The True Psychologist

It happened that a very beautiful young prince – his name was Shrona – listened for the first time to Gautam Buddha. Buddha was visiting the capital of the young man’s kingdom, but listening to Gautam Buddha, the prince immediately asked to be initiated. He was well known as a sitar player and he was also well known for luxurious living, utterly luxurious.It was said that even when he was going upstairs, rather than having a railing on the staircase, naked, beautiful women used to stand all along the staircase so that he could move from one woman’s shoulder to another woman’s shoulder. That was his way to go upstairs. He used to sleep the whole day because the hangover of the night before was too much; the whole night was a night of celebrations, drinking, eating, music, dance. There was no time for him to sleep in the night. All these things were known, well known to the people. Gautam Buddha had never hesitated to give initiation to any man before.Now he hesitated. He said, ”Shrona, I know everything about you; I would like you to reconsider, think it over. I am still going to stay in this capital for the four months of the rainy season.”For four months, in the rainy season, Gautam Buddha never used to move around, nor did his sannyasins. Eight months of the year they were continuously wandering and sharing their experiences of meditation and higher states of consciousness. But because twenty-five centuriesago there were only mud roads, and Buddha had not allowed his disciples to have any possessions – not even an umbrella, no shoes, and just three pieces of cloth.One was for any emergency, and two so that you could change every day after the bath; more than three was not allowed. In the rainy season when it was pouring it would have been difficult to keep those three cloths dry, and to walk in the mud, in the pouring rain might make many poor sannyasins sick.For that reason he had made it a point that for four months you remain in one place, and those who want to see you can come. Eight months you should go to every thirsty person; for four months let others come to you.So he said, ”There is no hurry, Shrona.”But Shrona said, ”Once I have taken a decision I never reconsider. You have to give me initiationright now.”Buddha still tried to persuade him that ”there is no harm in reconsidering it, because you have lived a life of utter luxury. You have never walked on the road, you have been always in a golden chariot. You have never come out of your luxurious palace and gardens. You have lived continuously with beautiful women, with great musicians, with dancers. All that will not be possible when you become a sannyasin – not even two meals a day” – a Buddhist sannyasin is expected only to have one meal. ... Gautam Buddha’s insight has been proved correct by science after twenty-five centuries of criticism.Now science has come to the same conclusion: if you can reduce your food to half, your diseases, sicknesses, illnesses will also be reduced to half, and your life will be doubled. Now it can be said scientifically that Buddha was right. It was not a deprivation; it was really a very healthymeasure.He told Shrona, ”You will not be able. And I don’t like anybody to return to the world, because that makes him lose his self-respect. That’s why I say, ‘Consider...’”Shrona said, ”I have considered again and again and I still want to be initiated right now. The more you tell me to consider the more I become adamant and stubborn.”Gautam Buddha had to relent and give him initiation, and from the very second day there was trouble – but a trouble that no sannyasin of Gautam Buddha had expected. A trouble that perhaps Gautam Buddha had expected started happening.When all the sannyasins had three pieces of cloth, Shrona started living naked – from one extreme to the other extreme. When all the Buddhist sannyasins were walking on the road, Shrona would always walk by the side of the road in the thorns. When the other sannyasins were resting under the shade of the trees, Shrona would always stand in the hot sun in the middle of the day.Within just six months a beautiful young prince became almost old, a skeleton, black; one could not recognize that this was the man who used to be a great prince and was famous for his utterly luxurious life. His feet were bleeding, his whole body had shrunk, and one night after six months Gautam Buddha went to the tree under which he was sleeping. It is one of the rare occasions when Buddha went in the night to any sannyasin for any reason.There is no other incident, at least in the Buddhist scriptures. This is the only incident. He woke Shrona up and asked him a very strange question: ”I have heard that when you were a prince you were also the greatest sitarist in the country. Is that right?Shrona said, ”You could have asked at any time. I don’t see the point in the middle of the night.”Gautam Buddha said, ”Just wait a little, you will see the point.”Shrona said, ”Yes, it is true.”Buddha said, ”Now the second question is, if the strings of the sitar are too tight, will there be any music born out of those strings?”Shrona said, ”Of course not. If they are too tight they will be broken.”Buddha said, ”If they are too loose, will there be any music?”Shrona said, ”You are asking strange questions in the middle of the night. When the strings are too loose they cannot create any music. A certain tension is needed. In fact to play on a sitar is simple. The real mastery is to keep the strings exactly in the middle, neither too tight nor too loose.”Buddha said, ”This is the point I came to make to you. Life is also a musical instrument: too tightand there is no music, too loose and there is no music. The strings of life have to be exactly in themiddle, neither too tight, nor too loose; only then is there music. And only a master knows how tokeep them in the middle. Because you have been a master sitarist I would like you also to become a master of life. Just don’t move from one extreme to another, from luxury to austerity, from pleasures to self-torture. Try to be exactly in the middle.”Gautam Buddha in a sense is one of the most profound psychologists that the world has produced. To be in the middle in every action of your life – always find the middle and you have found the path of meditation and the path of liberation

- An Enlightened Master