Saving Lives

From the diary of a globe-trotting young cinema queen:

MONDAY: The Captain saw me on deck and was kind enough to ask me to sit at his table for the rest of the trip.

TUESDAY: I spent the morning on the bridge with the Captain. He took my picture leaning against the “Passengers not allowed on this bridge” sign.

WEDNESDAY: The Captain made proposals to me, unbecoming an officer and a gentleman.

THURSDAY: The Captain threatened to sink the ship unless I agreed to his proposals.

FRIDAY: I saved eight hundred lives today.

Sinner

In a village a crowd came to Jesus, and they had brought a woman who had sinned in the eyes of the crowd. So they said to Jesus, ”This woman is a sinner, and she has confessed. So what should we do now? It is written in the old scriptures that she should be killed by throwing stones at her, she should be stoned to death. What do you say? What should we do?”

They were trying to put Jesus in a dilemma, because if he said not to kill her... as it was expected he should say, because he was saying, ”Love. And if someone strikes you on one cheek, give him the other cheek; if someone forces you to carry his burden for one mile, go two miles with him; if someone snatches your coat, give him your shirt also.” This man could not say, ”Kill, murder, stone this woman to death.” And if he said, ”No, don’t kill her,” then they could say, ”You are against the scriptures, so you cannot be a prophet. You don’t belong to us. You are a destroyer.”

But Jesus escaped their dilemma – because the dilemma exists only for the obsessed mind. When there is no mind dilemma disappears, because dilemma consists of division. You divide things in two, in opposites, and then there is the question, What to choose, how to choose? Then the problem arises. But if there is no mind, there is no question of choice – a choicelessness has happened.

So Jesus said, ”It is right, it is written in the scriptures to stone this woman to death. It is okay. Bring the stones and kill this woman – but only that man is allowed to stone this woman who has himself not committed sin in his actions, or in his mind.”

Then those who were leading the crowd started dispersing, because there was none who had not committed adultery in act or in mind. And there is no difference whether you commit it in action or you commit it in the mind, it is the same for the consciousness. There is no difference. Whether you think of killing a person or you actually kill, there is no difference, because you have killed inwardly when you have thought. If, just in your mind, you want to rape a woman, you have raped. Your whole being has done it. Whether it has become actual in the world of events or not, that is irrelevant, that is secondary. As far as you are concerned the sin has been committed.

Nobody could throw a stone at that woman. The crowd disappeared, only the woman was left. So the woman said to Jesus, ”But I have committed... I have done a wrong. I am immoral. So whether the crowd is going to stone me to death or not, you can punish me. I confess.”

Jesus said, ”Who am I to judge? It is between you and your God, you and the ultimate, you and the all – who am I to judge? It is something between you and existence. Where do I come in?”

It is the same energy that becomes hate or love

A Sufi mystic wrote a book on the Koran. It was opposed by all the authorities, by the official religion. They banned it, they made it a crime to read it. It was sacrilegious, they thought, dangerous, because he was interpreting the Koran in such a way as nobody had ever interpreted it. He was going against the tradition.

He called his chief disciple, gave him the book, and told him to go the chief priest and present the book to him -- and watch everything. "Whatsoever happens, you have to report it correctly. So be very alert: whatsoever happens...when you give the book as a present, how he reacts, what he does, what he says, remember accurately because you have to report the whole scene. And let me tell you," the master told him, "that this is a kind of test for you. It is not only the question of giving the book to the chief priest and coming back; the whole point is reporting everything as it happens."

The man went, very alert, very cautious. Entering into the house of the chief priest, he made himself very alert, shook his body, because everything had to be observed minutely. Then he went in.

As he presented the book to the chief priest and told the name of his master, the priest threw the book out of the house, onto the road, and said, "Why didn't you tell me before that this is from that dangerous man? I would not even have touched it. I will have to wash my hands now. It is a sin to touch his book!"

The wife of the chief priest was sitting by his side. She said, "You are being unnecessarily hard on the poor man. He has not done any harm to you. Even if you wanted to throw the book, you could have thrown it later on. And I don't see the point in throwing it because you have a big library -- thousands of books are there; this book can also be kept in the library. If you don't want to read it, there is no need to read it. But you could have done at least one thing: you could have thrown it afterwards, washed your hands, taken a bath, or whatsoever you wanted to do -- but why are you hurting this poor man?"

The man went back, told the master the whole thing as it happened, in minute detail. The master asked, "What is your reaction, then?"

The man said, "My reaction is that the wife of the chief priest is a very religious woman. I felt much respect for her. And the chief priest is simply ugly -- I wanted to cut his throat!"

The master said, "Now listen: I am more interested in the chief priest -- he can be converted because he is hot. If he can be so full of hate, he can also be so full of love, because it is the same energy that becomes hate or love. Love standing upside-down is hate -- love doing shirshasana, a headstand, is hate. But it is very easy to put a man back on his feet. As far as the wife is concerned, she is cold, ice-cold. I have no hope for her; she cannot be converted."