By Paulo Coelho
Buddha was gathered together with his disciples one morning, when a man came up to him.
‘Does God exist?’ he asked.
‘He does,’ replied Buddha.
After lunch, another man came up to him.
‘Does God exist?’ he asked.
‘No, he doesn’t,’ said Buddha.
Later that afternoon, a third man asked the same question: ‘Does God exist?’
‘That’s for you to decide,’ replied Buddha.
As soon as the man had gone, one of his disciples remarked angrily:
‘But that’s absurd, Master! How can you possibly give such different answers to the same question?’
‘Because they are all different people, and each one of them will reach God by his own path. The first man will believe what I say. The second will do everything he can to prove me wrong. The third will only believe in what he is allowed to choose for himself.’
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The beliefs and truths that we cherish are those which we CHOOSE to hold and to belive. That’s the beauty of our personal legend, we choose to believe in it no matter what other people say.
Wonderful and very clever.
love
I have doubted all my life, i was too shy myself in was on the creep of someone… or something which was wrong in me.
11 eleven years ago i ‘ve got a beautiful spiritual name SARADA DEVI, who is the wife of a great HINDU SAINT RAMAKRISHNA… now, by the grace i should always rememeber the significant of the poower of this name….and ever use it … i’m sure of that…
Many thanks…..
Sarada Devi
So, we should not be honest, but rather try to manipulate people to believe in the things that we believe in ourselves…?
You have a good prespective to view that story, AVC.. And I found myself asking the same question..
Thank you Paulo, we all indeed have to (or get to!) walk our own path towards The Truth, it’s easy to forget sometimes.. I found a Anthony de Mello quote that seems to fit your message:
“A Hindu priest once had a dispute with a philosopher who claimed that the final barrier to God was the word “God,” the concept of God. The priest was quite shocked by this, but the philosopher said, “The ass that you mount and that you use to travel to a house is not the means by which you enter the house. You use the concept to get there; then you dismount, you go beyond it.”"
Have a great day.
I dont see it as being dishonest…nor manipulative…which answer did Buddha believe?
Could he have proved either?
He was being a mirror to the man who asked each question….that is the perspective….the questions we can only ask and answer ourselves.
Giving no-one the pedestal of knowing our answers…but the privilege of helping us see inside ourselves, then we have the knowledge, which is shared, not given, for it cannot be taken, therefore we understand the sum of our experience, existence….God, life spirit love
thank you
wonderful
A true master recognises the potential of the disciple and guides him accordingly. Men are governed by the heart, the intellect, action. In every person one of these faculties is predominant. A man whose heart faculty is strong is inclined towards Bhakti Yoga, the intellect towards gyana yoga and the action towards karma yoga.
Hence for each there is a different path to follow, though they lead to the same goal.
Waiting for my master,
Juhi.
A.V.C., i think if you know how a person’s personality is and you know that they are the type to try to disagree with everything then telling him no essentially is telling him yes. you know he will disagree with the no and will take the stance of yes - so the answer is yes. and if you know the person’s personality is one of which he always has to decide for himself then telling him he has to decide for himself is just being honest about his way of coming to answers. no point in giving him one.
..To me, it is not a question about manipulation, but individuality..
Like in a school classes, children are being tought from they´re individual standpoint, as
in life, we all have different levels of qualites, and should be guided from that.
In my view Budda looks into these men,to see
what they behold, and therefrom gives the answer..
Dearest Paulo,
i loved this story. There are many many ways for a person to reach God. They can follow many paths, different religions, and so forth, but there is only one God, and no matter what path you choose, the most important thing is you get there. The amazing thing, is the path you choose to follow, makes you who you are, due the the experiences you have. Life’s beautiful. God’s the greatest.. Love all the way, through life, to God.
Thank you for being.
Yajna
Egoz would u mind introducing yourself ! I remember u.
Great souls take advantage of every moment and every opportunity to give happiness to others. Such souls have the desire to help and evaluate everyone reach their potential.
Love all
bo0om paulo,
gautama de buddha , I am sure found the key to infinity( god), he tried so hard to show us the way, have we understood yet ???
we are … in touch with the infinite always, but we refuse to accept sometimes. we want proof (poof) , but what after we find it, we go the the other way and our wants and desires go verruckt (mad).
…. love to alL,
bo0om
fLUXman
well, aditya, I remember you too..
I am from Indonesia, male, 21 years old. I love paulo’s books, and i am an enthustiastic reader in this blog.
Namaste..
thanks egoz
namaste…