From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 11. TRUTH: NOT A DOGMA BUT A DANCE
years ago. He remained for nine years in China and a following gathered around him. But he was
not a man belonging to the stupidity of the so-called religions.
Formally he was a Buddhist monk, and China was already converted to Buddhism. Thousands
of Buddhist monks had already reached China before Bodhidharma, and when they heard
Bodhidharma was coming, they rejoiced, because Bodhidharma was almost equal to Buddha. His
name had reached them long before he came. Even the king of China, the great Emperor Wu, came
to receive Bodhidharma on the boundary of China and India.
Wu was the medium to transform the whole of China into Buddhism, to convert it from Confucius to
Gautam Buddha. He had put all his forces and all his treasures into the hands of Buddhist monks,
and he was a great emperor. When he met Bodhidharma he asked, ”I have been waiting to see you.
I am old, and I am fortunate that you have come after all; all these years we have been waiting. I
want to ask a few questions.”
The first question he asked was: ”I have devoted all my treasures, my armies, my bureaucracy
– everything that I have – to convert this vast land to Buddhism, and I have made thousands of
temples for Buddha.” He had made one temple to Buddha in which there were ten thousand statues
of Buddha; the whole mountain was carved. Because ten thousand Buddhas had to be carved,
the whole mountain was finished – carved into Buddhist statues, so the whole mountain became a
temple. He asked, ”What will be my benefit in the other world?”
That’s what the other monks were telling him, ”You have done so much to serve Gautam Buddha
that perhaps when you reach the other world, he himself will be standing there to welcome you. And
you have earned so much virtue that an eternity of pleasures is yours.”
Bodhidharma said, ”All that you have done is absolutely meaningless. You have not even started on
the journey, you have not taken even the first step. You will fall into the seventh hell – take my word
for it.
The Emperor Wu could not believe it: ”I have done so much, and this man says’You will fall into the
seventh hell’!”
Bodhidharma laughed and he said, ”Whatsoever you have done is out of greed, and anything done
out of greed cannot make you religious. You have renounced so many riches, but you have not
renounced them unconditionally. You are bargaining; it is a business. You are purchasing in the
other world. You are putting your bank balance from this world into the other world, transferring
it. You are cunning: because this world is momentary – tomorrow you may die – and these other
monks have been telling you the other world is eternal.... So what are you doing?giving momentary
treasures to gain eternal treasures? Really a good deal! Whom are you trying to deceive?”
When Bodhidharma spoke to Wu in this way, before all the monks and the generals and the lesser
kings who had come with Wu and his whole court, Wu was angry. Nobody had spoken in this way
to him before. He said to Bodhidharma, ”is this the way for a religious person to talk?”
Bodhidharma said, ”Yes, this is the only way a religious person talks; all other ways are of people who
want to cheat you. These monks here have been cheating you; they have been making promises
From Ignorance to Innocence 145 Osho