Buddha Block

Situation Changes

When Buddha was going to lie down on the bed that night, Ananda said, “One question. Why did you answer the same question in three ways, inconsistent, contradictory?”

Buddha said, “I have not given an answer to you – you need not worry. You can ask your question and I will answer you. Those answers were not given to you. Who are you to come in?”

An answer is given to a situation. When the situation changes, the answer changes. It is a response.

Buddha said, “The first man who asked was an atheist. In fact he was not an inquirer. When I looked into him I saw he had a position: he had already achieved, arrived, at a position. He had concluded: he had concluded that there is no God. He had come only for a confirmation from me so that he can go and say to people, ‘Buddha also believes the same way I believe: there is no God.’ I had to say no to him.

The man who came in the afternoon also came with a conclusion. He was a theist, a staunch orthodox theist – he believed that God exists. He had also come with the same mind, to have it confirmed.

The third man who came was without any position, with no mind. He was an inquirer. He didn’t believe in anything: he had not arrived. He was on the way; he was pure. I had to remain silent with him. Now, if you have the same question, you can ask.”

A response will always be different, and yet deep down there will be a running current of being. A buddha always looks into the man, at the situation. The situation decides, not a buddha’s mind; he has none.

Our question, “How does a Buddha participate totally in day-to-day life?”

If you try to participate totally it will not be total: no effort can ever be total. No technique can ever be total, because you will be manipulating. You will be separate from it; you will be trying to be total. How can you try to be total? You can relax; only then totality comes into being. You are in a let-go; then you are total.

Totality is not a discipline. All disciplines are partial. That’s why a man who is very disciplined will never reach the truth, because he will always be carrying the burden of continuously doing something: gross or subtle, on the surface or in depth, but always a doer. No, a buddha is not a doer. In fact when you relax there is no other way to be; the only way left is to participate totally.

It has no “how” to it, but the question arises in your mind because you don’t know what awareness is. It is just like a blind man asking “How do people who have eyes move without a stick in their hands to grope their way?” If you say to him that they don’t need any stick, that they don’t need to grope, he will not be able to believe it. He will laugh. He will say, “You are joking. How is it possible? Do you mean to say that men with eyes simply move without groping?” A blind man cannot understand it. He has no experience of it. He has always been groping and groping and, even then, stumbling again and again and falling. He has been managing somehow. A buddha does not manage. He is in a let-go and everything fits together on its own accord.