What causes the quest for instant enlightenment among people?

So many people are looking for instant enlightenment these days and there are all these gurus running around saying 'follow me' and yet it is questionable whether the answer is there. What do you attribute this to?

In that fear and anxiety, in that impatience, you can go on searching but you will not find. It is not that you have to find God, it is that you have to allow him to find you. So you have to be in a receptive mood, in a non-desiring, non-demanding mood, utterly at ease, as if it has already happened. There is no need for it to happen, it is as if it has already happened. With this silence, this peace, with this non-tense state, it happens. You ask: SO MANY PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR INSTANT ENLIGHTENMENT THESE DAYS AND THERE ARE ALL THESE GURUS RUNNING AROUND SAYING 'FOLLOW ME' AND YET IT IS QUESTIONABLE WHETHER THE ANSWER IS THERE. The answer is in you, it is nowhere else. So if you want to follow a man, follow the man who throws you back to yourself -- because the…

Beloved Osho, the west conceived instant coffee. The east conceived instant enlightenment. What is the difference?

Milarepa, the West has created the instant coffee, but the West does not know how to sip it. Enlightenment is nothing but the right, meditative way of drinking coffee or tea. Enlightenment is to live gracefully, lovingly, moment-to-moment -- not only being blissful yourself but showering your bliss all around -- that is instant enlightenment. You can become enlightened this very moment. Because the East does not conceive anything more than this moment -- who knows about the next moment? It may come, it may not come. If you want really to do something -- coffee or enlightenment -- do it now, immediately. Instant coffee may take a little time, but instant enlightenment takes no time at all.

The ancients said:

"(SELF-)CULTIVATION TAKES AN UNIMAGINABLE TIME (WHILE) ENLIGHTENMENT IN AN INSTANT IS ATTAINED." IF THE TRAINING IS EFFICIENT, ENLIGHTENMENT WILL BE ATTAINED IN ONE FINGERSNAP. IN DAYS GONE BY CH'AN MASTER HUI CHUEH OF LANG YEH MOUNTAIN, HAD A DISCIPLE WHO CALLED ON HIM FOR INSTRUCTION. THE MASTER TAUGHT HER TO EXAMINE INTO THE SENTENCE: "TAKE NO NOTICE." SHE FOLLOWED HIS INSTRUCTION STRICTLY WITHOUT BACKSLIDING. ONE DAY HER HOUSE CAUGHT FIRE, BUT SHE SAID: "TAKE NO NOTICE." ANOTHER DAY, HER SON FELL INTO THE WATER AND WHEN A BYSTANDER CALLED HER, SHE SAID: "TAKE NO NOTICE." SHE OBSERVED EXACTLY HER MASTER'S INSTRUCTION BY LAYING DOWN ALL CASUAL THOUGHTS. ONE DAY, AS HER HUSBAND LIT THE FIRE TO MAKE FRITTERS OF TWISTED DOUGH, SHE THREW INTO THE PAN FULL OF BOILING (VEGETABLE) OIL A BATTER WHICH MADE A NOISE. UPON HEARING THE NOISE, SHE WAS INSTANTLY ENLIGHTENED. THEN SHE THREW THE PAN…

I am always in a hurry and always worrying whether I will be able to reach or not.

Naturally, as you grow in age you become more miserable. It is not death that makes you miserable and it is not old age that makes you miserable -- it is the impossibility of the goal. When you are young you can hope. Enough time is there, enough energy is there, the body is healthy, and you have not tasted frustration yet, and dreams look beautiful. By and by, as you grow in age, you will grow in frustration. All dreams will break somewhere. And you will go on creating new illusions because you cannot live without an illusion. Death comes close and the goal does not come -- that is what misery is. That is what frightens. But if you don't have any goal, you will not be frightened by death. If you don't have any goal, you will not be frightened by anything -- nothing can be taken…

Beloved Osho, what is enlightenment? Have the experience and the idea of enlightenment evolved with time?

So nirvana is just like darkness. The light is put off and your reality is all there, with all its beauty, benediction, blessing. But there is no word in English to translate nirvana. Jainas use the word moksha. Moksha means absolute freedom, ultimate freedom, freedom from all fetters. And the biggest fetter is the ego. Other fetters are just parts of the ego: greed, lust, ambition, anger. All that is thought to be sin in other religions, in Jainism is thought only to be a fetter. But the root, the main root of the whole tree of your slavery, is the ego. So cut the main root and all other roots will die of their own accord. Don't bother to cut small roots, branches, leaves, because they will come again. Cut the main root and the whole tree will die. And when all your fetters fall, what remains? The unfettered…