The Cycle of Birth and Death Is the Greatest Loss

If in learning Buddhism one can learn to the point of being simple-minded—like a fool who disregards one's own personal interests—then there is no self, and one has achieved realization. Not knowing that there is an "I" present, not knowing that people deceive me, scold me, insult me, or belittle me, being unmoved by others' words, making no calculations whatsoever, as if it had nothing to do with oneself—one will then obtain the great fruit of no-self. What people fear is being too shrewd, not foolish at all, scheming in every way, seeking advantage and avoiding harm, selfish and self-serving. Those who have a self are never foolish; they all scheme, all refuse to suffer losses, yet in the end they are outwitted by cause and effect and suffer the loss of birth-and-death in saṃsāra. Being in the six realms of rebirth, they suffer greatly, obtaining no supreme fruit whatsoever—how could they not suffer losses?