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 gotten 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 that is
arising, sprouting in you, will maybe lead you to paradise. That this
will give you what you have longed for, that it 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 color tubes? They come from the
past. The canvas comes from the future and the color 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 colors -- then suddenly you are here now.

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:

Upon the clatter of a broken tile
All I had learned was at once forgotten.
Amending my nature is needless.
Pursuing the task of everyday life
I walk along the ancient path.
I am not disheartened in the mindless void.
Wheresoever I go I leave no footprint
For I am not within color or sound.
Enlightened ones everywhere have said:
"Such as this is the attainment."

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 practiced all that was told to him, he visited
many masters, he lived in many monasteries. He did all that was
humanly possible. He practiced yoga, he practiced 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 practicing 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 recognize 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 anymore, he had no ego
goals any more. Remember, there are two kinds of ego goals: the
worldly and the otherworldly. 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 visualize 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, and was taken
unawares. The tile clattered against the bamboo tree and with the
sudden clattering, the sudden sound, he becomes enlightened.

And he said: Upon the clatter of a broken tile / All I had learned
was at once forgotten.

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, All I had learned was at once forgotten. 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, Amending my nature is needless. That day he felt that he
was just struggling unnecessarily. Amending my nature is needless.
You need not amend yourself, you need not improve yourself -- that is
all just tommyrot! 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 try to change it?
It would be just like a dog chasing its own tail. The dog would 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.

This article is excerpted from Osho on Zen