And the last question:

Question 7

DOES ENLIGHTENMENT NEED A SPECIAL PLACE, A SPECIAL TIME, TO HAPPEN?

Every place is special, because every place is overflowing with God. No place is ordinary. Enlightenment can happen even in your toilet! Enlightenment is not afraid of your toilet! It can happen anywhere. You need not go to sacred places; there are none. All existence is sacred! You need not go to Varanasi or Jerusalem or Kaaba -- all nonsense. All places are full of God. Every point is special.

And what special time are you asking about? Is there a season, a certain climate for enlightenment? Enlightenment is not really a happening. If it were a happening, then maybe, in a certain soil, in a certain climate, in a certain place, on certain days it would be more possible. But enlightenment is not a happening. Enlightenment is simply a recognition -- a recognition that you have always been enlightened, that never, for a single moment, have you lost it; you had just fallen asleep. That's why you come across strange SATORI experiences of Zen Masters.

Somebody's passing by the market and hears somebody reciting the Diamond Sutra.Just hearing one line, he becomes enlightened. How is it possible? -- just hearing one line from the Diamond Sutra, hearing that you are already enlightened from the very beginning? Yes, it can happen, because enlightenment is your nature, your very nature. It is not something outside. The flower is already flowering, you just don't look at it. You go on looking somewhere else, you don't look within.

It can happen.... It happens sometimes that the Master hits the disciple and suddenly -- the Master's staff on his head and something triggers -- thinking stops. Suddenly he recognizes, comes to awareness.

Anything.... It is said, a disciple was sitting silently meditating, meditating for months, for years. Then the Master came, came with a brick, and started rubbing the brick just in front of the disciple who was sitting like a Buddha. And the disciple had become very skillful in sitting for hours together, like a statue, unmoving. Now this Master was rubbing the brick on the stone, and of course, the disciple must have felt great disturbance. He must have felt his teeth on edge -- somebody rubbing a brick just in front of him, and nobody else but his own Master! He tried to control and control, and then it was too much and he said, "Stop it! What are you doing?" And the Master said, "I am trying to make a mirror out of this brick -- rubbing it, rubbing it, rubbing it -- one day it will become a mirror." And the disciple laughed, "You must have gone mad." And the Master said, "And what about you? You are rubbing and rubbing the brick of your mind for years and years, and do you think anything is going to happen?" Suddenly the clouds disappeared: "Yes!" The disciple recognized, fell at the feet of the Master.

But the Master has to watch for the moments when the layer of unawareness is very thin.

There is a question from Anup. He asks, "Why don't you hit me, Osho?"

You are very thick, Anup. Hitting won't do. I'm waiting. You have great shock-absorbers around you, buffers upon buffers. I'm waiting. And you are gathering more buffers rather than dropping them. Your being here is not total. Your being here is just so-so, lukewarm. You come and go, and you think, "Maybe something can happen . If something can happen, then it's okay. If nothing happens, then it's okay." You are not yet involved in the commune. You are a sannyasin but you remain outside. You are not yet a part of the family. You want to be related to me, but you are afraid to relate to the family. And remember, there is no way to relate to me if you can't relate to the family. The family is my device to destroy your buffers.

It is very easy to love me, it is difficult to love Laxmi. And unless you love Laxmi nothing is going to happen. These people I have gathered around me are here for a certain purpose. It is very easy to love me, there is no problem. It is all sweet. Love Deeksha! -- then you will know what bitter means. But Deeksha is my gate; you have to enter through Deeksha. The day you have started loving Deeksha, then you will be able to come close to me, not without it.

There are a few people who are clever -- Anup is one of them -- calculating, clever. They think they can have a direct relationship with me. That is not possible. You cannot avoid the situation that I am creating. You have to accept it. It is hard to accept it. That's why it is a situation, that's why it is a device! It is hard to swallow it -- that's what the first question was, from Sudesh. He cannot accept the organization here. If he cannot accept the organization here, howsoever he thinks that he loves me, this love is not enough. If you love me enough you will say yes to things that I am making around here. There must be something in them.

You can't see right now, you don't have eyes.

Sudesh says, "Things around you are not right. They are topsy-turvy." They are managed that way by me. Passing through them, accepting them, is coming closer to me. That will help you to grow in trust. If you cannot grow then it is better to leave. Give your place to somebody else.

Anup asks me again and again why I don't hit him. You have to be worthy of it. The hit is not cheap, it is costly. I don't go on hitting everybody and anybody. I hit only when I see that now the layer is so thin, just a small hit and the clouds will disappear.

Enlightenment can happen any place, can happen any moment. You just have to allow it to happen. It is not a question of place and time, it is a question of your allowing it.

A parable, a modern Zen parable. You will not find it in Zen books.

Enlightenment of a Seeker.

A serious young man found the conflicts of mid-twentieth century America confusing. He went to many people seeking a way of resolving the discords that troubled him, but he remained troubled.

One night in a coffee house. a self-ordained Zen minister said to him, "Go to the dilapidated mansion you will find at the address which I have written down for you. Do not speak to those who live there: you must remain silent until the moon rises tomorrow night. Go to the large room on the right of the main hallway, sit in the lotus position on top of the rubble in the northeast corner, face the corner and meditate."

He did as the Zen minister instructed. His meditation was frequently interrupted by worries. He worried whether or not the rest of the plumbing fixtures would fall from the second floor to join the pipes and other trash he was sitting on. He worried about how he would know when the moon rose on the next night. He worried about what the people who walked through the room said about him.

His worrying and meditation were disturbed when, as if in a test of his faith, effluvium fell from the second floor onto him. At that time two people walked into the room. The first asked the second who the man sitting there was. The second replied, "Some say he is a holy man. Others say he is a shithead."

Hearing this, the man was enlightened.

It is only a question of being present to ANY situation. Now hearing this -- not a Diamond Sutra -- but he must have heard it, he must have been absolutely attentive in that moment. Naturally when somebody is talking about you and one says, "Some say he is a holy man. Others say he is a shithead" -- all thinking must have stopped: "Hearing this, the man was enlightened."

Whenever, in whatever place, it can happen to you. Enlightenment is available. It does not come from the outside. When the thoughts disappear, it comes from your inside. When the thoughts are no longer clamoring for your attention, and suddenly you are silent, simply attentive, simply alert, it comes from the deepest core of your being,. It arises like a fragrance. And once you have seen it happen, it is yours forever.