Taoism is not here to create a new religion; its every effort is to destroy all religions. They have done enough harm to humanity. To tolerate them even for a single day is against anybody who understands the meaning of compassion, who understands the eternity of his own being. Unless all these organized religions become memories of the past, man cannot live without fetters, without chains, without moralities imposed on him against his will. He cannot live as an individual, he has to subdue himself according to the masses. That is the ugliest slavery.
But for thousands of years man has lived in slavery of many kinds. He has forgotten the taste of freedom. He has forgotten the beauty of responsibility. He has forgotten that he has wings, that the whole sky is his. And he need not be tied to a post like an animal, he is a bird of the beyond.
But even great symbols have been misunderstood.
Zarathustra was talking about the fire, but his people have carried fire, ordinary fire, from Persia to India, persecuted by the Mohammedans. For centuries they have been keeping the same fire alive, which is simply absurd. That fire is not going to transform you, and Zarathustra did not mean that fire. He meant that fire in you that it can burn your ego and your slavery simultaneously and make you a freedom, a light unto yourself.
Man has always been misunderstanding great symbols. And the men who have attained to the ultimate are helpless, they have to use symbols.
Their temples are called agiyari, fire temples. For centuries they have carried the same fire; they don't allow it to go out, they go on refueling it. And not even for a single moment do they think: "What has this fire done for us? Certainly this is not the fire that Zarathustra was talking about."
Man is so blind, it is almost certain that he will misunderstand. He is not only blind, he is greedy.
An unconscious love is a blind love. It is only a superficial hypocrisy, of which we are not aware.
Down the ages millions of people have been misunderstanding or trying to manipulate things according to their own vested interest.
Without being a buddha you don't have any meaning in your life.
But for thousands of years man has lived in slavery of many kinds. He has forgotten the taste of freedom. He has forgotten the beauty of responsibility. He has forgotten that he has wings, that the whole sky is his. And he need not be tied to a post like an animal, he is a bird of the beyond.
But even great symbols have been misunderstood.
Zarathustra was talking about the fire, but his people have carried fire, ordinary fire, from Persia to India, persecuted by the Mohammedans. For centuries they have been keeping the same fire alive, which is simply absurd. That fire is not going to transform you, and Zarathustra did not mean that fire. He meant that fire in you that it can burn your ego and your slavery simultaneously and make you a freedom, a light unto yourself.
Man has always been misunderstanding great symbols. And the men who have attained to the ultimate are helpless, they have to use symbols.
Their temples are called agiyari, fire temples. For centuries they have carried the same fire; they don't allow it to go out, they go on refueling it. And not even for a single moment do they think: "What has this fire done for us? Certainly this is not the fire that Zarathustra was talking about."
Man is so blind, it is almost certain that he will misunderstand. He is not only blind, he is greedy.
An unconscious love is a blind love. It is only a superficial hypocrisy, of which we are not aware.
Down the ages millions of people have been misunderstanding or trying to manipulate things according to their own vested interest.
Without being a buddha you don't have any meaning in your life.
hans-wolfgang - am Samstag, 16. April 2005, 19:11
