Cunning, calculation, and the supermarket civilization

[Guest guest]

"We do not know the value of things. We only know their price."

 

The price shows the utility of things. The flowering of life, the flowering of

existence that is the only thing of love the worth, the only thing of value.

 

If we try to measure Buddha against Einstein, his value will be less. If both

are for sale, who will buy Buddha? Anybody would buy Einstein for he would be

useful in making bombs. Buddha would only create confusion. No one will buy him.

Buddha can only be bought when people understand the meaning of value, and not

the price. Then the flowering of Buddha would have value. He is a person in

whose life existence has flowered. If we set aside his utilitarian value,

Einstein will appear to be an ordinary man, like any other. What Einstein could

do was of value. What he is, is of no value. Hence he is a pauper. But when it

came to doing, he is a king. Buddha is rich in his being; there is no question

of his doing anything. He is established in non-action.

 

Says Lao Tzu: "Because non-action is the highest state, reduce the value of

actions and increase the value of your being." Lay stress on what you are, and

not on what you are doing. Do not worry what a person does, concern yourself

with what he is. His being in itself is of value, he is not worthwhile for any

other reason. If we try to look at Buddha in terms of utilitarian values, where

will we place him? Nowhere. And yet one Buddha is worth a thousand Einsteins but

let there be one Buddha! Why is it so? It is because Buddha's being is of

intrinsic value. He cannot be valued in the marketplace.

 

There is an interesting story about the Sufi fakir, Fariuddin Attar. The town he

lived in was raided by Tamerlane and he was caught by his soldiers. As they were

tying his hands, a passerby recognized him. Attar was a wonderful man. Sufi

fakirs always tried to hide their identity. He had made himself known as a

perfume-maker, but those who knew, knew him to be the perfume itself. He was the

ultimate essence of life. This man knew him as such.

 

He told the soldiers that he would give a thousand dinars if they let this man

go. The soldiers were tempted: a thousand gold coins for an ordinary man! But

Attar intervened. "Wait awhile. Others will give a better price."

 

The man said, "I shall give 5,000 dinars, 10,000 dinars! Let this man go!" But

as the price increased the soldiers were certain that this was no ordinary man.

Attar advised them to be patient and wait for a still better price. The soldiers

refused to let him go at any price. The passerby left.

 

Then along came a grass-cutter. "Call that man," Attar told them, "and accept

whatever he gives for me." They called him and asked what price he was willing

to pay for him. The grass cutter looked at Attar, took out a sheaf of grass and

offered it as his price. Attar said, "He knows my worth correctly, Sell me to

him." The soldiers were filled with dismay.

 

Then Attar explained: "The first man knew my worth and yet he talked in terms of

price. Therefore, I stopped you. This grass-cutter has no knowledge of value. He

looks upon me as a commodity. He looked at me and felt I might be useful to cut

grass. This man can think only in terms of utility. That other man knew I was

beyond the pale of utility. Therefore I stopped you. It was not right to accept

his bid. He was pricing me too low. This man has priced me correctly. I have no

utilitarian value. He is not even sure whether I shall be able to cut grass or

not. The other man priced me wrong because he knew my worth. Whatever price he

offered was too little. In life there is one value and one price."

 

Lao Tzu says that the value will be discernible only when the cacophony of the

marketplace dies down, when prices no longer exist. "Discard utility, and

thieves and brigands shall disappear." We have turned life into a big

marketplace where everything has its price. Each man bears a price tag on his

forehead. Each man is for sale. Some for more, some for less. In such a place,

what will there be if not thieves and dacoits?

 

What do we mean by thieves and brigands? They too are people who believe in the

utility of things, only they do not have the money to pay. So they try to steal

things without paying for them. When everything carries a price and there are

people who can pay and people who cannot pay then the latter are bound to obtain

things by foul means.

 

Lao Tzu says: "Let value be, but discard pricing. Then there will be no thefts."

Let us try to understand this.

 

If the values of things remain but no price is fixed on them, what will be the

worth of diamonds? In itself, the diamond is just another stone. But it is very

expensive. What is so valuable about it? Yet it is always in danger of being

stolen; people even kill for it. Why?

 

The value of a diamond is man-made. If you find yourself in a jungle, hungry and

tired, and someone offers you a price of bread, you will willingly exchange it

for a diamond. If you are dying of thirst in a desert and someone offers you a

glass of water in exchange for a diamond you will not think twice. That is the

value of diamonds. Man has set the price on everything. This makes a worthless

thing seem precious and a valuable thing look worthless. Therefore says Lao Tzu:

"Banish cunning, discard utility, and thieves and brigands shall disappear."

 

If life is natural and is based on intrinsic values then what Lao Tzu says is

hundred per cent correct. There shall be no thieves and brigands. They exist

because of the materialistic concept we have given to life. When life is reduced

to the utilitarian then thefts will take place; but when life is based on its

own value, there can be no thefts. Thefts can only take place in bazaars. All

our life is lived in the center of these bazaars. The result of man's efforts

for the last 5,000 years have brought all facets of life into the marketplace.

Nothing is outside the marketplace, so we know nothing of nature or truth or

atman -- we cannot know.

 

Lao Tzu says: "Banish all calculations, discard price. Banish cunning, banish

knowledge. Banish all your justice, humanity, morality and doctrines and become

natural." When he says: "Know the simple self," he is not speaking of any great

universal spirit within you that you should realize. He tells us not to involve

ourselves in these things; but to try and discover the tiny ray of consciousness

within ourselves. Do not give it big names. When you discover the natural lake

of existence within you be absorbed in its music, flow in it. The day you open

the door within, you come upon the temple within yourself.

 

When this tiny secret within you comes into your hand, you will attain the

majesty of a king. This can only be attained when you succeed in destroying the

web you have created around you. This web is intricate and we keep adding unto

it every day. The result is that the music of life within us is completely lost

to us, so much so that we do not even know of its existence.

 

Osho: The Way of Tao,Volume 2,

[Guest guest]

such a great article.. taoist philosophy is very deeep in

spirituality without ever mentioning a spiritual beuing. in doing

that, Lao Tzu wanted us to understand that each oneof us have at

least a speck of divinity in us, in which we need to realise... cool

stuff.. ciao

 

 

, Friends of Osho

<supraath> wrote:

> "We do not know the value of things. We only know their price."

>

> The price shows the utility of things. The flowering of life, the

flowering of existence that is the only thing of love the worth, the

only thing of value.