Enlightenment is not
a Goal
Enlightenment is not a goal to be achieved. We
will become enlightened only when we have forgotten all about it - otherwise,
never. This is not a question to be asked. Even if the Guru says that we have
become enlightened, that won’t help.
There is a lovely anecdote which explains this
situation. It goes like this….. There was a patient in an asylum who was being
treated by one of the doctors. The doctor slapped the asylum patient on the
back and said, “Well, old man, you’re completely cured. Run along and write to
your family and tell them you’ll be back home in a couple of weeks, as good as
new.”
The patient went off to write his letter. When he
was licking the stamp, it slipped through his fingers and fell onto the back of
a cockroach which happened to be passing at the time. Amazed, the patient
watched the stamp zig-zagging across the floor, up the wall and right around
the skirting-board and then under the door. After a while he tore up the
letter. “Two weeks!” he said. “Hell!” I won’t be out of here for two lives.”
That stamp is our desire, and if we look behind
the desire, we will find the cockroach of our ego. And if we don’t look behind
the stamp at the cockroach, even two lives won’t help - we will remain
unenlightened. Enlightenment is not something that we have to achieve. It is our
very nature; we have just to remember it. Look into the games which the ego
plays – these games are very subtle. Just watch. Nothing else has to be done,
just see how the ego goes on creating ambitions. And once we have seen all the
ways of the ego the cockroach dies, the ego disappears, and we are there - as
enlightened as we have always been. Enlightenment is our nature. It is not
something to be achieved, it is already the case.
All we have to do is forego our desires and
finally our ego along with all its tricks and we will see the light. We will be
forever in the moment, enlightened, in the here and now!
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