Pythagoras, The golden verses of Pythagoras, Vol. 1 Philosophia Perennis Chapter 8: You Are Without Stain, Question 3

The third question

Question 3

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF EXISTENCE? WHAT WILL WE DO AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT?

Dharma Bhikshu,

WHAT AM I DOING AFTER ENLIGHTENMENT? I eat when I am hungry, and I sleep when I feel sleepy. I am doing exactly the same thing that you are doing, but the quality has changed, the significance has changed, my approach has changed. You also drink tea, I also drink tea; but your drinking of tea is just drinking of tea. When I am drinking tea I am drinking God -- God in the form of tea. I am sipping God.

From the outside it is the same; from the inside it is totally different.

A Zen Master is reported to have said... somebody had asked the same question: "What did you use to do when you were not enlightened?"

He said, "I used to chop wood and carry water from the well."

And the man asked, "Now what do you do since you have become enlightened?"

He said, "I chop wood! and I carry water from the well."

Naturally, the questioner was puzzled. He said, "What is the difference? I don't see any difference. Chopping wood, carrying water from the well, you were doing before, you are doing now.

And the Master laughed. He said, "Yes, before I was doing it -- now it is simply happening. Now there is no doer. I am no more. Wood is chopped, water is carried -- I am no more."

Zen people don't use the word 'God'. If it was asked of a Sufi he would say, "Now God chops the wood, God carries the water." Zen people say, "It chops the wood, it carries the water." That is their name for God; they don't personify God.

Everything remains the SAME! and yet nothing is the same.

You ask: WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF EXISTENCE?

The idea of purpose arises only in an unenlightened mind, because the unenlightened mind cannot live without purpose. He does not know how to live playfully, without purpose. He needs a purpose to pull him onwards, he needs a purpose to push him onwards. He needs a purpose to manipulate himself. Without purpose he is lost; he needs the purpose to goad him on and on. And that's why he remains in agony.

The word 'agony' comes from a root AG; from the root AG come two words: one is action, and the other is agony. It is beautiful. The basic meaning of AG is to push -- action is pushing things, pushing the river, pushing yourself against the river, trying to swim upstream. And that brings agony, that makes you miserable -- because you can see you are doomed to fail. You may win a battle here and there, but the war is lost from the very beginning. How long can you go on pushing the river? Sooner or later you will be tired, exhausted, and then the river will take you downwards.

And because you have to fight, fight creates agony, anxiety -- whether you are going to make it or not, whether you .will be able to succeed or not.

Purpose is the idea of unenlightened man. The enlightened man simply lives with no purpose -- he needs no purpose, that's why he has no agony. He lives moment-to-moment! His life has no purpose and no meaning. He is like a rose-flower, or the cuckoo calling from the woodland, or the sun rising in the morning, or the dewdrop slipping into the ocean.... He has no purpose! He simply is! He has no purpose because he has no future. He is in the moment, he is present to the present. Purpose means desire, and purpose means creating something special about yourself. You cannot believe that you are purposeless -- then suddenly you start falling flat on the ground. Purposeless? Your ego cannot stand without the props of purpose, so you go on creating purpose for yourself. Even where nothing exists, you go on pretending, projecting.

It is your ego that has written in your Bibles that God created man in his own image, and God has given you some great destiny to be fulfilled -- you are special! Ask a donkey: he will also say God created donkey in his own image.

Just the other day I was reading a poem by Don Marquis: WARTY BLIGGENS.

I MET A TOAD

THE OTHER DAY BY THE NAME

OF WARTY BLIGGENS

HE WAS SITTING UNDER

A TOADSTOOL

FEELING CONTENTED

HE EXPLAINED THAT WHEN THE COSMOS

WAS CREATED

THAT TOADSTOOL WAS ESPECIALLY

PLANNED FOR HIS PERSONAL

SHELTER FROM SUN AND RAIN

THOUGHT OUT AND PREPARED

FOR HIM

DO NOT TELL ME

SAID WARTY BLIGGENS

THAT THERE IS NOT A PURPOSE

IN THE UNIVERSE

THE THOUGHT IS BLASPHEMY

A LITTLE MORE

CONVERSATION REVEALED

THAT WARTY BLIGGENS

CONSIDERS HIMSELF TO BE

THE CENTER OF THE SAID

UNIVERSE

THE EARTH EXISTS

TO GROW TOADSTOOLS FOR HIM

TO SIT UNDER

THE SUN TO GIVE HIM LIGHT

BY DAY AND THE MOON

AND WHEELING CONSTELLATIONS

TO MAKE BEAUTIFUL

THE NIGHT FOR THE SAKE OF

WARTY BLIGGENS

You ask anybody... and everybody thinks that he is the center of existence, and that God has created him for a certain special purpose. In fact, there is not special purpose in existence. Purpose is a creation of the unenlightened mind, because the unenlightened mind cannot exist without a future. It lives in the future, it needs goals.

The unenlightened mind is goal-oriented, the enlightened mind simply lives herenow. And what purpose can you have herenow? Sometimes you are chopping wood, and sometimes you are carrying water from the well. What purpose can you have? It is the prop for the ego -- there is no purpose. Existence simply is. And because there is NO purpose, existence is utterly beautiful.

If you think there is a certain purpose, then you will be falling into a regress. Then the question can be asked: What is the purpose of the purpose? And so on and so forth.... Then there will be no end. Only foolish people will answer that there is a purpose -- foolish because they are not aware they are falling into a regress.

Somebody will say, "God created man so that man can attain to salvation" -- but could he not give man salvation from the very beginning? "God has created man so that he can attain to moksha" -- but he was in moksha from the very beginning! Why this world? "God created man so that he can find the truth" -- why this unnecessary trouble? He could have simply told him what the truth is.

The whole thing seems to be unnecessary -- if there is a purpose. But there is no purpose. It is simply the overflowing energy of God. God is delighting in his energy, overflowing in all directions. He becomes the tree and he becomes the rock and the stars and the man and the animals and the birds -- there is no hierarchy. Purpose brings the idea of hierarchy: then somebody is lower and somebody is higher, because you have a higher purpose.

There is NO hierarchy. Existence is one! flowing in all kinds of expressions. Somewhere God has become a green tree, and somewhere he has become a red flower, and somewhere he has become a butterfly and somewhere he is a rainbow, and somewhere he is a man and somewhere he is a woman... and he is the only reality. What purpose can there be? But that is only when your mind disappears, your thinking disappears, your ego disappears, and when you are utterly herenow... that suddenly you see the beauty of purposelessness.

Life is not a business: it is a rejoicing. Business has purpose, rejoicing has no purpose. Logic has purpose, love has no purpose.

Pythagoras

VOL. 1, PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS

Chapter-8

You Are Without Stain