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the whole chariot disappears!' Then he said, 'Now where is the chariot? -- because whatsoever we have taken away you said was not the chariot: the horses are not, the wheels are not, the axles are not.... So according to you, sir, the chariot must be left behind! Where is the chariot now?'
It was just a combination: there was no self, there was no ego, there was no substance. Things were joined together, they have been taken apart. There was no soul in it!
This is the buddhist's idea of'anatta', no-self. It is one of the greatest insights in existence. The ego is not the thought, mm? -- the thought is the wheel, the thought is the horse. Neither is it the feeling. The idea that everything is being centred on something, everything is being held by something... that something is the ego -- and that is simply a notion. The ego exists not!
To look into it is a great liberation, mm? -- then you simply relax: whatsoever is happening is happening. You are not; you are just a combination. The combination will fall one day and nothing will be left behind... there is nothing behind!
This insight is what buddha means by 'shunya' -- to look into zero. The ego is a false notion, and it creates worry because you think 'How am I going to be tomorrow?' And then you worry: 'Yesterday was not as good as it should have been. I suffered so much. Tomorrow I am not going to suffer, I am going to enjoy'... and this and that, and a thousand things arise around this idea of the ego. And it is not! It is simply emptiness!
As you proceed deeper into meditation you will come more and more to see it -- that there is just a pure nothingness inside, just pure sky. In that pure sky is freedom, liberation. Not that you become liberated; you disappear, hence liberation!
Christianity says you become liberated! Buddhism says where are you? -- hence liberation. The difference is tremendous! The christian standpoint is a very childish standpoint: you still remain but you become liberated. Buddha says you are the prison: when you disappear there is liberation. Not that you are liberated; your disappearance is liberation. One is freed of oneself. Not that one
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