He laughed at the absurdity of things. He never knew that a nobody like Lazarus – a leper, a beggar, would ever enter heaven. He could never believe that this had happened. And he could not believe the other thing either – that a rich man, the richest in the town, should go to hell. He laughed.

And Lazarus still laughs. And he will laugh when you die also: if you are a somebody he will laugh, because you will be thrown out. If you are nobody, just ordinary, he will laugh because you will be received.

In this world, because egos exist, all valuations belong to the ego. In the other world, the other dimension, valuation belongs to egolessness. Hence Buddha’s emphasis on no-selfness – anatta. He said, “Don’t even believe ‘I am a soul’ because that too can become a subtle ego. Don’t say ‘aham brahmasmi – I am Brahma, I am the ultimate self.’ Don’t say even that, because the I is very tricky. It can deceive you. It has deceived you for many many lives. It can go on deceiving you. Simply say ‘I am not’ and remain in that notness, remain in that nothingness – become empty of the self.”

One has to get rid of the self. Once the self is thrown away, nothing is lacking. You start overflowing and blossoms start falling on you.

Subhuti was one of buddha’s disciples.

Remember, one of.

He was able to understand the potency of emptiness.

He was just one of many, that’s why he was able to understand the potency of emptiness. Nobody talked about him, nobody knew about him. He walked with, he followed Buddha on many many paths in his travels. Nobody knew that he was also there; if he had died nobody would have become aware. If he had escaped nobody would have known, because nobody ever knew that Subhuti was there. He knew, by and by, being nobody, he knew the potency of emptiness.

What is the meaning of it? …Because the more he became a nonentity, the more he felt that Buddha was coming closer to him. Nobody else was aware, but Buddha was aware. Everybody wondered when these flowers showered on him, but it was not a surprise to Buddha. When it was reported to him that something had happened to Subhuti, Buddha said, “I was waiting. Any moment it was going to happen, because he has erased himself so much; any day it was going to happen. There is no surprise in it for me.”

He was able to understand the potency of emptiness

– by being empty! You don’t know the power of emptiness. You don’t know the power of being totally absent within. You know only the poverty of the ego.