The merchant’s way

Becoming free

In the Middle Ages in Britain the church was the only way in which a peasant boy could rise and at one of the big synods in the 14th century they kept a record of the origins of the bishops – I think it was about 60 or 70 of them –  and more than half of them were of peasant origin. Well, that must be good, otherwise that intelligence and that ability would have been simply locked into the soil and lost. It must be good and the church is doing a great thing there. It was not as it was in some countries: mainly the preserve of the aristocracy but it was open to the peasant who had this Christian call, to rise. Splendid! But what actually happened in quite a lot of cases was that a bright and ambitious peasant boy saw that his only chance of getting any actual power was through the church. He therefore imitated being a very devout Christian and got up as Cardinal Wolsey did. He was a son of a butcher and so the church did tend to become at one time, not exactly dominated, but very strongly influenced by people who were purely ambitious power-seekers. That was the smoke. Even the best deed is accompanied by some defect as a fire by smoke as the Gita says.

Will it be any better, how can it be any better if there’s a cosmic few? How can it help our lives? Who is going to deliver the milk? Boring job. Well, I quote a case I actually knew. This was a brilliant Japanese who was studying in America and he took his doctorate and he belonged to a religious organisation and when he came back he never found out exactly (although I did) why he was deputed to carry round the milk. They have a sort of city, this sect, and his job was a milkman and I got to know him.  He told me something of the feeling he had. It was jealousy. He had done brilliantly and marvellously in America and they were going to demean him. Well, then he tried and he thought, “No I’m in this religious sect, it’s a fairly simple one.” And he began to pray and meditate and then he said one morning he suddenly felt, “I’m not doing this demeaning job for a scholar. I am carrying God’s milk to God’s children”, and he began to feel that he was performing God’s work and he was putting these milk cartons in front of the little houses and on the little box.  Then it changed again and he said, “I began to feel that this was God’s hand moving through me.”  He said, “I began, quite unconsciously, to put the milk bottles very exactly in exactly the same place. There was no-one there in the early morning to see but along the street there were these little fronts of the houses and these two milk bottles, this little bright spot, and it made a beautiful picture”.  Then things changed and he was offered a very good job in the organisation and, at first, he said he was hesitant about taking it. He thought, “No, this is God through my hands, bringing this milk.” Then he realised, “No, I’ve got to do my new organisational and scholarly job in the same way as I carried the milk.” Well, that is an example that I did come across.

Now, in concrete terms, and there is an account of this, the merchant in classical India is rated below the warrior.  A warrior, by chance, made the acquaintance of a merchant who rather impressed him for some reason.  Then there was a fire, and the warrior, as was his duty, dashed in to save the people and to his amazement the merchant (merchants were supposed to be timorous people) was there, was calm and daring. So afterwards, he said to this merchant, “That was most unexpected, you know. It’s not your role in life, is it? I’m supposed to protect people from perils at the cost of my life but your job is organisation of trade and so on and honesty in matters,” and the merchant said, “No, we merchants have our own way”. “So, what is that way? I suppose you worship Ganesha”. Ganesha is the god of prosperity in India. He is the one with the elephant head and the trunk. The merchant said, “I do worship Ganesha but I would never ask him to protect me or anything like that because if I asked for anything from him, I’d always be wondering if he wasn’t going to do it or not, and that would disturb my meditation on Ganesha”. “Oh”. Then the merchant said, “We have our own way”. “So, what is this way you talk about?” He said, “Well, I’ll show you. There’s a small merchant here. He’s a rascal. We call such people, however rich they are, ‘small merchants’. There’s a set of bowls, they’re quite rare, in a set but they somehow got dispersed.  He’s a chap who goes around after somebody dies and descends on the confusion of the household – and sometimes he can buy up little things quite cheap because the people don’t really realise what they’re doing.  He’s got a bowl and I’ve got the other ones of the set. I need that one just to make up my set. Now, I’m sure he doesn’t know exactly what he’s got but I’d like to get that now. I’ll have to apply the way of the merchant so you can come with me”.

They go together to the small merchant’s place and the great merchant looks around, he picks up one or two things and then he comes to the little bowl and he asks, “Oh, how much for this?” and the small merchant says quite a high price and the great merchant comments, “Oh, it’s not worth anything like that. I wouldn’t pay more than a quarter of that”.  The little merchant says, “It might be one of a set, mightn’t it?” The great merchant replies, “Ah, I’m not buying a set. Well, you can keep it. I’m done with it”, and the merchant and warrior walk out together. They go on for half a block and the little merchant comes running after them with the bowl. He says, “Look, sir, I’ve always had a respect for you and I’ll let you have this for the quarter price you offered, and I do hope you’ll remember this in the future”. The great merchant takes this without comment and pays and the warrior says, “Look, that’s just a trick, that’s all, it’s just a trick!” The great merchant replies, “Well, you can see whether it’s a trick or not. Is there anything that you thought that you’d like?” And the warrior says, “Yes, in one of the swords shops here there’s one of the old swords. It’s one of the old Rajput swords and it’s got a very small grip, a very small handle. We pride ourselves on our small hands, and, although we may be killed in battle, the enemy may take the weapons from our dead bodies but they can’t use them. I don’t think he knows what he’s got but if I go in…”

So, the merchant says, “You can try the trick and you can tell me what happens”. The merchant returns and the warrior goes into the shop and then he comes back to the merchant rather crestfallen after a bit. The merchant said, “What happened?” “It didn’t work! I went in, I said ‘How much?’ He named quite a high price and I couldn’t afford that.  Although I’m sure he doesn’t know what it’s really worth, he saw my clothes.  ‘Oh, I wouldn’t dream of paying more than a quarter of that. Well, you may keep it. I’ve no concern with it.’ I walked away and he just let me go”. The merchant said, “It wasn’t a trick, was it?”  The warrior said, “No. What was it?” The merchant said, “Now, sit down”.  The warrior sat down. “Close your eyes. Now let go that sword, let it go completely”. After a bit, the warrior said, “I can’t. I’d like to have that in my house. It’s one of the old ones.” The merchant said, “That’s the way of the great merchant. Every night I meditate that I’m sitting. My warehouse is there and it all catches fire. It all goes up in flames and ashes and there is nothing left but the figure of Ganesha, and me, me and Ganesha.  Ganesha!  Everything else is ashes. That is the way of the merchant”.

These traditional stories sometimes can make it quite vivid and they are examples – my teacher used to use such stories as examples of how to become free, of what freedom actually means. When he (the merchant) says “Give that sword up.”

© Trevor Leggett

Titles in this series are:

Part 1: Yoga, Zen and Peace

Part 2: Ethics and the Cosmic Self

Part 3: Desires beyond our needs are ghosts

Part 4: Gifts, sacrifice and austerity

Part 5: The merchant’s way

Part 6: The job of the King

Part 7: Seeking for realisation in Yoga and Zen

Part 8: The way of praying the cosmic current

Part 9: Melting Ice

Part 10: No distinction