孔子在询问某些事，透过询问，暴露出他的预设：孔子相信每一件事都有一个原因。如果每一件事都有一个原因，那么就只有科学能存在。棕教是不可能的，因为科学是探索因果关系，一个因，一个果。那就是整个科学的态度： 每件事都一定有原因——你也许知道，也许不知道，但因一定在。如果我们今天不知道，明天或后天就会知道，但它注定会被知道，因为因一定在那里。这就是科学的态度：每一件事都可以归结到它的因。
而棕教又是什么态度呢？棕教态度说，没有什么事真的能被归结到它的因。那些能被归结到因的不是它的本质。本质就简单的是——无理由存在，它是一个奥秘。这就是奥秘的意思，没有原因。
孔子是在依据自己的预设、依据自己的哲学提问：“老师，您快乐的原因是什么？”他为什么这么问？因为，如果知道了那个因，别人也可以学习。如果有人说，“倒立使我心情平静，”你也会倒立，然后变得平静。有人说，“我很快乐，因为我已经放下了俗世，”于是你也弃俗去变得快乐。那么快乐就成了某种可以被安排的东西。
人们就是这样——互相模仿。事实上，快乐没有原因。当你理解这一点，任何时候都可以快乐。如果有原因，那么是需要时间的。你必须去练习它，要练习很长时间。而道全部的根本的态度就是当下你就可以快乐。
这意味着什么？这意味着没有原因就不需要去练习。只是一个允许的问题——如果你允许，它已经在了。如果不允许，你就会像一块石头一样存在；如果你允许，石头就被移走了。只是一个允许的问题。神在，你允许——这就是全部。如果你不允许，它不会进来，因为它不会摧毁你的自由，它保护你的自由意志。如果你说不，它不会进入你的存在。如果你的门上写着“未经允许，不得进入”，那么它会等待。
它甚至不会要求你的允许——它只是等待，因为甚至连要求你的允许都是干涉了你的自由。它会等待。不按门铃，只是等待。神无处不在，静静地等待……那就是为什么它的存在很难察觉，几乎就像不存在。你能理解吗？神看起来是世界上最不存在的东西。那就是为什么无神论者能够存在，而且他们可以说，“神在哪里？我们什么都没看见。”它不介入，不打扰，允许你有完全的自由，完全的自由包括反对神。
喜乐就是你的天性，你就是由这种被称为喜乐的东西制造出来的。但你必须允许它，你必须放松，放手，没有理由——只需要放手。因此，理论上它当下就能发生，甚至连一个刹那都不需要浪费。如果有一个理由，那么漫长的时间是需要的，即便如此，你必须知道——你可能成功，也可能不成功。
去看印度教态度和道家态度的区别。印度教、齐那教、弗教——他们都说过去世的业力必须被清算。很多事要了结，严酷的纪律是需要的——只有这样你才能抵达。Ashtavakra，老子、菩提达摩、Lin Chi说，什么都不需要，只是允许。放松，允许它，这个当下它就会淹没你。
孔子说：“老师，您快乐的原因是什么？”告诉我你是怎么做到的。告诉我那个过程——你的方法是什么，什么原则，什么纪律，什么经文。你怎么做到的？现在孔子是贪婪的。他想要达到同样的状态，自然歌唱，音乐流动，一个欢乐庆祝的人。这个人让他深深着迷，因为他“穿着破旧的皮大衣，腰上系着绳子，一边唱一边作势弹着琵琶。”
一个穷人没啥值得高兴的，没啥可高兴的。如果他是痛苦的，那可以理解；如果他抑郁，那可以理解——那样孔子就会从他旁边经过，甚至不会注意到他的存在。但这个穷光蛋啥都没有，就一根绳子缠在腰上，还在唱歌？唱着欢快的歌？弹琵琶？孔子像磁铁一样深深地被他吸引了，但他问了一个错误的问题。
道家人永远不会问这样的问题。快乐在，它就是在，没有原因，因此也没有方法，只能了解。
这个人说，“我有很多快乐。”
如果你有很多快乐，那么你并不了解快乐是什么，因为快乐只有一个，它无法是很多。疾病可以有很多，健康无法有很多。你有你的疾病，我有我的，别人有他的，但当我是健康的，你是健康的，别人是健康的——有什么不同？你能在我的健康和你的健康之间做出区分吗？不可能：健康是共通的，疾病是个人的。疾病是小我的，健康是非小我的。疾病是身体的，头脑的；健康是超越的，超越即一体。我的身体和你的身体是分开的——自然地我和你会有不一样的疾病，但是健康？健康是同一的。它是一种味道，永远是同一种味道，永恒不变。
有人问佛佗，“佛性是什么味道？”他说，“去尝尝海水，从任何地方品尝它——从这个岸边，任何一个岸边。或去到海洋的中心去品尝它，或去另一个海岸——你会发现味道永远是一样的：一样的咸味。佛性只有一个味道。”不管谁成佛，都会实现同一个味道。健康是同一种味道。当孩子是健康的，年轻人是健康的，老人是健康的，一样的，那是同一种味道。当女人是健康的，男人是健康的——同一个味道。
但疾病是不同的。现在，医疗科学说，即使两个人患有同一种病病，甚至这两个疾病都是不一样的。因此，有时会发生这样的情况，你患上某种疾病——可能是肺结核——你的妻子也是同一种疾病，肺结核，但同样的药却没有效果。你需要一种药品，你的妻子需要其它的药。那就是为什么医生是需要的，否则药剂师就够了。一旦确定肺结核需要的是这种药，那去找医生有什么意义？药剂师可以为你提供。
现在，医疗科学在探索健康与疾病方面走的越来越深，他们开始觉察到每一种疾病都有个体原因在里面：它属于特定的人。所以现在，他们说，不要因病就医，要因人就医。不要过于关注疾病，要看那个人，看他整个的人格，他生活的方式，他的态度，习惯的模式。看他们，那么你会发现，肺结核名称也许是一样的——因为很难为每一个人赋予一个不同的名称——但每个患有肺结核的人病因都是不一样的，不同的治疗方案是需要的。
疾病是个体性的，但健康呢？健康是非个体的，它是共通的。快乐也是一样。痛苦是一种病，快乐是健康，安宁。现在孔子问了一个错误的问题，引出了一个错误的答案。当然，他是一个完全不知道什么是快乐的人。
他说，“我有很多快乐。”
很多？那么某些事出错了。快乐是一。当你说你有很多快乐，你不知道快乐是什么。你可能会谈论快乐，你可能会谈论你所谓的快乐的时刻，但那并不是真正的快乐时刻，只是痛苦少一点而已。一个非常痛苦的人，某一天他觉得痛苦减轻了，他就会说，“我非常快乐。”这只是相对而言，他并不知道快乐是什么。
他只是知道，有时候痛苦非常强烈，有时候不是那么强烈。当它不是那么强烈的时候，他会说，“我是快乐的。”你可以观察你自己，你可曾真的知道快乐是什么？你知道它的味道吗？你知道的只是不同程度的痛苦。
有时候痛苦如此强烈，无法忍受，有时候可以忍受，在可控范围内——你能忍受它。你从少量的痛苦到大量的痛苦，再从大量的痛苦到少量的痛苦。但你并不知道快乐是什么，因为一旦你知道了快乐是什么，那么根本不需要痛苦——因为你已经有了钥匙。只要你想要，你随时可以打开那扇门。但你无法打开快乐之门——那只是表明你没有找到钥匙。你只知道同一种现象的相对状态：有时候非常黑暗，你什么也看不见；有时候不那么黑暗，是朦胧的昏暗；但你仍然不知道光是什么。光与黑暗没有任何关系——光不是少量的黑暗。记住，光是一种完全不同的能量，与黑暗完全无关。黑暗与光明无法同时存在于一个房间。光是积极的，黑暗是消极的——所以它痛苦。
这个人说，“我有很多快乐。天生万物，人为至尊——而我幸运地生而为人。这是我的第一个快乐。”
表面上看，它非常有意义，非常诱人，因为它极大地满足了人的小我。人永远认为他就是存在中最为优越的，人永远认为他仅次于神并以此为荣。但快乐怎会透过小我而来？不快乐才是透过小我而来。而这是最为自我主义的一个表现，那就是认为人仅次于神。但这，也仅仅是出于礼貌，内心深处你知道，是神仅次于你。
“我”这个想法就显示出你是存在中最为首要的，其它每件事都居于其次。尼采比其他很多人都更真实，他说，“我无法允许神的存在，因为那样我就要屈居第二，而我无法位居其次，我不能接受当个老二。如果神存在，那么我永远都是老二。不管我怎么成长，达成什么，都是老二——永远成不了第一，首位。”这是不可接受的，所以他说，“神死了，人自由了。”神是一种束缚，他是诚实的——就某种程度而言。我说“就某种程度而言”，因为那就是每个人内心深处所想的：每一个小我都想成为第一。
就算你是一个虔诚的崇拜者，一个伟大的所谓棕教人士，每一刻你都在根据自己的目的控制神。“去实现我的愿望！”那就是你所有祈祷的意思：“按我的意愿去做，听我的。”你全部的努力就是把神变成你的仆人，你称它为“神”、“大师”，那只是贿赂，你试图掌控它。你说，“我什么也不是，你是全部”——但在内心深处你知道谁是谁。事实上，即使当你为你的神而战，它也是你的神。甚至当你在某个宝座上、某个祭坛上牺牲自己，你是为你的神牺牲。当你在庙里、在寺里、在教堂，向你想象的神鞠躬，那是在向你所创造的幻象鞠躬，那是你的神。你在向你自己的创造鞠躬，正如在镜子面前鞠躬一样。你把自己投射上去然后说，“多美啊！”一个基嘟徒会说基嘟是多么美，一个印度徒会说克里希那多么美，一个弗教徒会说佛佗是多么美——弗教徒不会接受基嘟是美的，因为那不能满足他的小我。基嘟徒无法接受佛佗的美——那不能满足他的小我。印度徒无法相信基嘟或牧罕默德或摩西是美的——那不能满足他的小我。
记住：我们都在以每一种可能的方式满足自己的小我——明显或不明显，直接或不直接。而一个真正的棕教人士是一个知道这一点的人，他能够觉知到，在那个觉知里，小我不见了。
一个真正的棕教人士没有谁优越的想法，一个棕教人士不会说，“我比树高级，我比动物高级，我比鸟儿高级。”一个棕教人士不会说，“我是高等的、优越的。”一个棕教人士会知道那个“我不是的”，在那个“我不是”的经验里，快乐进入了，石头被移走了。
Confucius is asking something, and by asking that, he is showing his presuppositions: Confucius believes that everything hasa cause. If everything has a cause, then only science can exist.Then there is no possibility for religiousness, because science is the inquiry into the cause-and-effect relationship, an inquiry into causation, an inquiry into causality. That is the whole scientific attitude: they say that if something is there, there must be a cause to it—you may know, you may not know, but the cause is bound to be there. If we don’t know today, we will know tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, but the cause is bound to be known, because the cause must be there. This is the scientific attitude: everything can be reduced to its cause.
And what is the religious attitude? The religious attitude says that nothing can really be reduced to its cause. That which can be reduced is not essential. The essential simply is–it exists without any cause; it is mysterious. This is the meaning of mystery: there is no cause to it.
Confucius is asking a question according to his presuppositions,according to his philosophy: “Master, what is the reason for your joy?” Why is he asking? So that, if the reason is known, others can also cultivate it. If somebody says,“By standing on my head I become very peaceful,” you also stand on your head and you become peaceful. Somebody says,“I am happy because I have renounced the world,” so you also renounce the world and you become happy.Then happiness becomes something that can be manipulated.
This is how people are–imitating each other. And in fact there is no cause for happiness.The day you understand this,you can be happy any moment. If there is a cause, then the cause will take time. You will have to practice it, you will have to practice long. And the whole, radical attitude of Tao is that you can be happy this moment.
What does this mean? This means that there is no cause, so there is no need to practice. It is just a question of allowing it–it is already there if you allow. If you don’t allow, you function like a rock; if you allow, the rock is removed. It is only a questionof allowing it. God is there,you allow–that’s all.If you don’t allow, he will not enter because he cannot destroy your freedom, he protects your freedom. If you say no, he is not going to enter into your being. If on your door it is written that nobody is allowed without permission,he will wait.
He is not even going to ask your permission–he will simply wait, because even to ask your permission is to interfere with your freedom.He will wait.He will not ring the bell,he will simply wait. God is everywhere, waiting, and he waits so silently…that’s why his presence is not felt, he looks almost absent. Can’t you see it?God seems to be the most absent thing in the world. That’s why atheists can exist, and they can say, “Where is your God? We don’t see anything.” He is so noninterfering; he allows you total freedom. And total freedom implies in it to go against God.
Your nature is that of bliss.You are made of the stuffcalled bliss. But you have to allow it, you have to relax, you have to be in a let-go; no cause is there–just let-go is needed.Hence, theoretically, it can happen at this very moment, not even a split second has to be wasted. If there is a cause, then…a long time will be needed, and even then one never knows–you may succeed, you may not succeed.
See the difference between the Hindu attitude and the Taoistattitude. The Hindu, the Jaina, the Buddhist–they all say the past lives’ karma has to be removed. Much has to be done, great discipline is needed–only then will you be able to attain. Ashtavakra, Lao Tzu, Bodhidharma, Lin Chi say nothing is needed, just allow it. Relax, allow it, and this very moment it will start pouring in you.
Confucius says:”Master,what is the reason for your joy?”Tell me howyou have attained it. Tell me what was your process–what methodology you followed; what principles, what disciplines, what scriptures. How have you attained it? Now Confucius is greedy. He wants to attain the same state where song is natural, and music flows, and one is celebrating. He is tremendously enchanted by this man because he is “in a rough fur coat with a rope round his waist, singing as he strummed a lute.”
A poor man has nothing to be happy for, has nothing tobe happy about. If he were miserable, it would be understandable;if he were depressed, it would be understandable–Confucius would have passed by him, not even noticing his existence. But this poor man who has nothing, a rope round his waist, singing? Singing a song of joy? Strumming a lute? Confucius is enchanted, magnetized, but he asks a wrong question.
A Taoist will never ask such a question. Joy is, and simply is; it has no cause to it, hence no methods are possible, only understanding.
That man said, “I have many joys.”
If you have many joys, you have not understood what joy is, because joy is only one. There cannot be many joys. There can be many diseases, but there cannot be many healths. You may have your disease, I may have mine, somebody else has his own;but when I am healthy, you are healthy, somebody else is healthy–what is the difference? Can you make a distinction between my health and your health? There is no possibility of it: health is universal, disease is personal. Disease is of the ego, health is not of the ego.Disease is of the body, of the mind; health is of the beyond, and the beyond is one. My body differs from yours–naturally I will have a different disease, you will have a different disease, but health? Health is simply one. It has the taste, the same taste always, eternally the same.
Somebody asked Buddha,“What is the taste of your buddhahood?”He said,“Go and taste the sea, and taste it from anywhere–from this bank, from any bank of any beach. Or go to the middle of the ocean and taste it there, or go to the other shore–and you will find the taste always the same: the same salty taste. Buddhahood has one taste.”Whosoever has become a Buddha has come to the same taste. Health has the same taste. When the child is healthy, the young man is healthy, and the old man is healthy, then too, it has the same taste. When the woman is healthy, the man is healthy–the same taste.
But diseases are different. Now, medical science says that even when two persons are suffering from the same disease, even then the two diseases are not the same. Hence sometimes it happens that you are suffering from some disease–maybe tuberculosis–and your wife is suffering from the same disease, tuberculosis, but the same medicines don’t work. You need one medicine, your wife needs some other medicine. That’s why the physician is needed; otherwise the pharmacist would be enough. If once it was decided that tuberculosis needed this medicine, then what would be the point in going to the physician?The chemist could supply it.
Now, more and more, as medical scientists are going deeper into the phenomena of health and disease, they are becoming aware that each disease has a personality in it:it belongs to the person. So now they say, don’t treat the disease, treat the person. Don’t be too much concerned with the disease. Look into the person,his total personality, his way of life, his attitudes, his habit patterns. Look into them, and then you will find that the name tuberculosis may be the same–because it would be very difficult to have separate names for everybody–but each person who suffers from tuberculosis suffers differently, and a different treatment is needed.
Diseases are personal, but health? Health is impersonal, universal. So is joy. Misery is a disease; joy is health, well-being .Now Confucius has asked a wrong question and provoked a wrong answer. And, of course, the man does not know anything about joy.
He says,“I have many joys.”
Many? Then something has gone wrong. Joy is one. When you say you have many joys, you don’t know what joy is. You may be talking about pleasures, you may be talking about your so-called moments of happiness, which are not really moments of happiness but only of less misery. A person is very miserable, then one day he feels less miserable and he says,“I am very happy.”That is just relative; he does not know what happiness is.
He only knows sometimes very intense misery,sometimes not so intense. When it is not so intense, he says, “I am happy.”You can observe it in yourself. Have you ever known what happiness is?Do you know the taste of it? You have known only different stages of misery.
Sometimes the misery is so much that it is unbearable. Sometimes it is bearable, within control–you can tolerate it. You move from less misery to more misery, from more misery to less misery. But you have not known what happiness is, because once you have known what happiness is,then there is no need to be miserable at all–because then you have the key. You can open that door any moment you decide to open it. But you cannot open the door of happiness–that simply shows that you don’t have the key.You just know relative states of the same phenomenon: sometimes it is very dark and you cannot see at all, and sometimes it is not so dark, it is dim; but you have not known what light is.Light is not any relative state of darkness–light is not less darkness. Remember, light is a totally different kind of energy; it has nothing to do with darkness. Darkness and light cannot exist together in the same room. Light is a positivity, darkness is a negativity–so is misery.
Said the man,“I have many joys. Of the myriad things which heaven begot, mankind is the most noble–and I have the luck to be human. This is my first joy.”
On the surface, it looks very meaningful, appealing, because very much fulfilling to the human ego. Man has always been thinking of himself as the most superior creation of existence. Man has always thought of himself only as next to God and feels very happy.But how is happiness possible through the ego? Unhappiness comes through the ego. And this is one of the greatest points of the egoist, that man is only next to God. That, too, we say just to be polite; deep down you know that God is next to you.
The very idea of “I” has in it an implication of being the first, and then everything is secondary.Friedrich Nietzsche is truer than many other people, he says: “I cannot allow God to exist because then I am secondary, and I cannot be secondary; I cannot accept my status as secondary. If God is, then I will always be secondary. Howsoever I grow, and wherever I reach, I will be secondary–I will never be primary, the first.”This is not acceptable, so he says, “God is dead and man is free.”God is the bondage.He is true–in a way.“In a way”I say, because that’s how everybody thinks deep down: every ego wants to be first.
Even when you are a great worshiper, a great so-called religious person, every moment you are trying to manipulate God according to you.“Do my will!”That’s all that your prayer means: “Do according to me. Listen to me.” Your whole effort is to convert God into your servant. You call him “Lord,” “Master,” but those are just briberies;you are trying to manipulate him.You say,”I am nobody, you are all”–but deep down you know who is who.ln fact, even when you fight for your God, it is your God. Even when you sacrifice yourself on some pedestal, on some altar,it is to your God that you sacrifice. When you bow down to an image of God in a temple, in a mosque, in a church, it is to your image that you have created, it is to your God. You are bowing down in front of your own creation. You are bowing down as if before a mirror.You are reflected there and you say, “How beautiful!”When a Christian says how beautiful Christ is, when a Hindu says how beautiful Krishna is, and when a Buddhist says how beautiful Buddha is–the Buddhist will not accept that Christ is beautiful because that does not fulfill his ego. The Christian will not accept that Buddha is beautiful–that does not fulfill his ego. The Hindu cannot believe that Christ or Mohammed or Moses is beautiful–that does not fulfill his ego.
Remember: we are fulfilling our egos in every way possible–gross or subtle, direct or indirect. And a really religious person is one who knows this, becomes aware of this, and in that awareness the ego disappears.
A really religious person has no idea of who is superior. A religious person cannot say,“I am superior to the tree, I am superior to the animal, I am superior to the bird.” A religious person cannot say,“I am superior.” A religious person has come to know that “I am not,” and in that experience of“I am not,”joy flows in; the rock has been removed.
吾同翻译