R. What is the cause of evil?
Y. Father says that selfishness is the cause of evil and selfishness comes from the belief in self.
R. Self?
Y. Yes, self! Man, as a rule, believes that he is a self.
R. What? A self?
Y. Yes, a being by himself, who lives only for himself, and the thought of self makes him selfish; and selfishness begets all evils.
R. [with a childlike serious conviction] I believe it, mother.
Y. Father says there is no self, that self is an illusion.
R. What does that mean?
Y. It means that we are not separate beings. I think a thought and speak it out and you hear it. I believe in that thought and so do you. Whose is it then, yours or mine?