Why does it take so long to understand?

Question: OSHO, WHY DOES IT TAKE SO LONG FOR ME TO GET IT? Pankaja, IT T IS BECAUSE OF YOUR KNOWLEDGE. Pankaja has written many books; she has been a well-known author. And here I have given her the work of cleaning. In the beginning it was very hurtful to her ego. She must have been hoping some day to get a Nobel prize! And she has been wondering what she is doing here. Her books have been praised and appreciated, and rather than giving her some work nourishing to her ego I have given her very ego-shattering work: cleaning the toilets of the ashram. It was difficult for her to swallow, but she is a courageous soul, she swallowed it. And slowly slowly she has become relaxed. Pankaja, it is not special to you; it takes time for everybody.

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, I am here only for a very short visit. I have come to try to understand what you have here that the rest of the world does not. Can you help me?

I HAVE NOTHING TO OFFER TO YOU -- only nothing. But that is the greatest thing that can be given as a gift. My only advice to my people is to be nothing, to be nobodies, to be utterly nude of all the clothes that the society has given to you -- of thought, of religion, of philosophy -- utterly empty of all the conditionings that have been forced on you by others, utterly devoid of all the inhibitions and taboos that time has gathered around you like dust. If you can be an empty mirror, then God is. In that empty mirror, God reflects -- and there is no other way. I have nothing substantial to give to you, because all that is substantial is mundane. I have something intangible to give you, non-substantial, something that you cannot grasp with your hand, something that cannot be measured or weighed.…

Osho, in so many ways you make us understand, but still we do not understand. Osho, why do we not understand? When will we understand? How will we understand?

Chaitanya Bodhisatva, understanding is not something that knows any `when'. It is not of time, so it is not predictable. I cannot say `today' or `tomorrow' or `the day after tomorrow'. It can happen right this moment, it may not happen for lives together. It is unpredictable. It is unpredictable because it cannot be caused. It happens when it happens; understanding comes to you. All that you can do is not to create it -- you cannot create it. And the understanding that is created by you will not be much of an understanding, either. So don't ask `how'; there is no `how' to it. `How' means some technique, some method, so that we can create understanding. Understanding is not a thing that can be manufactured. Then what is it? It is already the case. You understand, but the understanding goes against your investments. Whatsoever I am saying is so…

Do wisdom and understanding increase gradually or do they come as explosions?

UNDERSTANDING NEVER COMES, neither as a sudden phenomenon nor as a gradual one, because it is always there. You have it right now. It is not going to happen somewhere in the future. You are carrying it within you, just as a seed carries the tree, a woman carries a child. You are carrying it right now. Now it depends on you: if your intensity is total you will achieve it suddenly, if your intensity is not total you will achieve it by and by, in steps. But understanding never comes to you -- you are understanding. Enlightenment is not something that happens to you -- you are enlightenment. Remember this; then it is a choice, your choice. If you desire it totally, in that fire of total desire all that covers that understanding burns; suddenly the light is there. But it is up to you. It is not part…