People had looked for centuries for God. Who is the builder of the universe? Who is the creator of the universe? And there are many who are still living in a pre-Buddha time, who are still asking such questions. Who is the creator of the world? When did he create the world? There are some stupid people who have even determined the day, the date and the year when God created the world. There are Christian theologians who say that exactly four thousand and four years before Jesus Christ – Monday, 1st January! – God created the world or started creating the world, and he finished the job in six days. Only one thing is true about it, that he must have finished the job in six days because you can see the mess the world is in – it is a six-day job! And since then he has not been heard of. On the seventh day he rested, and since then he has been resting.
Maybe Friedrich Nietzsche is right, that he is not resting, he is dead. He has not shown any concern. Then what happened to his creation? It seems to be completely forgotten. But Christians say, “No, he has not forgotten. Look! He sent Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, to save the world. He is still interested.” That is the only interest Christians say he has shown, sending Jesus Christ, but the world is not saved. If that was the purpose of sending Jesus Christ to the world, then Jesus has failed and through him God has failed – the world is the same. And what kind of concern was this, that his messenger was crucified and he could not do anything?
There are many who still live in this pre-Buddha world view.
Buddha changed the whole religious dimension, he gave it such a beautiful turn, he asked real questions. He was not a metaphysician, he never asked a metaphysical question; to him metaphysics was all rubbish. He was the first psychologist the world had known, because he based his religion not on philosophy but on psychology. Psychology in its original meaning means the science of the soul, the science of the within.
He didn’t ask, “Who created the world?” He asked, “Why am I here? Who am I? Who is creating me?” And it is not a question of the past – “Who created me?” – we are constantly being created. Our life is not like a thing created once and for all; it is not an object. It is a growing phenomenon, it is a river flowing. Each moment it is passing through new territory. “Who is creating this life, this energy, this mind, this body, this consciousness, that I am?” His question is totally different. He is transforming religion from extroversion into introversion.
The extrovert religion prays to God, the introvert religion meditates. Prayer is extrovert, it is addressed to some invisible God. He may be there, he may not be there; you can’t be sure or certain, doubt is bound to persist. Hence every prayer is rooted somewhere in doubt, in fear, in uncertainty, in greed.
Meditation is rooted in fearlessness, in greedlessness. Meditation is not begging anything from anybody, it is not addressed to anybody. Meditation is a state of inner silence. Prayer is still noise, you are still talking – talking to a God who may not be there. Then it is insane, neurotic, you are behaving in a mad way. Mad people go on talking, they don’t bother much whether there is anybody to listen to them or not. That is a sure sign that they are mad: they imagine that somebody is there; not only that, they can almost see the other. Their visualization is great, their imagination is very substantial. They are capable of changing shadows into substance, imagination into realities, fiction into facts. To you they seem to be involved in a monologue; to themselves they are involved in a dialogue. You cannot see who is present; they are alone, but they see somebody there.