soon I will be a buddha, I will be proclaimed a buddha. I will have thirty-two marks.”
This may have been just an unconscious desire, but a ripple…. Seeing the Buddha and his thirty-two marks, his grace, his beauty, who will not start desiring? And Subhuti is capable now, just on the threshold of buddhahood. While Buddha is talking about giving as if you are not giving, while Buddha is saying that if you can give without the notion of a giver and the gift and the receiver, great will be your merit…listening to this he must have longed. The longing may have been a subtle seed, but he must have longed. “Then with that great merit I will become a buddha. I will have thirty-two marks – the same fragrance that surrounds the Buddha, the same grace, the same splendor, the same benediction! Aha!” He must have somewhere created the desire.
Seeing that desire, Buddha says, What do you think, Subhuti, can the Tathagata be seen by the possession of his marks? Unless you see this undercurrent in Subhuti’s consciousness or unconsciousness you will not understand The Diamond Sutra.
Subhuti asked: Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?
Now you will be surprised: this is the time Subhuti is talking about, and you are the people. Twenty-five hundred years have passed. Subhuti has asked about you.
Buddha has said that whenever a religion is born, whenever a buddha turns the wheel of dharma, naturally, slowly slowly the wheel starts stopping. It loses momentum. You turn a wheel, it will start moving. Then by and by, by and by, a moment will come when it will stop.
When a buddha moves the wheel of dharma, it takes two thousand five hundred years for it to stop completely. After each five hundred years it goes on losing momentum. So those are the five ages of the dharma. After each five hundred years the dharma will be less and less, decreased and decreased and decreased, and after twenty-five centuries the wheel will stop again. It will need another buddha to turn it for the coming twenty-five centuries.
This is a rare phenomenon. It is really intriguing that Subhuti asked Buddha:
Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?
The Lord replied: Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.
For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas.…And these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of merit under one single Buddha only.
On the contrary, Subhuti, those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith, will be such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, such as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands of buddhas.
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.
And they all, Subhuti, will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.
Buddha is talking about you. The sutra is being read to you. Twenty-five centuries have passed. Subhuti has asked about you!
The other day I had told you that many of you will become bodhisattvas, many of you are on the way. It is strange that Subhuti should ask such a question. And more strange is that Buddha says, “Those people after twenty-five centuries will not be less fortunate than you but will be more fortunate.”
Why? I have been telling you many times that you are ancient ones, that you have walked on this earth many many times, that you are not listening to dharma for the first time, that you have come across many buddhas in your past lives – sometimes maybe a Krishna and sometimes maybe a Christ and sometimes maybe a Mahavira and sometimes maybe a Mohammed, but you have come across many many buddhas, many enlightened people.
You are fortunate to know so many buddhas, and if you become a little alert, all the seeds that have been sown in you by the past buddhas will start blooming, will sprout. You will start flowering.
Buddha says:
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.
It is very mysterious, but it is possible. A buddha can have a vision of the future. He can see through the fog of the future. His clarity is such, his vision is such, he can throw a ray of light into the unknown future. He can see. It will look very mysterious that Buddha sees you listening to The Diamond Sutra. From your standpoint it seems almost unbelievable, because you don’t know even how to see in the present. How can you believe that anybody can see in the future?
You know only one capacity: that is the capacity to look into the past. You can only look backwards. You are past-oriented. And whatsoever you think about your future is not a vision of the future, it is just a projection of the modified past. It is not future at all. It is your yesterday trying to be repeated as tomorrow.
You have tasted something yesterday and it was sweet and you want it again tomorrow: this is your future. You have been in love with somebody and you want to make love again in the future: this is your future. It is a repetition of the past, it is not future at all. You don’t know what future is at all. You can’t know what future is because you can’t even know what the present is. And the present is available, and you are so blind that you cannot even see into that which is already here.
But then, eyes open, you can see even into that which is not present, that which is going to happen. You can have glimpses of that. The way to see the future is first to see the present. One who can be absolutely in the present becomes capable of looking into the future.
This is ecstatic to even think that Gautama the Buddha had seen you listening to The Diamond Sutra. In The Diamond Sutra you are talked about. That’s why I have chosen it. When I came across these words I thought, “This is the thing for my people. They must know that even they have been looked into by Gautama the Buddha; that something about them has been said twenty-five centuries ago; that they have been predicted.”
The wheel that Buddha moved has stopped. The wheel has to be moved again. And that is going to be my and your life’s work – that wheel has to be moved again. Once it starts revolving it will again have twenty-five centuries’ life. Once it starts moving it goes on moving for twenty-five centuries at least.
And it has to be done again and again and again, because everything loses momentum, everything functions under the laws of nature – entropy. You throw a stone, you throw with great energy, but it goes a few hundred feet and it falls down. Exactly like that, dharma has to be made alive again and again. Then it breathes for twenty-five centuries and then dies. Everything that is born has to die.
But Buddha says, “Subhuti, do not speak thus.” Subhuti must be thinking, “Only we are fortunate. We have listened to Buddha, lived with Buddha, walked with Buddha. We are fortunate, we are blessed people. What will happen after twenty-five centuries when the wheel of dharma has completely stopped moving?” He is thinking about you unfortunate people.
Buddha says, “Do not speak thus, Subhuti. Don’t start thinking that only you are fortunate.” That is a very subtle ego: “We are fortunate, nobody else is so fortunate.” Buddha immediately puts his hand on Subhuti’s mouth:
Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.
And I know, here are people who understand the truth. Slowly slowly the morning is happening, the dark night is disappearing. Slowly slowly the seed is gaining ground, entering in your heart.
For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas….
There are many here who are going to become bodhisattvas. Just a little more work, just a little more play, just a little more effort into meditativeness, just a little more pouring of the energy, just a little more concentration of the energy, avoiding of distractions, and it is going to happen. And it is going to happen to many. And you are the fortunate ones, Buddha says.
And these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of merit under one single Buddha only.
On the contrary, Subhuti, those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith…
If you can even understand a single word of The Diamond Sutra, if you can understand a simple look of my eyes into your eyes, if you can understand a simple gesture of my inner dance….
Buddha says:
…will find even one single thought of serene faith, will be such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, such as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands of buddhas.
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata. And they all, Subhuti, will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.
And you are the people Buddha is talking about. And you are the people I am depending on. The wheel of dharma has stopped. It has to be turned again.
Enough for today.
And why? Because the heap of merit of that bodhi-being, who unsupported gives a gift, is not easy to measure….
The Lord continued: What do you think, Subhuti, can the Tathagata be seen by the possession of his marks?
Subhuti replied: No indeed, O Lord. And why? What has been taught by the Tathagata as the possession of marks, that is truly a no-possession of no-marks.
The Lord said: Wherever there is possession of marks, there is fraud; wherever there is no-possession of no-marks, there is no fraud. Hence the Tathagata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.
Subhuti asked: Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?
The Lord replied: Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.
For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas…. And these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of merit under one single Buddha only.
On the contrary, Subhuti, those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith, be such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, such as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands of buddhas.
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.
And they all, Subhuti, will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.
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 howsoever you listen, 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 ear locks have to be removed. What are the ear locks? 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 ear locks 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 ear lock. 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, obeir, 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 able to listen, then you will be baring your ear, then you will be utterly open.
It is good to say to an ordinary human being, “Listen attentively.” But 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 ear locks, 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 in words, this may not have yet become a thought; it may be just a feel, a ripple, deep inside. “If I give the dharma 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 the divine, 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 it.
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.
Buddha says:
Because a bodhisattva who gives a gift should not be supported by a thing, nor should he be supported anywhere….
The support means motive. The support means that “I will be getting something out of it.” Then you have missed the whole point. Then it is a bargain, then it is no more a gift. And nirvana can only be a gift, it cannot be a bargain. It is not business. You have to give it for the sheer joy of giving it. You should not carry any motive to gain anything out of it. If you are carrying any motive to gain anything out of it you cannot help anybody; in fact you yourself still need help. You are not liberated yet, you don’t have the passport for the other shore yet. You can misguide, but you cannot guide.
The real gift is an overflowing. You are so full of your enlightenment that it simply goes on overflowing. It is anybody’s to take. And you feel obliged when somebody takes it from you because he unburdens you. When a cloud comes and showers on the earth it feels thankful to the earth, because the earth has received and the cloud is unburdened. Yes, exactly like that.
When enlightenment is arising, it goes on welling up. You can go on sharing as much as you want, and it goes on again and again coming up, again overflows, again overflows. There is no end to it. You have come to the eternal source. Now you should not be a miser and you should not be motivated and you should not have any idea to get anything in return.
Because a bodhisattva who gives a gift should not be supported by a thing, nor should he be supported anywhere…. The great being should give gifts in such a way that he is not supported by the notion of a sign.
He will not think, “This is a gift,” and he will not think that “I am the giver and you are the recipient.” No, all these ideas and notions should be dropped. There is no giver, no gift, no recipient; it is all oneness. The one you are helping is also you. The one you are giving to is another form of you…as if you are giving from the left hand to the right hand. There is no need to feel great about it. There is no giver, there is no receiver and there is no gift.
The great being should give gifts in such a way that he is not supported by the notion of a sign.
And why? Because the heap of merit of that bodhi-being, who unsupported gives a gift, is not easy to measure….
Now this is a problem you will have to face again and again. The problem is, your merit is great if you don’t think about it. If you think about it, it disappears. If you desire it you will never get it. If you don’t desire it, it goes on showering on you.
On the lower plane, Jesus’ statement is right. That statement has been given to ordinary people: “Ask and it shall be given. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you.” But Buddha is speaking to Subhuti, and he is exactly saying, “Ask and it shall not be given. Seek and you will not find. Knock and the doors will turn into a China wall, they will never open.” And remember, the difference comes from the audience. Jesus is talking to common people, Buddha is talking to a very uncommon person.
The Lord continued: What do you think, Subhuti, can the Tathagata be seen by the possession of his marks.
Subhuti replied: No indeed, O Lord. And why? What has been taught by the Tathagata as the possession of marks, that is truly a no-possession of no-marks.
The Lord said: Wherever there is possession of marks, there is fraud; wherever there is no-possession of no-marks, there is no fraud. Hence the Tathagata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.
These will look like puzzles. They are not. They appear to be puzzles but they are not. But on those heights from where Buddha is speaking everything becomes contradictory; contradiction becomes the only expression. One has to be paradoxical on those plenitudes of being. Logic loses all meaning. If one insists on being logical then one cannot move on those plenitudes and one cannot express that truth. That truth is bound to be contradictory.
Buddha asks, “Subhuti, is a tathagata to…be seen by the possession of his marks?” Buddhist scriptures say that a buddha has thirty-two marks of being a super-man. Those thirty-two marks, are they to be the deciding factor?
For ordinary human beings it is okay, because you don’t have any other eyes; you can see only the outward sign. You live by signs, marks. But for a man like Subhuti who can see inward, who can see in the Buddha, those marks should not be relevant anymore. And moreover, to possess anything is not the quality of a buddha – not even those thirty-two marks. They are irrelevant. A buddha has to be utterly ordinary, because he possesses nothing. That is his real mark, not to possess anything. Not to possess even buddhahood, that is the real mark of buddhahood. This is how things become contradictory.
A real buddha is one who does not claim even to be a buddha, because all claims are fraudulent. To claim is to be a fraud. A buddha claims nothing, he has no claim. He desires nothing. He is not in any way interested in exhibiting. He is not interested in convincing anybody about who he is. He is utterly there – you can partake of him, you can join him in his dance, you can share his celebration – but he is not there to prove anything. To prove anything only proves that you have not attained yet. He is not defensive.
And those outer marks can be created by people who may not be buddhas. Anything can be created. For example, Buddha’s breathing is utterly silent, as if he does not breathe at all. But that can be done by any yogi who is not a buddha. You can practice breathing, you can practice exercises, and you can bring the breathing to almost a halting point. You can defeat Buddha.
His breathing is slow because he has slowed down, not because he has practiced any breathing exercises. His breathing is slow because he is not going anywhere, because all desires have disappeared; that’s why his breathing is slow, almost invisible. The reason is not that he is a great yogi, no. The reason is that desires dropped, there is no hurry. He is just on a morning walk, he is not going anywhere. He has no future, no worry.
Have you watched? When you are worried your breathing becomes disturbed. When you are angry your breathing becomes violent. When you make love and passion arises, your breathing becomes very very disturbed, feverish. A buddha’s passion has become compassion, his desires have dropped, disappeared…as if ripe leaves have fallen from the tree. And his breathing has slowed down, slowed down, slowed down.
But if this is the sign, then any pretender can show the sign. Buddha sits utterly silently, his posture is unmoving, he remains in one posture. But this can be done by anybody, just a little practice is needed, but by that practice you will not become a buddha.
So Buddha says:
The Lord said: Wherever there is possession of marks, there is fraud…
If somebody claims, “I possess these marks of Buddha. Look, I am a buddha!” then there is fraud, because the very claim is a proof of fraud.
…Wherever there is no-possession of no-marks there is no fraud. Hence the Tathagata is to be seen from no-marks as marks.
Why does Buddha suddenly ask this question of Subhuti? A desire must have arisen in Subhuti, mm? – these are the things to be understood. A desire must have arisen in Subhuti. He is just on the verge of becoming a buddha. A desire must have arisen: “Soon I will possess thirty-two marks. Soon I will be a buddha, I will be proclaimed a buddha. I will have thirty-two marks.”
This may have been just an unconscious desire, but a ripple…. Seeing the Buddha and his thirty-two marks, his grace, his beauty, who will not start desiring? And Subhuti is capable now, just on the threshold of buddhahood. While Buddha is talking about giving as if you are not giving, while Buddha is saying that if you can give without the notion of a giver and the gift and the receiver, great will be your merit…listening to this he must have longed. The longing may have been a subtle seed, but he must have longed. “Then with that great merit I will become a buddha. I will have thirty-two marks – the same fragrance that surrounds the Buddha, the same grace, the same splendor, the same benediction! Aha!” He must have somewhere created the desire.
Seeing that desire, Buddha says, What do you think, Subhuti, can the Tathagata be seen by the possession of his marks? Unless you see this undercurrent in Subhuti’s consciousness or unconsciousness you will not understand The Diamond Sutra.
Subhuti asked: Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?
Now you will be surprised: this is the time Subhuti is talking about, and you are the people. Twenty-five hundred years have passed. Subhuti has asked about you.
Buddha has said that whenever a religion is born, whenever a buddha turns the wheel of dharma, naturally, slowly slowly the wheel starts stopping. It loses momentum. You turn a wheel, it will start moving. Then by and by, by and by, a moment will come when it will stop.
When a buddha moves the wheel of dharma, it takes two thousand five hundred years for it to stop completely. After each five hundred years it goes on losing momentum. So those are the five ages of the dharma. After each five hundred years the dharma will be less and less, decreased and decreased and decreased, and after twenty-five centuries the wheel will stop again. It will need another buddha to turn it for the coming twenty-five centuries.
This is a rare phenomenon. It is really intriguing that Subhuti asked Buddha:
Will there be any beings in the future period, in the last time, in the last epoch, in the last five hundred years, at the time of the collapse of the good doctrine who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth?
The Lord replied: Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.
For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas.…And these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of merit under one single Buddha only.
On the contrary, Subhuti, those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith, will be such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, such as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands of buddhas.
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.
And they all, Subhuti, will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.
Buddha is talking about you. The sutra is being read to you. Twenty-five centuries have passed. Subhuti has asked about you!
The other day I had told you that many of you will become bodhisattvas, many of you are on the way. It is strange that Subhuti should ask such a question. And more strange is that Buddha says, “Those people after twenty-five centuries will not be less fortunate than you but will be more fortunate.”
Why? I have been telling you many times that you are ancient ones, that you have walked on this earth many many times, that you are not listening to dharma for the first time, that you have come across many buddhas in your past lives – sometimes maybe a Krishna and sometimes maybe a Christ and sometimes maybe a Mahavira and sometimes maybe a Mohammed, but you have come across many many buddhas, many enlightened people.
You are fortunate to know so many buddhas, and if you become a little alert, all the seeds that have been sown in you by the past buddhas will start blooming, will sprout. You will start flowering.
Buddha says:
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata.
It is very mysterious, but it is possible. A buddha can have a vision of the future. He can see through the fog of the future. His clarity is such, his vision is such, he can throw a ray of light into the unknown future. He can see. It will look very mysterious that Buddha sees you listening to The Diamond Sutra. From your standpoint it seems almost unbelievable, because you don’t know even how to see in the present. How can you believe that anybody can see in the future?
You know only one capacity: that is the capacity to look into the past. You can only look backwards. You are past-oriented. And whatsoever you think about your future is not a vision of the future, it is just a projection of the modified past. It is not future at all. It is your yesterday trying to be repeated as tomorrow.
You have tasted something yesterday and it was sweet and you want it again tomorrow: this is your future. You have been in love with somebody and you want to make love again in the future: this is your future. It is a repetition of the past, it is not future at all. You don’t know what future is at all. You can’t know what future is because you can’t even know what the present is. And the present is available, and you are so blind that you cannot even see into that which is already here.
But then, eyes open, you can see even into that which is not present, that which is going to happen. You can have glimpses of that. The way to see the future is first to see the present. One who can be absolutely in the present becomes capable of looking into the future.
This is ecstatic to even think that Gautama the Buddha had seen you listening to The Diamond Sutra. In The Diamond Sutra you are talked about. That’s why I have chosen it. When I came across these words I thought, “This is the thing for my people. They must know that even they have been looked into by Gautama the Buddha; that something about them has been said twenty-five centuries ago; that they have been predicted.”
The wheel that Buddha moved has stopped. The wheel has to be moved again. And that is going to be my and your life’s work – that wheel has to be moved again. Once it starts revolving it will again have twenty-five centuries’ life. Once it starts moving it goes on moving for twenty-five centuries at least.
And it has to be done again and again and again, because everything loses momentum, everything functions under the laws of nature – entropy. You throw a stone, you throw with great energy, but it goes a few hundred feet and it falls down. Exactly like that, dharma has to be made alive again and again. Then it breathes for twenty-five centuries and then dies. Everything that is born has to die.
But Buddha says, “Subhuti, do not speak thus.” Subhuti must be thinking, “Only we are fortunate. We have listened to Buddha, lived with Buddha, walked with Buddha. We are fortunate, we are blessed people. What will happen after twenty-five centuries when the wheel of dharma has completely stopped moving?” He is thinking about you unfortunate people.
Buddha says, “Do not speak thus, Subhuti. Don’t start thinking that only you are fortunate.” That is a very subtle ego: “We are fortunate, nobody else is so fortunate.” Buddha immediately puts his hand on Subhuti’s mouth:
Do not speak thus, Subhuti! Yes, even then there will be beings who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will understand their truth.
And I know, here are people who understand the truth. Slowly slowly the morning is happening, the dark night is disappearing. Slowly slowly the seed is gaining ground, entering in your heart.
For even at that time, Subhuti, there will be bodhisattvas….
There are many here who are going to become bodhisattvas. Just a little more work, just a little more play, just a little more effort into meditativeness, just a little more pouring of the energy, just a little more concentration of the energy, avoiding of distractions, and it is going to happen. And it is going to happen to many. And you are the fortunate ones, Buddha says.
And these bodhisattvas, Subhuti, will not be such as have honored only one single Buddha, nor such as have planted their roots of merit under one single Buddha only.
On the contrary, Subhuti, those bodhisattvas who, when these words of the sutra are being taught, will find even one single thought of serene faith…
If you can even understand a single word of The Diamond Sutra, if you can understand a simple look of my eyes into your eyes, if you can understand a simple gesture of my inner dance….
Buddha says:
…will find even one single thought of serene faith, will be such as have honored many hundreds of thousands of buddhas, such as have planted their roots of merit under many hundreds of thousands of buddhas.
Known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata through his Buddha-cognition. Seen they are, Subhuti, by the Tathagata with his Buddha-eye, fully known they are, Subhuti, to the Tathagata. And they all, Subhuti, will beget and acquire an immeasurable and incalculable heap of merit.
And you are the people Buddha is talking about. And you are the people I am depending on. The wheel of dharma has stopped. It has to be turned again.
Enough for today.