Question is a word. Quest is a feeling.

Man is born as a quest. The rest of Existence cannot reflect the Divine like man can. Man is like a mirror. He has the choice to face and reflect the Divine or to turn away. Man can make a conscious choice, which is why he can grow. Man can choose to realize the Divine through his human form. No other being in Existence has this choice.

If these words, ‘How do I get enlightened? I want to… real bad and urgently,’ have come out, if this question has come out as a deep quest, then you don’t need anything. Just boil, let the whole being burn with this quest. That is enough. Nothing else needs to be done. Let this boiling be intense. Allow this boiling. Allow this burning. Allow this intensity. Allow this urgency. Let the urge become urgent. Let the question become your quest. Let it just eat your ego, eat your inner space.

People ask me, ‘Have you been enlightened by the divine grace or by your effort or by your quest?’

I tell them, your having the quest is the first sign that you are having the divine grace. Unless you have the divine grace, you will not have the quest. Understand, this quest or seeking is like a seed. It is like a seed feeling suffocated inside the shell. See, unless the life that is inside the seed feels suffocated inside the shell, it won’t open up and become a tree. The moment the seed starts feeling that it should open up, the moment it starts feeling the seeking, the urgency and the quest to open up to become a tree, it means that already the tree inside the seed has started expressing itself. If you have the feeling that you should get enlightened, the Buddha in you has opened his eyes. The Buddha in you has started waking up. All you need to do is open your eyes!

Allow this seeking. From morning till night let it boil, let it create a deep dissatisfaction in you. Let every pore in your skin, every nerve in your body, every cell in you vibrate with that intensity. Let it swallow all your depressions you may have in life. In life you may have so many other depressions and sufferings of not having so many things. Let all those sufferings be swallowed by this one suffering.

The Ultimate can happen in a split second through a simple happening.

A beautiful Zen story:

A Zen student was intensely studying under her master but she was not able to experience true meditation for a very long time.

One full moon night, she was carrying a bucket of water suspended on a bamboo stick. She saw the reflection of the moon in the bucket. Suddenly, the bamboo broke. The water fell out of the bucket. The reflection of the moon disappeared and so did her ego.

When the seeking is intense, it will remove the juice from your ego. The green grass becomes like a haystack. Just a match is enough to burn the whole haystack down. The Ultimate can happen in a split second through a simple happening.

So understand: let this seeking, let this quest, your saying, ‘How to get enlightened? I want to…real bad and urgently’, let this seeking burn all your other sufferings, all your other depressions, all your other desires, all your other concerns about life. Let it happen and suddenly you will see that the seeking suddenly disappears, it is not there. When the seeking disappears, you are enlightened. You have achieved what you are seeking.

source: Living Enlightenment