...gentlemen of leisure.

[Guest guest]

Dear B., tell us about the length of the message.

 

Dear Anu,

 

The length of the message depends on its purpose.

 

There is message from masters which is essentially no-message, yet,

it spans in more than thousand pages. No-message is the

message, ...but, it takes more than thousand pages to deliver it.

 

 

Then, there is also the question of the audience. Many people like to

have an opinion, many people like to show their `wisdom', express

their knowledge, their insight. You can talk endlessly about such

subjects. It ranges from Bill and Monica to Kobe's trial and the war

in Iraq. People never get tired of these things. You can often just

change the heading and globally replace few names and deliver the

exactly same message again without losing your audience. You can talk

about Ben's affair with Jen or you can start talking about his affair

with Uma.

 

 

There is also message about the beauty, about the love ... Many poets

and lovers talk about it. But, these are strictly for `the gentlemen

of leisure'. `Busy' people have no time for such `useless' `stuff'.

They have no time to sit in a rose garden, near a stream, no ears to

hear the sound of a cuckoo, no eyes to see a rainbow. They would

rather hang a picture or painting of rainbow in their drawing room

and be done with it. For them, rainbow is just an arc with seven

colors. There is no misty, no beauty, ...there is no enigma to it. I

have heard the stories about the people for whom Niagara falls is

just some water falling on the rocks. Seen one, ...they have seen it

all. Many of these people are often found reading `useful' matters

like Wall street Journal cover to cover everyday.

 

Then, there is message talking about scientific facts where there is

no room left of any imagination. These messages are rightly delivered

crisp, tight, compact, ...with not a single unnecessary word.

Because, any unnecessary word might interfere with the actual fact.

 

Spiritual message is not a matter of gossip or description of a

laboratory experiment. It is the expression of the ultimate beauty

and can be understood only by the gentlemen and women beyond `the

people of leisure'. People who have no time for beauty, have no time

for anything spiritual either. Because, the two are not different.

Beauty is merely an outward reflection of the inner truth and both

require same dimension of the mind to understand them – that of the

no-mind.

 

Message that Buddha gives is essentially a no-message. It is `be

still and know' and `be your own lamp'. Rest is just a love

affair ...between Buddha and his lovers. Buddha likes talking about

the one subject of the ultimate beauty, about the one that can't be

talked about and his lovers like hearing it. The length doesn't

matter ...just like two lovers in a deep embrace, in love-union

joined together. Longer ...the better. There is no goal. There is no

where to reach. Love is the goal. Union is the mission. Message is

the goal. But, yes, it is not for the `men in hurry'. Even in the

love-union they are in hurry to reach a goal. Even the union many

consider `useless' stuff and often to do it just to get some `useful'

stuff like money, prestige among a friend, an inheritor, or to sign a

pack, make stronger kingdom as in old days.

 

 

 

.....Because, things of beauty and love are only for those who have

time ...to live, ...to love.

 

 

 

A Wordsworth rights a poetry on rainbow. Not only he writes a long

poetry on a `simple' arc of colors, actually he leaves long gaps

between two stanzas. ....And, these gaps are for his lovers

to ...rejoice, cherish, stop reading and just marvel on the delicacy

of the just expressed beauty. And, his lovers do that. Wordsworth do

not write for some time ...in the gaps ...and his lovers don't read

him for some time and ...the message gets delivered. The beauty gets

delivered. Because, the beauty gets delivered only

in ...gaps, ...only in not-reading. The test was just the

preparation. The gap is the real message. Space is the real

message. ....but, it takes hundred pages to prepare for ....hundred

such gaps.

 

Tolle writes a book called `Stillness speaks' and leaves big space

between scattered little texts. Many people get very disappointed and

ask where is the `message', where is the `necessary' thing...

 

.....Yes, Anu. You are right.

 

Beauty is the thing only for the ...gentlemen of leisure.