Bulle Shah, the Sufi mystic saint of Punjab, says “Rab da ki pana, ethon putiyan the ethe lana (God-realisation is as simple as uprooting a plant from here and replanting it there)”. It is not a long and arduous journey. Zen masters in Japan do not even call it a journey from here to there.
They emphasise that it is here to here. It is neither in the future. It is now and here.
Leo Hartong, author of Awakening to the Dream, tells an anecdote: Sitting under a tree at the river’s edge a Zen master hears someone calling his name. Across the river he sees one of his students. “Master” the student shouts “How do I get to the other side?” The master shrugs and calls back “You are at the other side!” This anecdote says that you, too, are already at the other side. That enlightenment or self-realisation is not something that exists only for a chosen few, but that it is your natural state, available right here and right now.
The ordinary, ritualistic religion promises heaven, paradise, nirvana and god-realisation in the future after one has accumulated the wealth of virtues of good karmas in the spiritual bank, which is registered in a balancesheet nobody has ever seen. This is based on the promises given by the priests. Our mind starts believing these priests.
Osho says that mind has learnt a trick and that trick is how to promise. It goes on promising: “I will give you everything. You need God? I will give you God, just wait. Do this and that. Make effort, and hope and pray, and you will get it.” It always postpones. It says, “Tomorrow it will happen”, but tomorrow never comes. Tomorrow cannot come — all that comes is always today, and all that the mind does is to transfer everything for tomorrow. It promises you — in the future. Whether it is heaven, whether it is God, or moksha or nirvana — it always promises you, “in the future.”
Neither meditation nor Zen ever promises you anything. It simply gives you here and now. Mind is a postponement, it says, “It will happen. It will happen gradually. Go by and by. Don’t be in a hurry, nothing can be done right now.” Mind says, “Time is needed. Long is the path. Much has to be done and unless you do it, how can you attain?” Mind always divides ends and means.
But in reality, there is no division. Every step is the goal, and every moment is nirvana. This moment is all that exists. Future is a creation of the dreaming mind. We keep dreaming illusory goals and miss all the treasures of this moment. This moment contains eternity.
Links:
[1] http://103.241.136.51/swami-chaitanya-keerti-517
