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houses, the way one lives. Nobody bothers. That is why India has remained so poor. If you are not worried about the outside world, how can you become rich? If there is no concern to improve the outside world you will remain poor. And Indian is always very serious, always getting ready to escape from life, with Buddhas talking about how to become perfect drop-outs from existence itself -- not only from society, ultimate drop-outs from existence itself! The existence is too boring. For the Indian eye, life is just a grey color -- nothing interesting in it, everything just boring, a burden. One has to carry it somehow, because of past karmas. Even if an Indian falls in live he says it is because of past karmas, one has to pass through it. Even love is like a burden one has to drag.
India seems to be leaning more towards death than life. An introvert has to lean towards death. That's why India has evolved all the techniques how to die perfectly, of how to die so perfectly that you are not born again. Death is the goal, not life. Life is for fools, death is for those who are wise. Howsoever beautiful a Buddha, a Mahavir may be, you will find them closed; around them a great aura of indifference exists. Whatsoever is happening, they are not concerned at all. Whether it happens this way or that way makes no difference; whether the world goes on living, or dies, it makes no difference... a tremendous indifference. In this indifference flowering is no possible; in this inner-confined state, flowering is impossible.
Japan is totally different. With the Japanese consciousness it is as if the inner doesn't exist, only the outer is meaningful. Look at Japanese dresses. All the colors of flowers and rainbows -- as if the outer is very meaningful. Look at an Indian when he is eating, and look at the Japanese. Look at an Indian when he takes his tea -- and the Japanese.
A Japanese creates a celebration out of simple things. Taking tea, he makes it a celebration. It becomes an art. The outside is very important; clothes are very important, relationships are very important. You cannot find more out-going people in the world than the Japanese -- always smiling
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