To attain to enlightenment that is a must -- that we should lose all hope and desire for it. Otherwise the desire for enlightenment becomes a nightmare in itself. And the more we desire it, the further away we are from it -- greater the desire, greater will be the distance. Drop all desiring for it, all hoping for it. If we have really become desire less about enlightenment, any moment it is possible to happen. Give space; don't be filled with the desire for it.
The greatest barrier to enlightenment is the longing for it, because a mind that longs and desires is always tense. It has a subtle anxiety around it; it is never at ease. How can we be at ease if we have to go somewhere, reach somewhere? We may be sitting, but we are on the move. Visibly we may be resting, but invisibly we are restless. Nobody has ever been able to attain enlightenment through desire.
I am not saying that when we become desire less we will attain to nirvana or enlightenment; I am saying when we are desire less we are nirvana, we are enlightenment. The desire is the disturbance in us, just like ripples in a lake... ripples disappear, the lake is silent.
It is easy to drop the desires of the worldly things, very easy. In fact it is absolutely foolish to cling to them. Only stupid people cling to worldly things, because anybody can see that they are going to be taken away from us. All clinging is futile, fruitless, and anybody who has even a small quantity of intelligence can become alert that accumulating things is not going to give we enrichment; rather, it will make us more and more poor. The more things we will have, the more we will feel that we are empty.
A rich man becomes, deep down, very poor. We cannot find greater beggars than emperors. Knowing well that they have everything that they could desire, for the first time they become alert that nothing has changed inside: no contentment has happened, no satiety. Everything is as much in turmoil as ever; the whole effort has been useless, and the whole life wasted in it.
No, it is not difficult to drop worldly desires, but when we drop worldly desires, immediately, the mind creates the other-worldly desires: moksha, nirvana, enlightenment, God. Now we hanker for these. The situation remains the same -- we remain in desire. The object is irrelevant: the real thing: whether we desire or not. The real thing is not what we desire. All our spiritual -- so-called spiritual -- teachers misguide us because they go on saying, "Change the object of desire. Don't desire worldly things; desire God."
God cannot be desired. We cannot make God an object of our desire; that is sacrilege. Enlightenment cannot be desired, because enlightenment happens only when there is no desire. And enlightenment is not something that comes from the outside. When the mind is freed from desire, suddenly, we become aware of the king of kings sitting inside. He has always been there. But we were so much worried about desiring and reaching and gaining and achieving.
The achieving mind is the barrier, so it is good that we have given up all hope for enlightenment. But I don't think that we have given up all hope -- otherwise it would have happened. We may be right, however: practically, we have given up all hope for enlightenment. But deep down we are still dreaming about it, desiring it. Practically, we may have given up, but deep down the desire must be there. Otherwise there is no question -- why the enlightenment has not happened. It should happen immediately -- there is not a moment's gap. It is absolutely certain: when desire has left us completely. Utterly, it is there. In fact it is nothing -- we without desire. So search deep, dig a little deeper inside ourself; we will again find desires, layers of desires: and go on throwing them. Peel down our onion to the very core.
One day it is going to happen. Any day it is possible. Any moment when there is no desire, not even a flicker of it -- no trembling, no wavering -- and consciousness is unclouded -- no smoke of desire. Only the flame of consciousness, the fire of consciousness.... And suddenly we start laughing, suddenly we understand that which we were seeking was always within us. That is the meaning of Jesus when he goes on insisting, "The kingdom of God is within we." If it were "without" it could be desired; if it were "without" it could be reached from some path. It is us!
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