Maulingaputta and Gautam Buddha
Osho : One great philosopher, Maulingaputta, came to Buddha,
and he started asking questions... questions after questions. Must have been an
incarnation of Patrick! Buddha listened silently for half an hour.
Maulingaputta started feeling a little embarrassed because he was not
answering, he was simply sitting there smiling, as if nothing had happened, and
he had asked such important questions, such significant questions.
Finally Buddha said, "Do you really want to know the
answer?" Maulingaputta said, "Otherwise why should I have come to
you? I have traveled at least one thousand miles to see you." And
remember, in those days, one thousand miles was really one thousand miles! It
was not hopping in a plane and reaching within minutes or within hours. One
thousand miles was one thousand miles.
It was with great longing, with great hope that he had come.
He was tired, weary from the journey, and he must have followed Buddha because
Buddha himself was traveling continuously. He must have reached one place and
people said, "Yes, he was here three months ago. He has gone to the
north" -- so he must have traveled north.
Slowly slowly, he was coming closer and closer and then the
day came, the great day, when people said, "Just yesterday morning he
left; he must have reached only the next village. If you rush, if you run, you
may be able to catch him."
And then one day he caught up with him, and he was so joyous
he forgot all his arduous journey and he started asking all the questions he
had planned all the way along, and Buddha smiled and sat there and asked,
"Do you really want to have the answer?"
Maulingaputta said, "Then why have I traveled so long?
It has been a long suffering -- it seems I have been traveling my whole life,
and you are asking, 'Do you really want the answer?'"
Buddha said, "I am asking again: Do you really want the
answer? Say yes or no, because much will depend on it."
Maulingaputta said, "Yes!"
Then Buddha said, "For two years sit silently by my
side -- no asking, no questions, no talking. Just sit silently by my side for
two years. And after two years you can ask whatsoever you want to ask, and I
promise you I will answer it."
A disciple, a great disciple of Buddha, Manjushree, who was
sitting underneath another tree, started laughing so loudly, started almost
rolling on the ground. Maulingaputta said, "What has happened to this man?
Out of the blue, you are talking to me, you have not said a single word to him,
nobody has said anything to him -- is he telling jokes to himself?"
Buddha said, "You go and ask him."
He asked Manjushree. Manjushree said, "Sir, if you
really want to ask the question, ask right now -- this is his way of deceiving
people. He deceived me. I used to be a foolish philosopher just like you. His
answer was the same when I came; you have traveled one thousand miles, I had
traveled two thousand."
Manjushree certainly was a great philosopher, more
well-known in the country. He had thousands of disciples. When he had come he
had come with one thousand disciples -- a great philosopher coming with his
following.
"And Buddha said, 'Sit silently for two years.' And I
sat silently for two years, but then I could not ask a single question. Those
days of silence...slowly slowly, all questions withered away. And one thing I
will tell you: he keeps his promise, he is a man of his word. After exactly two
years -- I had completely forgotten, lost track of time, because who bothers to
remember? As silence deepened I lost track of all time.
"When two years passed, I was not even aware of it. I
was enjoying the silence and his presence. I was drinking out of him. It was so
incredible! In fact, deep down in my heart I never wanted those two years to be
finished, because once they were finished he would say, 'Now give your place to
somebody else to sit by my side, you move away a little. Now you are capable of
being alone, you don't need me so much.'
Just as the mother moves the child when he can eat and
digest and no longer needs to be fed on the breast. So," Manjushree said,
"I was simply hoping that he would forget all about those two years, but
he remembered -- exactly after two years he asked, 'Manjushree, now you can ask
your questions.' I looked within; there was no question and no questioner
either -- a total silence. I laughed, he laughed, he patted my back and said,
'Now, move away.'
"So, Maulingaputta, that's why I started laughing,
because now he is playing the same trick again. And this poor Maulingaputta
will sit for two years silently and will be lost forever, will never be able to
ask a single question. So I insist, Maulingaputta, if you really want to ask,
ASK NOW!
Note: Maulingaputta accepted Buddha's condition and realized
the Buddha Nature.
0 Comments
If you have any Misunderstanding Please let me know