"(...) The Hebrew prophets spoke of submission to the will of God. Later, Jesus would tell his disciples that the spiritual quest demanded a death to self, a grain of wheat had to fall into the ground and die before it attained its full potential and bore fruit. Muhammad would preach the importance of islam , an essential surrender of the entire being to God. The abandonment of selfshiness and egotism would, as we shall see, become the linchpin of Gotama's own dhamma, but the yogins of India had already appreciated the importance of this. Yoga can be described as as ths systematic dismantling of the egotism which distorts our view of the world and impedes our spiritual progress. (...)"

KAREN ARMSTONG    (Karen Armstrong, Buddha, Phoenix London, 2000)