What happens when enlightenment feels like a slow process of learning and awareness?

Beloved master, you say that enlightenment can happen any moment. To me it feels like a very slow process of learning and becoming aware of the unconscious parts of my being. Do you have something to say about this?

Enlightenment is not something like an achievement; one cannot achieve it. One has to disappear for it to happen. It is a happening and it happens only in the absence of the ego. And whenever you are doing something the ego becomes more and more strengthened. The ego is a doer, and enlightenment happens in a state of nondoing. It is simply the realization of who you are; it is not a question of achievement. You are already it! Just an awakening, just a turning in! Seeing the point, Buddha relaxed; he dropped all his methods. That is the only use of methods: you get tired of them, you feel utterly bored with them. One day out of sheer boredom you drop all the methods. That evening he dropped his whole spiritual search. He had dropped all worldly search six years before, but it is the same search whether you…

Osho, are surrender and enlightenment simultaneous events? If yes, then what does it indicate when even a surrendered disciple has to pass through years and years of practice?

A neighbor got tired of hearing this. A joke occurred to him: he will not take less than a hundred—there is no risk. So he put ninety-nine rupees in a pouch and, while Mulla was praying “I won’t take less than a hundred,” climbed up onto the roof and dropped the pouch through the thatch. The pouch fell. Mulla said, “Fine. First I’ll count. I never take less than a hundred.” He opened the pouch, counted—there were ninety-nine. He said, “Ah, You are quite the trickster—you deducted one rupee for the pouch. No problem.” Now the neighbor was worried. He had only intended a prank. But Mulla was saying, “You’ve cut one rupee for the pouch—no harm, it’s business, it makes sense.” If such a God even comes, wearing a peacock crown and standing at your door, understand an actor has slipped away from a play. Or a circus performer…

Osho, when am I going to become enlightened?

Please don't be in such a hurry because I will be left without business. This is not fair. If I have so much compassion for you, you should have at least a little compassion towards me too. Go slowly. Let me also enjoy the Masterhood. The psychiatrist leaned heavily on the bar and began to drink long, hard doubles. His face was wreathed in sorrow and he was, at the same time, ominously sad. Another psychiatrist happened by. 'John!' he exclaimed: 'John! My good fellow. You don't seem to be yourself tonight. Care to tell me about it?' 'There isn't much to tell' John replied. 'Remember that rich nut I was treating for years? The one who practically kept me in business from the start?' 'I certainly do. You mean the one who kept dreaming for thirty years that he was still in high school?' John nodded. 'What happened?' 'Last…

What is enlightenment?

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 practising 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…

Am I right to feel that you have travelled the path of gradual enlightenment? Did you dance when the enlightenment happened?

I am still dancing. If you have eyes you can see. If you don't have eyes what can I do? And there is no gradual enlightenment; enlightenment is always sudden. You can prepare gradually, you can prepare suddenly, but enlightenment is always sudden. It happens in a single moment. It is not that somebody is fifty percent enlightened, sixty percent enlightened, seventy percent enlightened, no. Just a moment before he was a hundred percent unenlightened, and just a moment afterwards he is a hundred percent enlightened. It happens suddenly: otherwise there would be degrees. There are no degrees. It is just like death: it happens in a single moment. You cannot say that a man is half dead. Even if he looks half dead he is perfectly alive; that is only appearance. A man may be in a coma, lying unconscious, but then too he is perfectly alive, not half…