When the Shoe Fits - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 9. DUKE HWAN AND THE WHEELRIGHT
him about the inner world. This seems to be a sheer waste of time. It is not, because Sufis say
that the question is not what you learn, the subject matter is not the question – how you learn is.
Once you have learned how to learn then the innermost keys can be given to you immediately. In
ten or twenty years of living with a master and learning how to make shoes, the disciple imbibes
the spirit. The more he imbibes the spirit of the master, the more he becomes a perfect shoemaker.
Spirituality is not touched at all, not talked about – just the learning to imbibe. And anything will do
– whatsoever the master feels is fit or whatsoever he is skilled in. And by the time he feels that you
can now imbibe, you have imbibed the art, then he will teach you the inner world. Then he will bring
you to the door of the temple. Then he will say that now I can hand over the key. And if you cannot
even learn shoemaking, how can you learn the Divine?
This wheelwright’s standpoint is absolutely right. ’SO HERE I AM, SEVENTY YEARS OLD, STILL
MAKING WHEELS!’ Nobody has been able to learn from me while I am alive, how can you learn
from the authorities which are dead? And if not even wheelmaking can be learned, how can you
learn the supreme-most art of life – the supreme-most craft of bringing the Divine to man or bringing
man to the Divine?
’THE MEN OF OLD TOOK ALL THEY REALLY KNEW WITH THEM TO THE GRAVE. AND SO,
LORD, WHAT YOU ARE READING THERE IS ONLY THE DIRT THEY LEFT BEHIND THEM.’
This is to be remembered – one of the most profound sentences.’THE MEN OF OLD TOOK ALL
THEY REALLY KNEW WITH THEM TO THE GRAVE.’ When a Buddha dies, whatsoever he knows
disappears with him. It has to be so, this is the way, this is how things are. We may not wish it so, but
our wishes are not the question. Whatsoever a Mahavir knows disappears from this world when he
dies. No. It cannot be carried by scriptures, it cannot be carried by scholars. Words will be repeated
and memorised, written, worshipped, but they are just dust, left-overs, dead things, graves. You can
make temples out of them, beautiful temples, and worship and go on worshipping, but whatsoever
a Buddha knows disappears with him because that knowledge is not separate from Buddha, it is
his being. It is one with him, it is he himself. When he disappears, his consciousness goes into
the infinite, the river has fallen into the ocean. You can go on worshipping that dry bed of the river,
where the river once was, but it is no longer there. You can make temples, pilgrimages, but it is not
of much use.
What is this wheelwright saying? He is saying that one should always seek a living master, always
seek the alive because only the alive is here, only life penetrates the world of matter. And when a
Buddha disappears, he simply disappears with all that he knew. That is why Buddhas are always
in a hurry to teach, always in a hurry to give, to find one who can learn, because the moment they
disappear, all they know will disappear.
And it has to be discovered again and again, it is not like science. Science is a tradition; religion is
individual. If something is discovered by Newton, it will be there, written in the books in the libraries,
Einstein can be benefitted by it. Really without Newton, there cannot be any Einstein, he has to
stand on Newton’s shoulders. He may contradict Newton, but he stands on him, he is the base.
Whatsoever Einstein discovers will remain a part of humanity, always. That is why science goes on
growing, progressively accumulating more and more speed.
But religion always disappears with the person who discovers it. You cannot stand on Buddha’s
shoulders. No! There is no possibility! You will have to stand on your feet again and again and
When the Shoe Fits 133 Osho