"It is not common; it is unique, it is extraordinary. Ordinarily, whatsoever we have become accustomed to know is just a mind game, because we look at that which is with loaded eyes. Our mirrors are covered with great dust; they have become incapable of reflecting the real. The real is not far away. The real surrounds you; you are part of it, it is part of you. You are not separate from it, you have never been separate from it. You cannot be separate from it – there is no way to be separate from it, it is impossible to be separate from it. But still, the dust-covered mirror is incapable of reflecting it. Once the dust disappears, you will be surprised that all that you have been seeking was not needed to be sought at all, because you had it already.

"The spiritual search is as illusory as any other search. The search itself is illusory because it has taken one thing for granted: that something is missing. And nothing is missing. Once you take it for granted that something is missing you start looking for it; then you go on looking for it in all directions. And the more you search the more you will miss it, because the more you search, the more dust-covered becomes the mirror. The more you travel to seek it, the farther and farther you go in search of it, the more and more frustrated you become. Slowly, slowly you start thinking, 'It is so far away, that's why I am not reaching it.'

"The reality is just the opposite: you are not reaching it because you are it. It is not far away. It is so close by that even to call it close is not right, because even closeness is a kind of distance. It is not distant at all, it breathes in you. It is not there, it is here. It is not then, it is now. It has always been with you. From the very beginning everyone is a buddha, everyone is a mirror capable of reflecting.

"This is the basic message of Zen, and the greatest message that has ever been delivered to man, and the greatest liberating force that has ever been brought to the earth."