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A monkey came to buddha, and he was no ordinary monkey. He was a king, a king of monkeys - that means absolutely a monkey. The monkey said to buddha, "I would like to become a buddha." Buddha said, 'I have never heard of anybody having ever become a buddha while remaining a
monkey." The monkey said, "You don't know my powers. I am no ordinary monkey." No monkey thinks he is ordinary, all monkeys think they are extraordinary; that is part of their monkeyness. He said, "I am no ordinary monkey. What are you talking about? I am king of the monkeys." So buddha asked, What exceptional or extraordinary powers do you have. Can you show me?"
The monkey said, "I can jump to the very end of the world." He had been jumping all along in the trees. He knew how to jump. So buddha said, "Okay. Come into the palm of my hand and jump to the other end of the world." The monkey tried and tried, and he was really a very powerful monkey, a very intense monkey. He went like an arrow, and he went and went... he went. Months and - as the story says - years passed. And then the monkey came to the very end of the world. He laughed; he said, "Look! The very end!" He looked down. It was an abyss: five pillars were standing there to mark the boundary. Now he had to come back. But how could he prove that he had been to these five pillars? So he pissed near a pillar - a monkey! - to mark IT! Years passed and he came back. When he reached buddha he said, "I have been to the very end of the world, and I have left a mark." But buddha said, "Just look around." He had not moved at all. Those five pillars were the five fingers of buddha. And they were stinking... He had been dreaming there with closed eyes... must have been dreaming.
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This is a message for the awakened ones: you are already that what you are seeking. You are already the goal. You have never left home. Mind is a monkey with closed eyes dreaming. You have never gone anywhere, you have always been here and now - because nothing else exists. Just open the eyes. Just open the eyes and look around, and suddenly you will laugh. You have always been rooted in the ultimate being, there is no need to merge. The only need is to become alert about where you are, who you are. Dukkha. Samudaya. Nirhodha. Magga.
