Why do Zen monks need to live near their masters for many years for sudden enlightenment to occur?

Why do zen monks have to have been living near their masters for ten, twenty, or even for forty years for the sudden enlightenment to happen?

Because of their stupidities. You can be enlightened in a single minute; you can wait for forty years. It depends how gross you are. You can wait for lives; it depends how much you cling to your ignorance. The Zen Master is not responsible that the disciple had to wait for forty years. The disciple is responsible. He must have been a very dull-headed man, a dullard; nothing penetrates in his mind. Or he may have been intellectually very clever, so whatsoever is said he creates an intellectual understanding around it -- and misses the point that can be caught only from heart to heart. In a deep rapport, where heart and heart meet, the flower of understanding blooms. So those who had to wait for forty years either must have been very foolish or very knowledgeable. Both are types of foolishness. They must have been either pundits or just…

Osho, is it wrong to try to save somebody? Is it not part of compassion?

That reminds me again of Natthu Kaka. I was a regular visitor to his salon. I had no beard at that time -- I was a child -- and no mustache, so there was no fear, but I had to use a scarf because I had long hair, and if Natthu Kaka was in the mood he might start cutting. And once he had cut your hair you could not do anything. And he was such a nice man, he would say, "Why be worried? -- you need not pay." It was, every day, a problem that he had shaved somebody without asking him, and now the man was angry. Particularly in India, people shave if they become sannyasins; that means they are dying in a ritualistic way. When a person dies, he is shaved; it is just symbolic. Just as when a person dies he is shaved, in the…

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…

Question: OUR BELOVED MASTER, ON ONE OCCASION RINZAI SAID, "WHOEVER COMES TO ME, I DO NOT FAIL HIM: I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE HE COMES FROM. IF HE SHOULD COME IN A PARTICULAR WAY, HE WOULD BE AS IF HE HAD LOST HIMSELF. IF HE SHOULD NOT COME IN A PARTICULAR WAY, HE WOULD HAVE BOUND HIMSELF WITHOUT A ROPE. NEVER EVER SPECULATE HAPHAZARDLY. UNDERSTANDING AND NOT UNDERSTANDING ARE BOTH WRONG. I SAY THIS STRAIGHT OUT. ANYONE IN THE WORLD IS FREE TO DENOUNCE ME AS HE WILL." THE MASTER FURTHER SAID, "EACH STATEMENT MUST COMPRISE THE GATES OF THE THREE MYSTERIES, AND THE GATE OF EACH MYSTERY MUST COMPRISE THE THREE ESSENTIALS. THERE ARE TEMPORARY EXPEDIENTS, AND THERE IS FUNCTIONING. HOW DO ALL OF YOU UNDERSTAND THIS?" THE MASTER THEN STEPPED DOWN. My experience is that it is very much a triggering process.

Are you the only enlightened person in this ashram? If yes, is it impossible to enlighten or to be enlightened near an enlightened person?

SINCE I BECAME ENLIGHTENED I have never come across a person who is not enlightened. You see only that which you are. Before I became enlightened, the same was the case with me -- the whole world used to appear tremendously asleep, in darkness, in death, unenlightened, because you are reflected continuously everywhere. Every other person is just a mirror; you see yourself. So don't be worried about others; think about yourself. That should be your problem. Others are not your problems. Whether they are enlightened or not, how does it concern you? Why should you be worried about it? If somebody wants to remain unenlightened, it is absolutely his business to decide about it. If they want to play the game of being unenlightened, it's perfectly okay. If you have become fed up with the world, if you are fed up with your anguish and anxiety and you have…