one who is not
That's exactly the meaning of a Buddha: one who is not; in the sense of an ego, one who is not. But as far as the supreme self is concerned, as the ultimate self is concerned, he is and you are not. The ego is a false idea, and it is needed because the real self is unknown.
You need not forget yourself to lose the ego -- in fact, that's how you have gained it. You need to remember yourself, not to forget but to remember. You have to become more aware and alert, you have to wake up. You have to see who you are, not what has been told to you -- that you are a woman, that you are a man, that you are a Hindu, a Christian, a white or a black -- not what has been told to you.
You will have to go inside your being to the very innermost core and see who you are. In that very seeing, in that very remembering, the ego disappears.When the light comes, the darkness disappears; when the real self is remembered, the unreal is no more needed. And it is not that you have to drop it: it is simply not found.
But we live in the ego, and in every possible way we go on finding new props for it. In every act we go on nourishing it -- even in those actions of which you are not the doer you go on claiming that you are doing it. People say, "I am breathing." Just look at the absurdity of it. If you are breathing then you will never die; death will come and stand in front of you and you will go on breathing. You may not oblige death; you may say, "I am not going to stop breathing."
You are not breathing; breathing is not your activity, it is not your doing -- it IS happening. You cannot breathe. If it stops, it stops. If the next breath is not going to come back, you will not be able to do anything. Breathing is a happening, but man has made it, or at least believes it to be, a doing.
You say, "I love." Even the expression 'love-making' is utter nonsense. You cannot love; you cannot not love. Love is a happening, not a doing.What can you do about love? Either it happens or it doesn't happen. If you try, then it will be something false, then it will not be love at all -- then it will only be acting.
If you are ordered to love a woman or a man, what are you going to do? You will go through empty gestures: you will hug and you will kiss and you will go through all the movements, and with no love at all. The whole thing will be mechanical! And that's what is going on, what goes on around the world.
