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Kabir

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Chapter 2: The time has come to be free

Question 6

 

 

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The sixth question:

Question 6

YOU OFTEN SPEAK OF BECOMING A BUDDHA. BUT SHANKARA OFTEN SAID THAT BUDDHA ONLY BROUGHT HIS DISCIPLES TO COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS, WHILE THERE ARE STILL HIGHER STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS, SUCH AS UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS AND BRAHMA CONSCIOUSNESS.

PLEASE WILL YOU COMMENT ON THIS AND, IF YOU KNOW, TELL US ABOUT THE PATHS WHICH LEAD TO THESE STATES.

Zoli Korlbeek,

BUDDHA has not talked about cosmic consciousness at all. He talks about ultimate no-selfness beyond which there is nothing, beyond which there cannot be anything. He talks about the total disappearance of the ego.

All other states belong to the ego: "I have attained this, I have attained that, I have attained that -- cosmic consciousness and unity consciousness and Brahma consciousness...." Who is attaining these things? There must be some identity, some 'I', howsoever subtle.

Shankara remains confined to the self. He goes on refining it, polishing it, but he never goes beyond the self.

Buddha goes to no-self. Now no-self cannot have many states. No-self is simply no-self -- utter nothingness. How can nothingness have states? It is impossible, because two nothingnesses cannot be different. Nobody has gone beyond Buddha. What Shankara is talking about is far lower.

And there are ways to attain to. cosmic consciousness and unity consciousness and Brahma consciousness, but they are nothing but new illusions. Even when you say and think, "I have become one with God", you are there. Who is feeling that "I have become one with God"? Even to declare "AHAM BRAHMASMI, I am the ultimate!", needs something of the 'I' there to declare it; maybe the last tail end -- the elephant is gone but the tail is still there. And the tail is enough to bring the whole elephant back at any time.

Buddha is the ultimate beyond which nobody has ever gone. Shankara is still groping far behind. Shankara is a great philosopher; Buddha is not a philosopher at all. Shankara is a great logician; Buddha is not a logician at all, Buddha is a pure, existential mystic. Hence Buddha never talks about all this jargon: cosmic consciousness, unity consciousness, Brahma consciousness -- you can create as many as you want.

If you are really interested in such nonsense then there is a sect in India, Radha Swami Sampraday. They talk about fourteen states, and they have a map, and only THEIR Master has attained to the fourteenth. Buddha et cetera are somewhere on the third, fourth, fifth; Krishna, Christ are somewhere on the second; Shankara et cetera are just somewhere on the seventh. The fourteenth they call the Land of Truth, SATCHKAND; that space of truth has been attained only by THEIR Master, Radha Swami. Now these games can be played.

Once a Radha Swami follower came to me and he said, "Do you know anything about the fourteenth?"

I said, "Who cares about the fourteenth? no you know about the fifteenth?"

He said, "Fifteenth? Never heard of it!" "I have attained to the fifteenth! And I know your guru -- he is just lagging behind."

And he was asking me the secret of the fifteenth!

All foolish talk! But this is how the ego works.

Now you seem to be a Shankara-freak; in India there are many. Shankara has impressed many because he is really clever at logical argumentation; but logical argumentation is just meaningless as far as existential experience is concerned.

Shankara used to say that the world is illusion, and he used to prove it. And it can be proved logically because logically it is very difficult to prove that it is real. Who knows? -- you may be simply dreaming that you are listening to me, that I am here talking to you. Sometimes in a dream you have listened to me, and in the dream it looks so real. So who knows? -- maybe now you are dreaming and it is looking so real. How can it be proved that I am really here and you are really there? In fact there is no way to prove it, it may be a dream.

Chuang Tzu says that he dreamed in the night that he had become a butterfly, and since then he has been very confused -- confused because now in the morning, he thinks it may be just that the butterfly had fallen asleep and was dreaming that she was Chuang Tzu. Now who is right: Chuang Tzu dreaming that he has become a butterfly, or Butterfly dreaming that she has become a Chuang Tzu? Now what is true? If Chuang Tzu can become a butterfly in the dream, why can't a butterfly sitting on the foliage in the shade in the afternoon dream and think that she has become a Chuang Tzu? What is wrong about it? It can happen in both ways! It is difficult to prove that the world is real. Hence Shankara was proving that the world is illusory. All is illusory, only God is true.

But one strange man -- nobody knows who he was, must have been of great insight -- disturbed him very much. One day Shankara was coming from the Ganges early in the morning, as was his habit. He took his usual bath of purification in the Ganges, in Varanasi. It was still dark, he was coming up the stairs, and one untouchable, one SUDRA touched him. Now he was very angry and he said, "You have destroyed my bath. I will have to go again and take a bath. And you should know how to behave. Is this the way? Can't you see a BRAHMIN?"

And the SUDRA, the untouchable started laughing. He said, "But last night I heard you arguing with great intelligence, with great acumen, that the world is illusory. So I thought that if the whole world is illusory then these untouchables must be illusory. How can an illusory untouchable touch you in the first place? Secondly, how can an illusory person destroy your purity? Who has touched whom? If the body is illusory, then your body is also illusory. Two illusions touching each other cannot be different. Or do you think your soul is pure and my soul is impure? If the soul also can be impure then there is no way of making it pure. What do you think -- have I touched your body or your soul? Who has become impure? And just last night I heard your argumentation. It was great! And I become so convinced, that's why I have come."

Shankara was at a loss, touched the feet of the man and said, "Excuse me. It has been only logic it seems. I have not yet experienced."

He was a great philosopher, the greatest that India has produced. But remember one thing: he is nowhere close to Buddha, and cannot be. In fact whatsoever he was saying was all borrowed from Buddha, hence he has been known as a hidden Buddhist. Whatsoever he has been saying, he has only changed the words and terminology, but he is talking about the same things. And that is one of the arguments of those who are against Shankara: that he is just a PRACHCHHANNA BUDDHA, a hidden Buddhist -- using Hindu terminology instead of Buddhist terminology, that's all.

Zoli, don't be too much bothered with Shankara -- unless you are interested in philosophy, then it is okay. Then you can read Shankara and you can read Nagarjuna and you can read Nimbarka, and you can read so many more in the West.

But if you are really interested in transformation then Buddha will be of great help, Lao Tzu will be of great help, Jesus will be of great help. If you are really interested in transformation, then listen to those who have reached the ultimate peak. Shankara was also trying, and he has said a few beautiful things, but nothing to be compared to Buddha.

And this is all nonsense, this cosmic consciousness, unity consciousness, Brahma consciousness. These are clever strategies to befool the masses.

Buddha talks only of ANATTA, no-self, ultimate emptiness, absolute death of the ego. And when you have disappeared there is nothing more to happen. To whom is it going to happen? When you are no more, all has happened. All happening disappears. That state where nothing happens any more is called NIRVANA.

NIRVANA IS a beautiful word. It means utter cessation; literally it means blowing out the candle. Just as you blow out a candle and suddenly the light disappears and is nowhere found, in deep meditation the small flame of the ego dissappears. You blow it out, and there is utter nothingness left: no experiencer, no experienced. That is NIRVANA. There is no more and nothing beyond it.

 

Next: Chapter 2: The time has come to be free, Question 7

 

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Chapter 2

 

 

 

 
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