Enlightenment is finding that there is nothing to find.
Enlightenment is to come to know that there is nowhere to go.
Enlightenment is the understanding that this is all, that this is
perfect, that this is it. Enlightenment is not an achievement, it is
an understanding that there is nothing to achieve, nowhere to go.
You are already there - you have never been away, you cannot be away
from there. God has never been missed. Maybe you have forgotten,
that′s all. Maybe you have fallen asleep, that′s all. Maybe you have
got lost in many, many dreams, that′s all - but you are there. God
is your very being.
So the first thing is: don′t think about enlightenment as a goal, it
is not. It is not a goal, it is not something that you can desire.
And if you desire it you will not get it. In desiring a thousand and
one things, by and by you come to understand that all desire is
futile. Each desire lands you in frustration, each desire again and
again throws you into a ditch.
This has been happening for millions of years but again you start
hoping, again you start thinking that this new desire which is
arising, sprouting, in you will maybe lead you to paradise, that
this will give you what you have longed for, will fulfill you. Again
and again hope arises. Enlightenment is when all hope disappears.
Enlightenment is disappearance of hope.
Don′t be disturbed when I say that enlightenment is a state of
hopelessness - it is not negative. Hope arises no more, desire is
created no more, future disappears. When there is no desire there is
no need for the future. The canvas of the future is needed for the
desire. You paint your desires on the canvas of the future. When
there is nothing to paint why should you carry the canvas
unnecessarily? You drop it. When there is nothing to paint why
should you carry the brush and the colour tubes? They come from the
past. The canvas comes from the future and the colour and brush and
technique and all that comes from the past. When you are not going
to paint you throw away the canvas, you throw away the brush, you
throw away the colour tubes - then suddenly you are here now.
This is what I was talking about the other day - Chittakshana. This
is what Buddha calls Chittakshana - a moment of awareness, a moment
of consciousness. This moment of consciousness can happen any
moment, there is no special time for it, there is no special posture
for it, there is no special place for it - it can happen in all
kinds of situations, it has happened in all kinds of situations. All
that is needed is that for a single moment there should be no
thought, no desire, no hope. In that single moment, the
lightning...
One day Chikanzenji was mowing down the weeds around a ruined
temple. When he threw away a bit of broken tile it clattered against
a bamboo tree. All of a sudden he was enlightened.
Whereat he sang:
This poor monk, Chikanzenji, had been working for at least thirty
years. He was a hard seeker, he was a very, very honest and sincere
and serious seeker. He practised all that was told to him, he
visited many Masters, he lived in many monasteries. He did all that
was humanly possible. He practised yoga, he practised zazen, he did
this and that - but all to no avail. Nothing was happening; in fact,
his frustration was growing more and more. The more the methods
failed, the more and more frustrated he became.
He had read all the Buddhist scriptures - there are thousands of
them. It is said about this Chikanzenji that he had all these
scriptures in his room and he was constantly reading day and night.
And his memory was so perfect he could recite whole scriptures - but
still nothing happened.
Then one day he burned his whole library. Seeing those scriptures in
the fire he laughed. He left the monastery, he left his guru, and he
went to live in a ruined temple. He forgot all about meditation, he
forgot all about yoga, he forgot all about practising this and that,
he forgot all about virtue, Sheela, he forgot all about discipline
and he never went inside the temple to worship the Buddha.
But he was living in that ruined temple when it happened. He was
mowing down the weeds around the temple - not a very religious thing
to do, not anything specific, not anything special, just taking the
weeds out. When he threw away a bit of broken tile it clattered
against a bamboo tree - in that moment Chittakshana, the moment of
awareness, happened. In that very clattering of the tile against the
bamboo, a shock, a jerk happened and his mind stopped for a moment.
In that very moment he became enlightened.
How can one become enlightened in one single moment, one can,
because one is enlightened - one just has to recognise the fact. It
is not something that happens from the outside, it is something that
arises from the inside. It has always been there but you were
clouded, you were full of thoughts.
Chikanzenji burned all the scriptures. That was symbolic. Now he no
longer remembered anything, now he had forgotten all search, now he
no longer cared. Unconcerned he lived a very ordinary life - he was
no longer even a monk. He had no pretensions any more, he had no ego
goals any more. Remember, there are two kinds of ego goals: one, the
worldly, and the other, the other-worldly. Some people are searching
for money; some people are searching for power, prestige, pull; some
people are searching for God, moksha, nirvana, enlightenment - but
the search continues. And who is searching? The same ego. The moment
you drop the search you drop the ego also. The moment there is no
seeking, the seeker cannot exist.
Just visualise this poor monk - who was no longer a monk - living in
a ruined temple. He had nowhere else to go, he was just clearing the
ground - maybe to put some seeds there for vegetables or something.
He came across a tile, threw it away, was taken unawares. The tile
clattered against the bamboo tree and with the sudden clattering,
the sudden sound, he becomes enlightened.
And he said:
Enlightenment is a process of unlearning. It is utter ignorance. But that ignorance is very luminous and your knowledge is very dull. That ignorance is very alive and luminous and your knowledge is very dark and dead.
He says:
In that moment he knew nothing, in that moment there was no knower, in that moment there was no observer, just the sound. And one is awakened from a long sleep.
And he says:
That day he felt that he was just struggling unnecessarily.
You need not amend yourself, you need not improve yourself - that
is all just tommy-rot.
Beware of all those who go on telling you to improve yourself, to
become this or to become that, to become virtuous; who go on telling
you that this is wrong, don′t do it, that this is good, do it, that
this will lead you to heaven and this will lead you to hell. Those
who go on telling you to amend your nature and improve upon yourself
are very dangerous people. They are one of the basic causes for your
not being enlightened. Nature cannot be amended, it has to be
accepted. There is no way to be otherwise. Whosoever you are,
whatsoever you are, that′s how you are, that′s what you are. It is a
great acceptance - Buddha calls it Tathata, a great acceptance.
Nothing is there to be changed.
How can you change it and who is going to change it? It is your
nature and you will be trying to change it! It will be just like a
dog chasing its own tail. The dog will go crazy. But dogs are not as
foolish as man. Man goes on chasing his own tail and the more
difficult he finds it the more he jumps and the more he tries and
the more and more bizarre he becomes.
Nothing has to be changed because all is beautiful. That is
enlightenment. All is as it should be, everything is perfect, this
is the most perfect world, this moment lacks nothing - the
experience of this is what enlightenment is.