Following more than fifty years of atheism, scientists in Russia began to be curious about what religion might be. A group of them took a book of holy quotations and decided to have it decoded by an analogical computer. They opened the book and took the first phrase they saw, typing it out onto the keyboard. The phrase was: “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” They crowded around the printout as the words began to appear.
As they read the message their astonishment increased: “The vodka is ready, but the meat is devitalized.”
“No wonder religions used to mystify people,” they muttered to one another.
Then one of them had an idea. He tapped out the book’s title, Unconsidered Trifles, onto the decoder. Out came the translation: “Neglected puddings.”
“You see!” he shouted. “You have got the wrong book – this is one about the abuses of cookery.”
They are still seeking an authentic religious text. The mind of the knowledgeable man is like a computer. He goes on interpreting things not knowing exactly what he is doing; he is not conscious enough to do it.
But I cannot continue further because I see you are all thinking about PhD! PhD means “piled high and deep” – now be finished with it so we can go on further …
Buddha says:
The wise man tells you
where you have fallen
and where you yet may fall –
invaluable secrets!
Follow him, follow the way.
The wise man tells you where you have fallen… The first lesson in a mystery school is the original fall of man. It has nothing to do with Adam and Eve and their original fall. That story is simply a condensed parable about the whole humanity. Each child falls in the same way. It is not something that happened in the past, in the old biblical days; it is not something that happened in the Garden of Eden. That is a poetic expression. It happens whenever a child is born. It happens again and again. It is happening every day.
The parable is that God prohibited Adam and Eve from eating from the tree of knowledge. It is one of the most beautiful parables ever invented by the masters, by the real knowers – not to eat from the tree of knowledge. And what are your universities? – trees of knowledge. And what is your education? – a tree of knowledge.
God had prohibited them to eat from it, so that you can remain innocent, because only the innocent heart can know. The moment you become full of knowledge, knowing stops. In fact, you have found a substitute for knowing – your knowledge becomes the substitute. Then there is no need to know! You go on clinging to the knowledge and it goes on giving satisfaction to your ego.