Permanent residence in heaven ( Story )

One day a young man came to the Buddha, very upset. ‘What happened?’ asked the #Buddha. The young man said: ‘Sir, yesterday my father died. I have come to you with a special request. Please do something for my dead father. When ordinary priests perform some rites or rituals, he gains access to heaven. Sir, if a great man like you performs any rites or rituals for my father, he will gain not only entry but a permanent residence in heaven.

Buddha

Please sir, do something for my #father!’ He was so unbalanced, so emotional. The Buddha knew that any kind of rational argument would have no effect at this stage but he had his own way of explaining things. He asked the young man to go to the market and buy two earthen pots. The young man happily went and bought them, thinking that this was to prepare for some ritual. The Buddha asked him to fill one with butter and the other with stones and pebbles. He did all this.

The Buddha told him to close and seal them properly, and put them both in a nearby pond. He did so and both the pots sank to the bottom. The Buddha now told him to bring a stout stick, strike at them, and break them open. He did so, thinking that now the Buddha would perform a wonderful ritual for his father. #India is a vast and ancient land, full of diversities and extremes. There are people who have attained full enlightenment like the Buddha, and on the other hand, there are people in deep ignorance, immersed in blind faiths, beliefs, and dogmas. One belief is that when a parent dies, the son must take the corpse, put it on the funeral pyre and burn it; when it is half burned, he must take a strong stick, and break open the skull. The belief is that, as the skull is broken on earth, so the gateway of heaven is broken above, and the parent enters heaven. The young man thought that, as his father was already dead and cremated yesterday, the Buddha was asking him to break open these earthen pots as a substitute.

As he did so, the butter escaped from the first and floated to the surface; the pebbles escaped from the second pot and settled at the bottom. ‘Now,’ said the Buddha, ‘this much I have done. Now call all your priests. Let them come here and pray: ‘Oh pebbles, rise to the surface! Oh butter, sink to the bottom!’’ ‘Are you joking, sir? How is this possible? It is against the law of nature, sir. The pebbles are heavier than water; they are bound to stay down, they can’t float. Butter is lighter than water, it is bound to float; it cannot go down.’ ‘Young man, you know so much about the law of nature, and yet you do not want to understand the law that is applicable to one and all. If your father kept performing actions like pebbles and stones, he was bound to go down.

Who can pull him up? If he kept performing actions which are light like butter, he is bound to go up. Who can push him down?’ Our difficulty is that we think that some invisible power will somehow favor us, even though we do nothing to change our own behavior pattern, our own actions. When we understand this eternal law of nature—that the fruits depend on our actions—we will be careful about our actions. This discourse was given by the Buddha to Mahānāma the Sakyan.

The ego is a disease, the ego can exist only if your mind is sick

A youth, Prince Shrona, was initiated by Buddha. The people in the capital could not believe it. No one had ever imagined that Shrona would become a bhikkhu, a monk. Buddha’s monks could not believe it either, their eyes were popping out when Shrona came and fell at Buddha’s feet and said, ”Initiate me, make me a bhikkhu.”

Shrona was an emperor, and a famous emperor. He was famous for indulgence. His royal palace had the most beautiful women of that era. His palace had the finest wines, gathered from every corner of the world. Celebration went on all night long, he slept all day. He was so drowned in indulgence that no one had ever thought he could imagine becoming a sannyasin. When he climbed the steps he didn’t have railings put up, but had naked women stand there. He would climb the stairs putting his hand on their shoulders. He made his house into a heaven. His palace was such that gods in heaven would be jealous.

The bhikkhus asked Buddha, ”We can’t believe it, Shrona being initiated!”

Buddha said, ”Whether you believe it or not, I knew he was going to take sannyas. To tell you the truth it is for him that I came to the capital today. What goes to one extreme will go to the other extreme too. Indulgence is one extreme, he did that completely. Now there is no way to move further there, no way to satisfy the ego. He has whatever is possible in that world. Now a wall has come in front of the ego, where can the ego go now? The ego demands more. Now there isn’t any more, so the ego must return, must go back in the opposite direction. When the pendulum of a clock goes all the way to the right, it must return towards the left. Then it goes all the way to the left and has to return again to the right. When the pendulum of a clock is going to the left, remember that it is gathering momentum to go to the right. And when it is going to the right it is gathering momentum to go to the left. One who has a subtle vision will be able to see this. One who goes into extreme indulgence will one day go into extreme yoga.

Buddha said, ”Wait a few days, you will see the truth of what I am saying.”

And people saw. The other #bhikkhus walked on a well paved road, but Shrona walked through thorns and brush, his feet became drenched in blood. When the sun was hot the other bhikkhus sat in the shade of the trees. Shrona would stand in the sun. The other bhikkhus wore clothes, he used only a loin cloth. And it seemed as if he was eager to drop the loin cloth too. Then one day he did drop it. The other bhikkhus ate once a day, Shrona ate only once in two days. The other bhikkhus ate sitting down. Shrona ate standing up. The other bhikkhus kept a bowl, Shrona didn’t keep even a bowl, only his hand... he ate only the food that fit in his hand. His beautiful body shrivelled. Previously people used to come from miles around to see his body. His face had been very charming, immensely beautiful. After he had been a bhikkhu for three months anyone who saw him would not recall that this was Emperor Shrona. His feet became blistered, his body became black, he shrivelled and became just bones. And he went on disciplining himself.

Buddha said, ”Do you see bhikkhus, I had told you that what goes to one extreme, will go to the other extreme! It is difficult to stop in the middle, because the middle is the death of the ego.”

Then Shrona stopped eating. Then he stopped taking water. He continued from one extreme to another. It seemed he would be a guest on this earth only two or three more days, then die. This is when Buddha went to his door, to the tree under which he had built a hut to rest in. He was lying down. Buddha said to him, ”Shrona, I have come to ask you something. I have heard that when you were an emperor you had a passion for playing the veena, and that you were very skilled at playing it, that you took great interest in the veena. I have come to ask you a question: when the strings of the veena are very loose, will music arise or not?”

Shrona said, ”What are you talking about? You know it well, if the strings are very loose music cannot arise, they cannot even sound a twang.”

Buddha said, ”Then I ask you this: if the strings are tightened too much will music arise or not?”

Shrona said, ”If they are tightened too much the strings will snap, music will not arise, only the sound of snapping strings will arise. How can music arise from the sound of an instrument breaking?”

Then #Buddha said, ”I have come to remind you. Just as you have experienced the veena, I experience the veena of life. I say unto you, if the strings of life are very tight music does not arise, and if the strings of life are very loose, again music does not arise. The strings need to be in the middle Shrona, neither too tight nor too loose. The greatest skill of a musician is in bringing the strings exactly to the middle, this is what is meant by tuning an instrument.”

This is why when you see Indian classical music, it takes half an hour or an hour to tune the instruments. Tuning instruments is a great art. To bring the strings to that middle point where it cannot be said that they are too loose or too tight, one needs great skill, a very sensitive ear. Only a connoisseur of music is able to tune.

”The veena of life is exactly the same,” Buddha said, ”It is enough Shrona, wake up now. I was waiting to let you come to the extreme. At first your strings were very loose, now you have tightened them too much. Music didn’t happen then, nor does it happen now: are you experiencing samadhi? What is all this that you are doing? Previously you stuffed yourself, now you are fasting to death. Previously you never went barefoot, if you went anywhere the road was covered with velvet. And now if the path is good you will not move on it. You move in the brush, in the thorns, on rough, rugged paths. Perhaps previously you had never drunk water but only wine. Now you are afraid to drink even water! Now you want to avoid water too. Previously at your house incomparable meat dishes were prepared, now you are not ready even to eat dry bread. See how you have moved from one extreme to the other? That extreme was unmusical, this too is unmusical. I call out to you: Now is the time, come to the middle.”

Tears began to flow from Shrona’s eyes. He became alert. He saw his situation.

And as soon as someone comes to the middle, the ego dies – it cannot live. The ego is a disease, the ego can exist only if your mind is sick. The life of the ego comes out of your being sick, and extremes are the secret of your being sick.

अपने अहंकार के घमंड में दूसरों के साथ ऐसा व्यवहार न करो, जो तुम्हें स्वयं के लिए पसंद न हो। [ Hindi Story ]

एक बार मगध के व्यापारी को व्यापार में बहुत लाभ हुआ, अपार धन-संपत्ति पाकर उसका मन अहंकार से भर गया। उसके बाद से वह अपने अधीनस्थों से अहंकारपूर्ण व्यवहार करने लगा।

व्यापारी का अहंकार इतना प्रबल था कि उसको देखते हुए उसके परिवार वाले भी अहंकार के वशीभूत हो गए। किंतु जब सभी के अहंकार आपस में टकराने लगे तो घर का वातावरण नरक की तरह हो गया।

वह व्यापारी दुःखी होकर एक दिन भगवान बुद्ध के पास पहुंचा और याचना करके बोला- भगवन्! मुझे इस नरक से मुक्ति दिलाइए। मैं भी भिक्षु बनना चाहता हूं।

भगवान बुद्ध ने गंभीर स्वर में कहा- अभी तुम्हारे भिक्षु बनने का समय नहीं आया है।

बुद्ध ने कहा- भिक्षु को पलायनवादी नहीं होना चाहिए। जैसे व्यवहार की अपेक्षा तुम दूसरों से करते हो, स्वयं भी दूसरों के प्रति वैसा ही व्यवहार करो। ऐसा करने से तुम्हारा घर मंदिर बन जाएगा।

घर जाकर उस व्यापारी ने भगवान बुद्ध की सीख को अपनाया और घर का वातावरण स्वतः बदल गया। अब सब अपने-अपने अहंकार को भूलकर एक-दूसरे के साथ प्रेम से रहने लगे। शीघ्र ही घर के दूषित वातावरण में नया उल्लास छा गया।

सीख : कभी भी अपने अहंकार के घमंड में दूसरों के साथ ऐसा व्यवहार न करो, जो तुम्हें स्वयं के लिए पसंद न हो।

One has only to become a witness and the mind becomes pure [Story]

After Buddha had become old, one afternoon he stopped to rest at the foot of a tree in the forest. He felt thirsty, and Ananda went to a nearby mountain stream to fetch water. But just before, some carts had crossed the stream, and the water had turned muddy. Rotting leaves and scum had begun to float on the surface. Ananda returned without water, and said to Buddha, “The water in the stream is not clean; I shall go back to the river and bring water from there.” The river was very far off, and Buddha asked him to fetch water from the stream. After a short while Ananda returned again empty-handed: the water did not appear to him fit to bring.

But Buddha made him go back once more. On the third occasion that Ananda reached the stream, he was amazed. The stream had now become completely clear and unpolluted. The mud had settled and the water had become pure.

I find the story very interesting. The state of the human mind is just the same. The traffic of life comes and stirs it up. But if one goes on watching it, sitting in silence and patience, the impurities settle and a natural clarity returns. In this clarity of mind, life renews itself. It is only a matter of patience, silent awaiting, and without doing anything the impurities of the mind settle.

One has only to become a witness and the mind becomes pure. Our task is not to make it pure. All difficulty arises because of doing. Simply watch it, just sitting on the bank – then see what happens!

Wherever you go, you will find your friend If you don't see any enemy #Story

Buddha said to his disciples, ”The people that you go to teach are the ones who will harm you. Out of kindness you go on giving truth and they will throw stones at you. So don’t be angry. They are helpless: what can they do? You have come to destroy the truth they had believed for centuries. You have started shaking their house. They thought this house was their security. You have started knocking down their walls. You have started lifting their veils and showing their ugliness. They will be angry.

One disciple – Purna – used to to on pilgrimage, taking the Buddha’s message.
Buddha asked, ”Where are you going?”

There was a part of Bihar called Sukha. He said, ”None of your sannyasins have gone to Sukha yet, I will go there.”

Buddha said, ”It would be good if you don’t go there. The people of that area are dangerous, this is why no one has gone. If they insult you what will happen to you?”

Purna replied, ”If they insult me then I will consider myself fortunate that they didn’t beat me, they only insulted me.”

Buddha said, ”And if they beat you what will happen to you Purna?”

Purna replied, ”I will consider myself fortunate that they didn’t kill me, they only beat me.”

Buddha said, ”One more question, if they kill you what will happen to you as you are dying?”

Purna replied, ”What else could happen? These are such good people that they have released me from living in this body in which I might have committed some mistake. Now no mistake is possible. They have released me from living in this body where my foot may have gone on wrong paths, anything could happen, I could stray off. They have liberated me from this body. I will die filled with kindness for them. I will die full of gratitude for them.”

Buddha said, ”Then you go. Go anywhere. Wherever you go, you will find your friend, because now you cannot see any enemy.” It is not that by closing eyes there are no enemies. But one who no longer sees enemies is one who can declare the truth. Enemies will arise, enemies will immediately arise. The truth always gives rise to enemies. Do we have enough understanding that we can stomach the truth? Do we have a big enough heart to allow the truth to permeate us? ... to make it a guest inside us? If we can let ourselves be a host to truth, let truth be a guest... but do we have this capacity? This is why it goes on happening, insults continue, opposition continues, but truth goes on making its declaration again and again.

Inspiring Buddha Quotes

Whatever harm an enemy may do to an enemy, or a hater to a hater, 

an ill-directed mind inflicts on oneself a greater harm. 

Neither mother, father, nor any other relative can do one greater good than

 one's own well-directed mind.

Make haste in doing good deeds [ Story]

There was once a brahmin couple in Savatthi, who had only one outer garment between the two of them. Because of this they were also known as Ekasataka. As they had only one outer garment, both of them could not go out at the same time. So, the wife would go to listen to the discourse given by the Buddha during the day and the husband would go at night. One night, as the brahmin listened to the Buddha, his whole body came to be suffused with delightful satisfaction and he felt a strong desire to offer the outer garment he was wearing to the Buddha. But he realized that if he were to give away the only outer garment he had, there would be none left for him and his wife. So he wavered and hesitated. Thus, the first and the second watches of the night passed. Came the third watch and he said to himself, "If I am so miserly and hesitant, I will not be able to avoid falling to the four Lower Worlds (apayas); I shall now offer my outer garment to the Buddha." So saying, he placed the piece of cloth at the feet of the Buddha and cried out "I have won" three times.

King Pasenadi of Kosala, who was among the audience, heard those words and ordered a courtier to investigate. Learning about the brahmin's offering to the Buddha, the king commented that the brahmin had done something which was not easy to do and so should be rewarded. The king ordered his men to give the brahmin a piece of cloth as a reward for his faith and generosity. The brahmin offered that piece of cloth also to the Buddha and he was rewarded by the king with two pieces of cloth. Again, the brahmin offered the two pieces of cloth to the Buddha and he was rewarded with four. Thus, he offered to the Buddha whatever was given him by the king, and each time the king doubled his reward. When finally, the reward came up to thirty-two pieces of cloth, the brahmin kept one piece for himself and another for his wife, and offered the remaining thirty pieces to the Buddha.

Then, thinking again commented that the brahmin had truly performed a very difficult task and so must be rewarded fittingly. The king sent a messenger to the palace to bring two pieces of velvet cloth, each of which was worth one hundred thousand, and gave them to the brahmin. The brahmin made those two pieces of valuable cloth into two canopies and kept one in the Perfumed Chamber where the Buddha slept and the other in his own house above the place where a bhikkhu was regularly offered alms-food. When the king next went to Jatavana monastery to pay homage to the Buddha, he saw the velvet canopy and recognized it as the offering made by the brahmin and he was very pleased. This time he made a reward of seven kinds in fours (sabbacatukka), viz., four elephants, four horses, four female slaves, four male slaves, four errand boys, four villages and four thousands in cash.

When the bhikkhus heard about this, they asked the Buddha, "How is it that, in the case of this brahmin, a good deed done at present bears fruit immediately?" To them the Buddha replied "If the brahmin had offered his outer garment in the first watch of the night, he would have been rewarded with sixteen of each kind; if he had made his offering during the middle watch, he would have been rewarded with eight of each kind; since he had made his offering only during the last watch of the night, he was rewarded with only four of each kind." So, when one wants to give in charity, one should do so quickly; if one procrastinates, the reward comes slowly and only sparingly. Also, if one is too slow in doing good deeds, one may not be able to do it at all, for the mind tends to take delight in doing evil.

 -- Then the Buddha spoke in verse as follows:

Verse 116: One should make haste in doing good deeds; one should restrain one's mind from evil; for the mind of one who is slow in doing good tends to take delight in doing evil.

Most Inspirational Quotes by Buddha

One should make haste in doing good deeds; 

one should restrain one's mind from evil; 

for the mind of one who is slow in doing good

 tends to take delight in doing evil.

‪

#‎Buddha‬ (Dhammapada, verse 116)

APPA DEEPO BHAVA - Be a light unto yourself ! [ Story]

Buddha's last words to his disciples were: APPA DEEPO BHAVA -- be a light unto yourself.

When he was dying, naturally thousands of disciples had gathered and they started crying and weeping. The master was leaving, it was natural, and the master had lived with them for forty-two years and they had loved the man, they had loved his vibe. He was one of the most beautiful men who has ever walked on the earth. Not only was he spiritually beautiful, physically he was also one of the most beautiful men.

Buddha was one of the most beautiful expressions physically too, really a lotus flower. And they had all loved him. They had renounced everything and risked everything for this man and now he was leaving. They started crying. One can understand their crying and their weeping and their tears.

But Buddha said, "Stop! Stop all this nonsense! Why are you crying? What difference is it going to make? I was not your light, you have to be your own light. And," Buddha said to them, "it may be a blessing in the form of a curse, because when I am gone you will try to find yourselves. While I was here you were more interested in me; although I was insisting: Go in! you were focused on me. Now I will not be here, you are bound to go inside."

And that's exactly what happened: many people became enlightened after Buddha died. When they were asked, "Why did so many people become enlightened when Buddha died?" they all said, "Now we understand what he meant, that in the form of a curse it is a blessing -- because once you have seen a Buddha and he is gone there is nothing worth seeing outside. So we closed our eyes.

"We have seen all that was the most worth seeing: we have seen the most beautiful person. What else is there? There is nothing worth hearing, worth seeing. We closed our eyes, we turned inwards and because Buddha was not there anymore we heard his words for the first time. When he was here we were able to postpone, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We were so much enchanted by his personality, by his charisma. Once he was gone we had to fall back upon our own selves. Maybe that was his last device."

Story-by - OSHO-Rajneesh

The Blind Men and the Elephant

Several citizens ran into a hot argument about God and different religions, and each one could not agree to a common answer. So they came to the Lord Buddha to find out what exactly God looks like.

The Buddha asked his disciples to get a large magnificent elephant and four blind men. He then brought the four blind to the elephant and told them to find out what the elephant would “look” like.

The Blind Men and the Elephant

 

The first blind men touched the elephant leg and reported that it “looked” like a pillar. The second blind man touched the elephant tummy and said that an elephant was a wall. The third blind man touched the elephant ear and said that it was a piece of cloth. The fourth blind man hold on to the tail and described the elephant as a piece of rope. And all of them ran into a hot argument about the “appearance” of an elephant.

The Buddha asked the citizens: “Each blind man had touched the elephant but each of them gives a different description of the animal. Which answer is right?”

Love Yourself First [ Quotes ]

Buddha says this is one of the most difficult things - to try to share that which you don't have - and that's what people are doing. They go on trying to love without ever considering the fact that love has not yet grown in their heart. In fact, you don't love yourself - how can you love others? The basic is missing, the very basic is missing.

You are not happy alone - how can you be happy together with somebody else? If you are unhappy alone, when you come together with somebody, you will bring your unhappiness to be shared. That's all you have - your poverty, your rottenness, your misery, your depression, your sadness, your angst, anxiety, anguish... your disease.

Try to possess something - that which cannot be taken away by anybody, not even by death. Difficult, but possible. It looks impossible. How to be loving without finding a lover? Our whole mind has been conditioned in a wrong way.

You can dance without the audience; why can't you love without there being somebody? You can sing without a listener; why can't you love without a lover?
Your mind has been conditioned wrongly. You think you can love only when there is somebody to love.

Practise love. Sitting alone in your room, be loving. Radiate love. Fill the whole room with your love energy. Feel vibrating with a new frequency, feel swaying as if you are in the ocean of love. Create vibrations of love energy around you.

And you will start feeling immediately that something is happening - something in your aura is changing, something around your body is changing; a warmth is arising around your body... a warmth like deep orgasm. You are becoming more alive. Something like sleep is disappearing. Something like awareness is arising.

Sway into this ocean. Dance, sing, and let your whole room be filled with love.
In the beginning it feels very weird. When for the first time you can fill your room with love energy, your own energy, which goes on falling and rebouncing on you and makes you so happy, one starts feeling, 'Am I hypnotising myself?

Am I deluded? What is happening?' Because you have always thought that love comes from somebody else. A mother is needed to love you, a father, a brother, a husband, a wife, a child - but somebody.

Love that depends on somebody is a poor love. Love that is created within you, love that you create out of your own being, is real energy. Then move anywhere with that ocean surrounding you and you will feel that everybody who comes close to you is suddenly under a different kind of energy.
People will look at you with more open eyes. You will be passing them and they will feel that a breeze of some unknown energy has passed them; they will feel fresher. Hold somebody's hand and his whole body will start throbbing. Just be close to somebody and that man will start feeling very happy for no reason at all.

You can watch it. Then you are becoming ready to share. Then find a lover, then find a right receptivity for you." -- Osho--

Where are the mustard seeds?

A woman's husband died. She was young, had only one child. She wanted to commit sati, she wanted to jump in the funeral pyre with her husband, but this small child prevented her. She had to live for this small child.

 

But then the small child died; now it was too much. She went almost insane, asking people, "Is there any physician anywhere who can make my child alive again? I was living only for him, now my whole life is simply dark."

It happened that Buddha was coming to the town, so people said, "We don't know any physician, but Buddha is coming. That is a great chance. You take the child to Buddha, and tell him that you were living for this child, and the child has died, `and you are such a great enlightened person, call him back to life! Have mercy on me!'"

So she went to Buddha. She put the dead body of the child at Buddha's feet, and she said, "Call him back to life. You know all the secrets of life, you have attained to the ultimate peak of existence. Can't you do a small miracle for a poor woman?"

Buddha said, "I will do it, but there is a condition."

She said, "I will fulfill any condition."

Buddha said, "Settled. The condition is: you go around the town and, from a house where nobody has ever died, bring a few mustard seeds." That village was cultivating mustard seeds, so Buddha told her, "Just go around ..."

The woman could not understand the strategy. She went to one house, and they said, "A few mustard seeds? We can bring a few bullock carts full of mustard seeds if Buddha can bring your son back to life. But our mustard seeds will not be of any help, because not one, but thousands have died in our family. Since eternity we have been here. We have seen our great-grandfather dying, we have seen our great-grandmother dying, we have seen our grandfather dying, grandmother dying. We have seen so many deaths in our family. These mustard seeds are useless. Buddha's condition is, `from a house where nobody has ever died.'"

It was a small village, and she went to every house. Everybody was ready: "How many seeds do you want?" But the condition was impossible because "so many people have died in our family."

By the evening she became aware of the fact, and of the strategy of Gautam Buddha. She understood that whoever is born is going to die, "so what is the point of getting the child back again? He will die again. It is better for you yourself to seek the eternal, which is never born and never dies."

By the evening she came back empty-handed. Buddha asked, "Where are the mustard seeds?"

She laughed. In the morning she had come crying; now she laughed, and she said, "You tricked me! Everybody who is born is going to die. There is no family, not in this village, nor in the whole world, where nobody has died. So I don't want my son to be brought again back to life -- what is the point? After a few days, or a few months, or a few years, he will have to die again. And all these years he will live in misery, in all kinds of anguish and anxiety. Your compassion is great that you did not bring him back to life! "Forget about the child. Initiate me into the art of meditation, so that I can go into the land, the space of immortality, where birth and death have never happened."

Buddha said, "You are a very intelligent woman. You understood the point."

I call Buddha's strategy a miracle. Everybody is going to die, there is no point ... One has to get out of birth and death.

#Buddha initiated the #woman, and she became one of the enlightened ones among Buddha's disciples. Her urgency was such ... she knew that "My husband has died, my #child has died, and now it is my number. Any moment and I will be a victim of death, so there is not much time. I don't know at what moment death is coming, so I have to be totally involved in the search, in what Buddha is telling me to do: `Go inwards. Go to the very center of your being, and you will be beyond #birth and #death.'"

This I call an authentic miracle: cutting the problem from the very roots. OSHO

Karma , Truth and Consequences

Shortest Inspiring Story - I am awake

It is said that when Buddha was first Enlightened he was asked,

"Are you a God?"

"No," he replied.

"Are you a saint?"

"No."

"Then what are you?"

And he answered, "I am awake."

The story of Bahiya and Buddha

The story of Bahiya is very interesting. He started as sort of a cheat. People thought that he was a holyman and would give him alms. The sub-plot of how Bahiya got to be mistaken as a holyman was even more interesting: Bahiya was on a ship, it wreaked and he was washed ashore naked. He tied a piece of bark to his body and went around begging for food. And because he walked around almost naked, people thought he was a holyman!

Bahiya survived on those alms and was living quite happily. After a while, he even started to believe that he really was a holyman. This went on happily until he got a visit from Great Brahma (God, Himself) one evening. God gave him a scolding for what he was doing. Apparently, God and Bahiya were best friends in recent past lives and He was upset to see His best friend living life as a cheat.

 

 
 
After the good scolding, Bahiya decided that he wanted to seek the true teaching. At the recommendation of Great Brahma, he went to the town of Savatthi to ask the Buddha for advice.
It was said that the Buddha knew, from reading the mind of Bahiya, that he was highly cultivated in a past life and he was about this close to Nirvana. So the Buddha uttered one verse to him. It went something like:

"Where there is seeing, there is only the seeing, there is no see-er. Where there is listening, there is only the listening, there is no listener. Where there is feeling, there is only the feeling.....etc...."

 

It was a very profound verse. Immediately after hearing this verse, Bahiya broke through the final barrier and attained Nirvana on the spot!

The Buddha was telling his disciples that Bahiya attained Nirvana after hearing just a single verse. One monk asked how it is possible that a single verse can lead one to Nirvana. The Buddha answered,
 

"Better than a thousand verses, comprising useless words, is one beneficial single line, by hearing which one is pacified."

Be a light unto yourself - Appo deepo bhava !!

Buddha's last words to his disciples were: APPA DEEPO BHAVA -- be a light unto yourself.
When he was dying, naturally thousands of disciples had gathered and they started crying and weeping. The master was leaving, it was natural, and the master had lived with them for forty-two years and they had loved the man, they had loved his vibe. He was one of the most beautiful men who has ever walked on the earth. Not only was he spiritually beautiful, physically he was also one of the most beautiful men.

Buddha was one of the most beautiful expressions physically too, really a lotus flower. And they had all loved him. They had renounced everything and risked everything for this man and now he was leaving. They started crying. One can understand their crying and their weeping and their tears.
But Buddha said, "Stop! Stop all this nonsense! Why are you crying? What difference is it going to make? I was not your light, you have to be your own light. And," Buddha said to them, "it may be a blessing in the form of a curse, because when I am gone you will try to find yourselves. While I was here you were more interested in me; although I was insisting: Go in! you were focused on me. Now I will not be here, you are bound to go inside."

And that's exactly what happened: many people became enlightened after Buddha died. When they were asked, "Why did so many people become enlightened when Buddha died?" they all said, "Now we understand what he meant, that in the form of a curse it is a blessing -- because once you have seen a Buddha and he is gone there is nothing worth seeing outside. So we closed our eyes.

"We have seen all that was the most worth seeing: we have seen the most beautiful person. What else is there? There is nothing worth hearing, worth seeing. We closed our eyes, we turned inwards and because Buddha was not there anymore we heard his words for the first time. When he was here we were able to postpone, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We were so much enchanted by his personality, by his charisma. Once he was gone we had to fall back upon our own selves. Maybe that was his last device."

OSHO

You don't know the way we count life

A great king, Bimbisara, had come to see Buddha. He was sitting at Buddha's side talking to him and an old man came, bowed down, touched Buddha's feet, an old sannyasin. And as it was the habit of Buddha to ask, he asked the old man, "How old are you?".

And the old man said, "Just four years old, sir."

Bimbisara could not believe his eyes, could not believe his ears: "This old man who looks almost eighty, if not more, is saying he is four years old?" He said, "Pardon me, sir, can you repeat it again, how old you are?"

The old man again said, "Four years old."

Buddha laughed and said, "You don't know the way we count life: it is four years ago that he became a sannyasin, that he was initiated into the eternal, that he was taken into the timeless. It is only four years ago that he crossed from this shore and reached to the other shore. He has lived for eighty years, but those years are not worth counting; it was a sheer wastage."

 OSHO