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So the basic, the very basic, teaching of Tao is to be in a state of nonbeing, what Buddhists call anatta, a state of no-self. Empty, a deep nothingness, nobody inside \u2013 then you really are. But then\xa0you\xa0are not: the whole is. The moment you start thinking about yourself as a separate individual, the part is claiming to be the whole; the part has gone mad. The ego is the only insane thing in the world. The ego is neurosis, and anybody who suffers from the ego suffers from neurosis because he thinks as if the part were the whole. The part is not the whole. If a leaf in the tree starts thinking, \u201cI am,\u201d then the leaf has gone mad. The tree is and the leaf exists only as a part, an organic part, of the tree. Even to conceive of the leaf as separate is impossible. The tree is flowing in it. It is the tree\u2019s energy that has become the leaf. If a wave in the ocean thinks, \u201cI am separate: I am,\u201d then the wave has gone mad. The ocean is. All waves are nothing but the ocean waving.
All human beings are nothing but the universal consciousness waving. We are waves. The moment you understand that \u201cI am a wave,\u201d it means you have understood that you are not \u2013 only the ocean is. Sometimes the ocean waves and you are, and sometimes the ocean remains silent and you disappear.
Tao says that the ego is the only barrier. All other religions say the same, but Tao goes deepest in its approach; its insight is the greatest. All religions say that the ego has to be dropped, but if you listen, if you read, if you look into those religious people, you will find that their insight is not very deep and the ego comes up in different forms again and again.
Only two persons have touched the very substratum of the ego and those two are Lao Tzu and Gautam Buddha. Religions go on saying, \u201cDrop the ego. Be egoless,\u201d but in a subtle way, somehow, they go on protecting it too. They say, \u201cIf you drop the ego, you will become spiritual. If you drop the ego, you will be the first in the Kingdom of God. If you drop the ego, you will be the chosen one. If you drop the ego, great is going to be the payoff in the other world \u2013 heaven, paradise, moksha.\u201d On the one hand they say, \u201cDrop the ego,\u201d on the other hand they persuade you, they bribe you, they buttress your greed. They say, \u201cYou will be special. You will be extraordinary.\u201d On the one hand they say, \u201cDrop the ego,\u201d on the other hand they go on strengthening the same ego under different names. \u201cYou will become a miracle man. You will have\xa0siddhis\xa0\u2013 you will have spiritual powers, occult forces. You will be able to manipulate existence more deeply. You will become telepathic. You will be able to read others\u2019 minds. You will be clairvoyant.\u201d This and that \u2013 all the\xa0siddhis\xa0of the yogis \u2013 all the miraculous powers of Yoga. Again you are decorated, again you become very, very strong.