"If you had looked at your question a little more deeply, you would have found, 'No universal visions – just me.' This 'me' is the source of your doubt. If you had said, 'No universal visions, no me, here amongst the birds, the trees, the people – in all its suchness. No searching, no longing, just living me….' That 'me' is the block. In suchness there is no 'me,' only a pure isness – no 'I,' no 'thou.' And when there is no searching, no longing, the ego cannot exist even for a split second. The searching, the longing, the desiring – these are the very heartbeats of the ego.

"You say, 'I know this to be true.' You do not know, your mind is deceiving you, because you are still there – in knowing you cannot be. Knowing drowns the 'I' and then there is a certainty, 'This is true.' But wherever you find the 'I' lingering in some way, beware of it. Its deception is going too far.

"You are asking, 'In this context, what is enlightenment?' In this context there is no enlightenment. But if the 'I' and the 'me' have also dissolved in the suchness of things, in the isness of existence, then this would have been the enlightenment. Just a little more awareness…you are very close to it. But don't take it for granted that you have arrived. The old mind tries to the very end; when you are entering the boundaries of enlightenment, then too, it goes on trying with all its power to hold you back.

"The experience is beautiful, but your ego is making it not reach to its ultimate climax. You drop the 'me,' you drop the 'I', and there will be no need to answer there will be no need for recognition – you will know. But you will not be there, only the knowing will be there, that, 'This is it.'

"Everybody has to remember about the old mind. It is such a long habit; for many, many lives you have remained attached to it. So it is not surprising that when you are departing from it, it clings to you – perhaps just the last hug, but the hug can go on being prolonged."