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Drop The Self

If you are not selfish you will not be altruistic, remember. If you are not selfish you will not be unselfish, remember. Only a very deeply selfish person can be unselfish. But this has to be understood because it looks like a paradox.

What does it mean to be selfish?

Drop the self. Because that is the most beautiful thing that can happen to you. That will be the greatest contentment that can come to you.

Drop the self, if you really are selfish. If you really want to be blissful, drop the self – because self is creating all your miseries and all your hells.

Difficult, because it looks like a paradox. But have you watched? All miseries come to you because of yourself, because of the ego. You are hurt again and again, you suffer so much because of the ego. It is like a wound which remains always alive, and anything, even a breeze, a cool breeze, hurts you. Somebody smiles and it hurts, somebody laughs and it hurts, somebody is going on his way, maybe lost in his own thoughts, not looking at you, then it hurts.

Mulla Nasrudin was saying to his wife, ‘Don’t annoy me any more! You are irritating me!’ 

And he was really mad.

The wife said, ‘But I have not said a single thing. I am doing my work.’

Mulla said, ‘That’s why. You are keeping so quiet, it is annoying. For god’s sake, say something!’

Now, if you keep quiet, then too somebody can get annoyed. If you speak, then there is trouble. Ego is ready to be hurt; it will find ways and means to be hurt. So a person who lives with the ego, with the self, is not really a selfish person, he is a foolish person. Because he only suffers. What type of selfless selfishness is this, if you only suffer?

Drop the self. Forget all about the ego. Be as if you are not, exist as an emptiness, and see – millions of beautiful experiences become available to you. Everything becomes a deep, satisfying experience. Everything brings a gift, a grace. Everything becomes a benediction.

The ego is always expecting and hence always being frustrated. The non-egoistic person expects nothing, hence everything is fulfilling; whatsoever happens is tremendous, whatsoever happens is fantastic. Even if he comes across a small grass flower, he is hypnotised by it. ‘So beautiful a flower! And I have not done anything, I have not deserved it, and it is there just waiting for me.’ Just looking at the sky, and he is fulfilled. Just listening to the birds, and a great song arises in his heart. Then everything fulfils him.

Remember, frustration is out of expectation, and ego is always expecting. The ego is a beggar.