The priest said, “Don’t be worried. I am coming with you. You need not convey the message; I will convey the message, and I will convey it in installments, so he does not get the shock so suddenly – one million dollars! First I will say, ‘You have got fifty thousand dollars.’ When he has absorbed it I will say, ‘No, you have got really one hundred thousand dollars.’ When he has absorbed that, and I am certain that he is still alive, I will go on. This way by a slow process he will be able to come to the point where he can accept one million dollars.”
The wife said, “You are really great! You are certainly the wisest man around and if you can save my husband’s life I will donate fifty thousand dollars to the church.”
The priest said, “What? Fifty thousand dollars?” – and he fell down then and there. He never came back after half an hour! Fifty thousand dollars so suddenly…the poor priest, and he was not expecting it at all.
Enlightenment is the greatest experience in life. You cannot even conceive what it is – no conceptualization is possible. You can think of pleasure, great pleasure; you can think of happiness, because you have known something of it – a little bit. You can think, “Perhaps there will be no problems.” But these are not the real contents of enlightenment.
Because here you are constantly living in the atmosphere full of longings for enlightenment, your mind can start weaving, spinning dreams. But don’t take those dreams seriously. You have done that. You say, “I believe it is also possible that the experience remains a short satori and the person comes back to his normal state.” You don’t understand what is your normal state.
Enlightenment is your normal state!
The state in which you are is abnormal! Coming back from satori to your so-called normal state is coming back from satori into insanity. It is simply not possible. Once you have seen the light you cannot become blind again. Once you have known love, hate cannot raise its head in your being. Once all problems are dissolved, from where can they come back again?
Michelangelo was painting the ceiling of the Sistine chapel. He was getting tired of lying on his back, so he rolled over and sat on the edge of the scaffold. Looking down he noticed a little old lady praying in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary. Wanting to have some fun, he shouted down in a deep voice, “I am Jesus Christ, I am Jesus Christ! Listen to me and I will do miracles.”
The old lady looked up, clasping her rosary, and shouted back, “You shut-up-a your mouth! I am-a talking to your mother!”
“The last time I met you,” said the priest, “you made me very happy because you were sober. Today you have made me unhappy because you are drunk.”
“True,” said the drunk with a smile, “but today is my turn to be happy.”
Beware of your mind – it can deceive you!