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is always of something which you are not. You cannot achieve buddhahood, you can only wake up and find that you are a buddha. And then of course you will laugh. You will laugh because you have been trying to be something that you have always been.
In Zen there is a saying:
WHEN THE BIG BELLY THUNDERS WITH LOUD ROARS OF LAUGHTER, THOUSANDS OF WHITE LOTUSES RAIN THROUGH THE WORLDS.
And when it happens, WHEN THE BIG BELLY THUNDERS WITH LOUD ROARS OF LAUGHTER... whenever a person becomes awakened, whenever he sees the stupidity he has lived for centuries: first, trying to find things which he had already inside himself; second, trying to renounce things in order to get something which has nothing to do with those things. First, trying to achieve money, power, prestige.... When one is already a buddha, what more richness can you ever have, and what more power, and what more glory?
First, one was trying to achieve these things. Failing in achieving them or succeeding in achieving them, one comes to know the futility of it all. Failure brings frustration and success brings frustration. Nothing fails like success, remember it. And then one starts renouncing these things, as if renouncing these things were a condition for achieving that which you are already. That is not a condition at all. There is no need to chase shadows and there is no need to escape from shadows. Shadows are shadows; only this much has to be recognized.
That's why I say to my sannyasins: Don't escape from the world. The world is only a shadow. Let it be there, it can't disturb you. Just become aware of who you are, and that's enough.
ONE WHO REALIZES THE TRUTH....
You see the paradox of the statement:
ONE WHO REALIZES THE TRUTH, AND HOLDS NOTHING THAT IS TO BE REALIZED.
The ultimate truth can always only be said in paradoxical ways; paradox is the only way to express it: one who realizes that there is nothing to realize, he is a buddha.
Once Buddha asked Subhuti, one of his most significant disciples, "Subhuti, when in ancient days Tathagata was with another buddha, Dipankara Buddha, did he attain anything? What was his achievement
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