What is enlightenment? It is becoming aware of who you are. It is nothing to do with the outside world. It is nothing to do with what others have said. What others have said is irrelevant. You are there! Why go and consult the Bible and the Koran and the Gita? Close your eyes and you are there in your infinite glory. Close the eyes and the doors are open. Because you are there you need not ask anybody. You ask… then you will miss. The very asking shows that you think you are somewhere else. The very asking shows that you are asking for a map. And for the inner world, there is no map – there is no need, because you are not moving to an unknown destination. Really, you are not moving at all. You are there. You are the goal. You are not the seeker, you are the enlightenment.
So what is enlightenment? One state – when you seek without – is unenlightenment; another state – when you seek within – is enlightenment. So the only difference is of a focusing. If you focus out, you are unenlightened. If you focus in, you are enlightened. So the only question is of a turning. The Christian word conversion is beautiful, but they have used it in a horrible way. Conversion doesn’t mean to make a Hindu a Christian or to make a Christian a Hindu. Conversion means a turning. Conversion means a turning to the source, turning within; then you are converted. And your consciousness can flow in two ways, outwards or inwards; these are the two possibilities for the stream of your consciousness to flow. Outwards it can flow for many, many lives – it will never reach to the goal, because the goal is at the source. The goal is not ahead, it is behind. The goal is not somewhere where you will reach. The goal is somewhere where you have already left. The source is the goal. This has to be understood very deeply. If you can go backwards to the first point of your beginning, you reach the goal. Enlightenment is to go to the source, and the source is within you; life is there flowing, throbbing, continuously beating within you.
Why ask others? Studying means asking others. Asking about yourself and asking others? This is foolishness par excellence. This is an absolute absurdity – asking about yourself and asking others. That’s what study means: looking for the answer. And you are the answer! CHIYONO STUDIED FOR YEARS, BUT WAS UNABLE TO FIND ENLIGHTENMENT. It is natural, obvious. Nothing was wrong in it. She was looking out, studying. Another thing to remember: your being is life, and no scripture can be alive. Scriptures are bound to be dead. Scriptures are corpses, and you are asking the dead about your life. This is not possible. Krishna will not be of much help, neither will Jesus – unless you become a Krishna or a Jesus. Life cannot be answered by the dead. And if you think that you will find the answer, you will be more and more burdened by the answers, and the answer will remain unknown.
This is what happens to a man who is studying, who is a thinker, who is a philosopher. He goes on being burdened by his own efforts – words and words and words – and is lost. And the answer was always there. Just a turning-in was needed. No, nobody will answer you. Don’t go to anybody, go to yourself. And whenever you reach a master, all that he can do is help you to reach yourself, that’s all. No master can give you the answer, no master can give you the key. The master can only help you to look within, that’s all. The key is there, the treasure is there, everything is there.
