An egotistical lover met a girl in a drugstore and asked her 'How would you like to sleep with me tonight, baby?' The giri, insulted and angry, used her knowledge of judo and swung him out of the door. Jolted and jilted, the egotistical lover returned. 'But baby,' he said, 'You haven't answered my question!'
That's what ego is -- the greatest stupidity. You can't see it because you are it. You can always see it in others, you cannot see it in yourself.
A Jew suddenly became very rich and he wanted to show it off to everybody. So he and his wife went to the costliest restaurant dressed in the costliest dresses. The wife was wearing diamonds and emeralds and all that money could purchase -- and they had really become very rich. She was looking very ugly with all those diamonds and emeralds because she had no taste. You can become rich suddenly but you cannot gain taste suddenly. You can become rich suddenly but you cannot become cultured suddenly.
And sometimes, when you suddenly become rich, all your ugliness comes to the surface. You purchase all that ugliness with your richness -- you can afford it now. Up to now it had been hidden but now it comes to the surface.
They sat down in the restaurant and looked at the menu. But as the menu was in French they could not read it -- they did not know anything about French and they did not want to admit it to the waiter. So the wife asked, 'What are you going to order now?' He told her not to be worried and said to the waiter, 'Bring me one hundred dollars' worth of salami sandwiches -- one hundred dollars' worth.'
The ego is just absurd. Asking for one hundred dollars' worth of salami sandwiches!
The waiter could not believe it. He said, 'You are both going to eat them all?'
It is difficult to look at your own ego. The ego is something that everybody is aware of except yourself. Whenever others say something about you, ponder over it, meditate over it. There is every possibility that they will be right. When others say something about your ego, don't deny it, don't reject it. There IS every possibility that they will be right. There is a ninety-nine per cent possibility that they are right -- because others can very easily see your ego even if you cannot. And you can see other egos very easily; it is there just exactly on the tip of their noses. In everything they do -- walking, talking sitting, listening -- it is there. It is so apparent, so obvious to everybody -- except to the person himself. He hides behind it.
The actors were out of work when they met in Lindy's one day. 'Say, I got an idea, ' said one. 'Why don't we team up? Do an act together.'
'Sounds good,' said the other. 'What kind of an act you got in mind?'
'Well, I come out and sing. The curtain comes down. Then it goes up and I come out and dance. Then it comes down. Then it goes up again and I come out and juggle. Then.... '
'Hey, where do I come in?'
'The curtain don't go up and down by itself!'
That's what ego is. You are the emperor and everybody IS a servant. You are the end and everybody is a means This is the basic ingredient of the ego, the very centre -- that you are the centre of the whole existence and everybody is here to serve you, to be used by you. If you are using people you are an egoist. If you think of yourself as the centre and everybody else as your periphery then you are an egoist.
If you think that everybody is an end unto himself, then the ego starts disappearing. If you don't put yourself higher than others or lower than others then the ego disappears. Remember, you know that to put yourself higher than others is to be egoistical but I am saying that to put yourself lower than others is also egoistical. It is ego standing on its head but it is ego all the same. So don't put anybody higher than you and don't put anybody lower than you. We are one. We are one existence. Nobody is lower, nobody is higher. Nobody is superior, nobody is inferior. There are not two gods so how can there be inferiority or superiority? It is one unity. Ego makes you feel separate; non-ego joins you to existence. To feel one with the cosmos is to get out of the ego; to feel separate is to be with the ego.
Ego is what Tao is not; and Tao is what ego is not. If you are in the ego you will never taste Tao, if you want to taste Tao you will have to drop the ego. Dropping it, you come home; dropping it, the benediction is there.
