The Path of Meditation Chapter No.12, reading, forums, Numerology, Sun Signs, Divination

Posts: 3355 · Posted: Thu May 17, 2007 6:39 am

There was an incident in Jesus' life. He was leaving a village when he saw a man on a rooftop screaming and shouting obscenities. Jesus climbed a ladder and asked him, "My friend, what are you doing? Why are you wasting your life in this ugly way? You seem to be drunk."

The man opened his eyes and recognized Jesus. He got up and bowed to Jesus and said, "My lord, I was very ill, I was near death. You blessed me and made me well. Have you forgotten? Now I am perfectly well, but what do I do with all this good health? This is why I drink."

Jesus was surprised. The man said, "Now I am healthy, what am I supposed to do with this good health? So I drink and somehow I manage." Hearing this, Jesus felt great sadness and he climbed down from the ladder.

Then he went into the village where he saw a man chasing after a prostitute. He stopped the man and asked him, "Friend, why are you misusing your eyes in this way?"

The man recognized Jesus and said, "Have you forgotten me? I was blind and you touched me, when I was able to see again. Now what am I to do with my eyes?"

Jesus was very sad as he left the village. Outside the village a man was beating his chest and crying. Jesus touched him on the head and asked, "Why are you crying? There is so much beauty in the world. Life is not for crying."

The man recognized Jesus and said, "You have forgotten. I died and people were about to bury me, and then with your miracle you brought me back to life. Now what should I do with my life?"

This story seems to be completely fictitious, untrue -- but what are you doing? What are you doing with your life? Whatever energy you have collected in your life, you are only using it to destroy yourself. Life has only two paths: if the energy that we have available to us in our mind and body is used destructively, then this is the path to hell; if the same energy can be used creatively, this is the path to heaven.

Creativity is heaven and destructiveness is hell. If you make creative use of your energy you will start moving closer to heaven, and if you use your energies destructively you will be going towards hell -- there is no other meaning of heaven and hell.

Consider what you are doing. Do you know how much energy is triggered within someone when he gets angry? Do you know that in a rage even a weak man can lift a rock that he would not even dream of lifting when he is calm? An angry man can overpower a strong but calm man in a moment.

Once it happened in Japan... There was a group of people called samurai, the warriors of that country who made their living by the sword. Life and death was a game to them. One of the samurai was a great warrior and he was chief of the army. Then his wife fell in love with the one of the servants in their house. It was a custom that if your wife fell in love with some other man he would be challenged to a duel. That meant that one of them would be killed, and whoever won the duel would also get the wife.

So the servant was in love with the wife of this great sam-urai warrior, and the warrior said to him "You fool, now there is no othe way but to fight a duel to the death. Now we have to fight. Tomorrow morning, come with a sword."

The servant was very scared. His master was a very strong man and he was just a servant, sweeping and dusting: how could he fight with a sword? He had never even touched a sword. He said, "How can I lift a sword?"

He went home and he was thinking about it all night long. There was no escape. He picked up a sword next morning -- he had never touched a sword -- and left the house. People were shocked to see him, because when he arrived at the place for the duel he looked like a flaming fire. The samurai became nervous when he saw him, and he asked the servant. "Do you even know how to lift a sword?" -- he didn't even hold the sword in the right way.

The servant said, "There is no question now, my death is certain. And since it is certain that I am going to be killed, then I will try to win. Death is certain, so I will try to kill you."

And it was an unusual duel: the warrior ws killed and the servant won. When the servant realized that his death was certain and that there was no escape, it created a tremendous burst of enrgy in him. He did not know how to fight with a sword and so he did just the opposite of what was expected, and it put him in even more danger. But when he saw the force of his attack, his anger, his presence, the warrior retreated. All his expertise was useless because he was fighting very calmly. For him this was nothing, for him fighting was a very ordinary thing. He kept moving back until he ws killed by the sheer force of the servant's energy. He died, and the man who was absolutely ignorant, who was totally unfamiliar with this art, won.

Anger or any other emotion gives you much energy. Every living cell in your body generates energy, and there are many areas of stored energy in the body. These are for emergencies, as safety measures, and they are not used every day.

If I ask you to participate in a race, no matter how hard you try you will not run as fast as you would if someone were chasing you with a gun. The point is that at such times, the energy which is stored for an emergency is released into the bloodstream. At such times the body is bathed with energy. If this energy is not used creatively, then it will harm you, it will destroy you.

In this world it is not the weak people who commit crimes, it is the strong ones; they are forced to because they have so much energy. The truth is that weak people cannot do much harm, but people who are strong can do much harm because they don't know how to use their energy creatively. So al criminals can be considered to be a source of much energy. If they were given support their energy could be transformed in an amazing way. You must be aware that in history there have been many incidents where a sinner has suddenly been transformed into a saint. There was simply so much energy that needed transformation and then everything would change.

Angulimal had committed many murders. He made a vow to kill one thousand people. He had already killed nine hundred and ninety-nine people, and he wore a necklace made out of their fingers. He needed only one more man. Whenever people heard that Angulimal was around they would leave, because nobody wanted to be near him. He would not look at the person, he would not think even for a moment -- he would simply kill whomsoever he could find. Even King Prasanjit of Bihar was afraid of him: he would shiver just at the mention of his name. He sent many soldiers after him but Angulimal could not be captured.

One Day Buddha was passing through that hilly region. The people of the village told him, "Don't go there. You are a peaceful monk and Angulimal will kill you."

Buddha said, "I have chosen my path to walk, and I won't change it for any reason. If Angulimal is there then there is an even greater need for me to go there. It remains to be seen whether Angulimal will kill me or I will kill him."

But the people said, "This is absolute madness. You don't even have a weapon, how are you going to kill Angulimal?"

Buddha was not a man of violence, and Angulimal was huge, an almost demon-like man. But Buddha said, "Now we have to see whether Angulimal kills Buddha, or Buddha kills Angulimal. And I will walk only on my chosen path. Once I select a path I don't change it. And it is all the more fortunate because I will have an opportunity to meet Angulimal. It is an unexpected opportunity."

So Buddha arrived at the place where Angulimal was watching from his secret hideout -- harmless monk quietly walking on the path. From his hideout Angulimal shouted, "Listen, don't come here. It is only because you are a sanyasin that I am warning you. Go back. I feel pity for you -- watching you walk so quietly, walking so slowly. Go back, don't come any closer, becaue I am not used to feeling pity for anybody. And when it's a challenge like this, how can a sannyasin back out So I'm coming, and so you should come out from where you are hiding."

Angulimal was really surprised: "This man must be mad. "He picked up his axe and went down. When he went close to Buddha he said, "You are inviting death unnecessarily."

Buddha said, "Before you kill me, just do one small thing. See that tree -- pluck four leaves from it."

Angulimal picked up his axe and chopped a branch off the tree and he said, "Here are four thousand leaves instead of four."

Buddha said, "Do one more thing. Before you kill me, reconnect that branch back to the tree."

And Angulimal said, "That will be difficult."

Buddha said, "Even a child can destroy something, but only someone who can make something come to life again is a real man, a powerful man. You are a weakling -- you can only destroy. Stop thinking of yourself as a strong man: you cannot even reconnect a small leaf back to the branch."

Angulimal thought seriously for a moment and said, "That is true. Is there really a way to rejoin the branch?"

Buddha said, "Yes. That is the path that I am on."

Angulimal thought, and his egoistic mind realized for the first time that there is no strength in killing; even a weak man can kill. So he said, "I am not weak, but what can I do?"

Buddha said, "Follow me."

Angulimal became a monk. He went into the village to beg for alms that very day, so everyone became afraid. They climbed up onto the roofs of their houses and started throwing stones at him. He fell down, bleeding: he was being hit by stones from everywhere.And Buddha went close to him and said, "Angulimal, brahmin Angulimal, get up. Today you have proved your courage. When their stones were hitting you your heart was filled with love for them. You have proved that you are a man. You have become a brahmin, one who has come to know the divine."

When Prasanjit heard of the change in Angulimal he went to see Buddha. He sad down and said, " I have heard that Angulimal has become a monk. Can I meet him?"

Buddha said, "The mond who is sitting next to me is Angulimal."

Hearint this, Prasanjit's hands and legs began to shake. This monk was still being called by the same name, and the fear that he felt also has not changed.

But Angulimal said, "Don't be afraid. That man is gone. The energy that was his has been transformed. Now I am on a different path. Now even if you killed me, I would not think ill of you."

People asked Buddha how such a cruel man could be so transformed. Buddha told them,"It is not a question of good or bad, it is only a question of transforming the energy."