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They are just in front of me! They have always been there, like one's nose. But if your eyes are closed or clouded, then you cannot see.
I have heard one anecdote:
It was late at night and due to several detours a man had become completely lost. He stopped at a farmhouse to ask the way, "Am I headed in the right direction for Atlanta?" he inquired of the woman who opened the door.
"Which way you headed?" she asked.
Unsure of the direction, he tried again: "I mean, are my car lights pointed that way?"
"Yes, sir," said the woman. "At least the red ones are."
This is the situation. The faster you run, the more confused you get. The more speedy you get, the more and more confusion happens to you. By and by, you lose all sense of direction. You simply go on zooming from here to there. Speed itself becomes the goal, as if, running fast, one feels one is reaching somewhere; hence the attraction for speed. It is a neurosis.
The whole of science is engaged in making things more and more speedy. Nobody asks where you are headed for. And as I see it, your red lights are showing the right direction. Somewhere behind you, you have already left home. Somewhere at the very source of your being is your home. But only one thing is fortunate about you: that is, that whatsoever you do, you cannot go very far from home because whatsoever you do is a sort of sleep-walking.
A woman was very upset. "My husband," she told the doctor, "seems to be wandering in his mind."
"Don't worry about that," said the doctor. "I know your husband. He can't go far."
I know you. You can't go far -- because in fact, you are simply dreaming about the speed, about the going, about the goal. You are fast asleep. It is all happening in your mind, not in reality.
Hence, Zen says that if you are ready, this very moment enlightenment is possible -- because you cannot go far. If your traveling is real traveling, then sudden enlightenment is not possible. You will have to come back. The same distance you will have to travel again.
And you have been traveling for millions of lives. If the same distance has to be traveled back again,
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