Enlightenment

The attainment of oneself is not in fact an attainment. It is only a rediscovery. It is to know what one has always been. It is a kind of awakening. There is no qualitative difference between the sleeping person and the awakened one. The difference is only of quantity – hence it is not much of a difference.

So those who claim to be holier than thou are betraying the earth, and they have betrayed themselves. I am all for the earth. To me heaven and hell are simply projections of sick souls. My whole teaching can be condensed in a single sentence: Don’t betray the earth.

The qualities that come from meditation will bring the first flowers of spring – a deep silence, a peace in the heart, an awareness of a subtle music, a humming feeling of a synchronicity with existence, a gratitude which is not of the mind but of the whole being. It is not a word or even a whisper. It is an un-whispered thrill in every cell of your being – that at last you have found the at-oneness with the totality, that you are no more a wanderer, and a seeker, that finally you have arrived. Just a deep feeling of ‘this is it’, and a tremendous relaxation and let go.

All this coming to its highest peak is called the buddhahood, or enlightenment.