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there after death.
Buddha insists very much on this vision of no-self, because all our desires hang around the concept of the self: I am. If I am, then a thousand and one desires will arise. If I am NOT, then how can desires arise out of nothingness?
This is one of the greatest contributions of Buddha to the world. As far as the idea of no-self is concerned, he has surpassed all other masters -- Krishna and Christ and Zarathustra and Lao Tzu -- he has surpassed all.
This is one of the most fundamental meditations. If it can settle in you that "I am not," then suddenly the world disappears. To know that "I am not" is to know that there is no need to do anything, to be anything, to possess anything, to attain anything. When there is no self, ambition is irrelevant. If there is a self, then ambition is relevant.
That's why all other religions, except Buddhism, have fallen in a trap. The trap is: they try not to desire the things of THIS world, but then they start desiring things of the other world. But it is the same -- DESIRE is the same. It does not matter what you desire. It makes no difference at all what the object of your desire is -- desire is the same.
You desire money or you desire meditation: desire is the same. Only the object has changed. And the object is not the problem -- the problem is the desire itself, desiring itself. Somebody desires long life here, a beautiful body here, success, name, fame; somebody else desires eternal life with God in paradise -- what is the difference? The only difference seems to be this: that the first man is not so greedy as the second. The second is more greedy.
That's why your so-called spiritual people are very greedy people. It is not just an accident that India is very greedy -- it is so spiritual. That spirituality creates new greeds. In fact, the so-called mahatmas go on teaching people: "Don't desire things of this world because they are momentary. Desire things of the other world because they are eternal." And this they call renunciation? Is this renunciation? This is getting more desirous. This is asking for eternal gratification.
The worldly people are simple people,
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