BELOVED MASTER, IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH? Nijanando, first ask: is there life before death? People ask: Is there life after death? What concern is that for you? You are alive. Ask the significant question, the really relevant question: Is there life before death? Are you really alive? A woman went to the insurance company and said, Can I get the money for which my husband has been insured? The man in the office said, But he is still alive. He is not dead. You will get the money only when he is dead. She said, I know that he is not dead, but no life is left in him either. Thats the situation: people are not dead and yet not alive either. They are somehow walking, talking, doing things, keeping themselves together, but there is no aliveness, there is no flavor of aliveness. And you are concerned, Nijanando, with what happens after death. Forget all about it. You are alive -- first live it totally. And remember one thing: whatsoever you do with your life now, that is going to create your future. Your future comes out of your present. If you live miserably now you will live miserably after death -- even more miserably because your whole life lived in misery will produce more misery for you. I am not concerned about life after death; my whole concern is life before death. And whatsoever you do with your life now will produce, as a consequence, your future. The tomorrow will be born out of today, the next moment will be born out of this moment. So if this moment is lived rightly, totally, wholly, meditatively, then the next moment is bound to be more total, more holy, more meditative, because life goes on accumulating. If you live blissfully, bliss accumulates. You will take with you when you die whatsoever you have gained in this life. But down the ages people have remained concerned about the other life. I also talk sometimes about the other life, but just to joke, to laugh at it. It is not really a concern. In hell, as punishment for his sins, Ayatollah Khomeini and Jimmy Carter had to walk together hand in hand for eternity. As they were strolling along, they came across Morarji Desai arm in arm with Gina Lollobrigida. Carter asked, Mr. Desai, how come I am stuck for eternity with this turkey, while you get the gorgeous Lollobrigida? Morarji Desai answered, Jimmy, she is not my punishment -- I am hers! Only for jokes I talk about hell and heaven and life after death, but it is not my concern at all; I am not interested. My whole interest is in my present moment. Now is my interest, here is my interest, because God knows only one time -- now -- and God knows only one space -- here. If you want to be in contact with God you will have to learn how to be now and here. The Dhammapada: The Way of the Buddha, Vol 9 Chapter #2 Chapter title: Is there life before death? 12 February 1980 am in Buddha Hall
Posted on: Sat, 06 Dec 2014 12:51:44 +0000
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