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To enjoy anything is dangerous because it will lead you deeper into life, and you have to get rid of life.
So all the teachings of religion try in different disguises to cut the roots of your joy, of your pleasure, of your blissfulness.
Maitreya is a victim, just as everybody else in the world is a victim. On the one hand he was told to be anti-life; that has been the ancient idea of renunciation, of renouncing the world and its joys. And on the other hand, he was told to sacrifice himself for the freedom of the country, for others. To think of oneself, to think of meditation was condemned as selfish: "You should think of others, you should think of others' well-being, you should think of others' freedom."
You should think only of others, never of yourself: that is the ideal of the religious man, the saint. And to me, it is the image of the idiot -- because a person who is not joyful, who is not meditative; a person who is not peaceful, overflowing with love, cannot be of any help to anybody. You cannot give something to others which you don't have. You are empty, and you are trying to make others fulfilled. They are empty, they are trying to make others fulfilled. Nobody knows what fulfillment is.
The journey begins from oneself; you have to be fulfilled first. Then there is no need for anybody to teach you, "Now, share it." Once you are fulfilled you are overflowing; sharing is autonomous, it comes by itself.
When your heart is full of song it bursts into singing. When you blossom, your fragrance is bound to reach others; you cannot prevent it.
I teach selfishness, because unless you are selfish you can never be of help to anybody in the world. All the altruistic teachings are useless, meaningless, because they are based on people who are themselves empty.
For example, Jesus says, "Love your enemies just the way you love yourself" -- but nobody bothers about whether you love yourself. The enemy comes as number two; the first thing is to love yourself. If you have not loved yourself, how can you love the enemy? -- you cannot love even the friend. You don't know what love means. It is a meaningless word. You have
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