Buddha and Ananda

Truth will exalt a holy person.

Who is a holy person? Everybody is a holy person. You will all know
one day that nothing has ever happened.

There was once a Teacher and someone asked him, “Master, how
long did it take you to become enlightened?”

The Teacher smiled and said, “Oh, well over sixty years — to find out
that I was right all along.”

A similar thing happened with the Buddha.

He had left his palace, his beautiful young queen, his newly born son,
and all the luxuries of wealth and palace life to seek freedom.
He went from place to place, ashram to ashram, but in the end he
rejected everything he saw.

He saw people living in the forest practicing severe austerities. Some
were even hanging head downwards from the trees with their feet tied
to the branches.

The Buddha tried everything but in the end he decided, “This is not
the way to find freedom. I must find something else.”
So he went off alone and ended up sitting under the Bodhi tree.

After he had attained enlightenment, his beloved disciple, Ananda
asked him, “Master, what have you achieved by sitting under the
Bodhi tree?”

“Nothing,” answered the Buddha.

What does this “nothing” mean? Nothingness is everywhere in
everybody. This nothingness is called nirvana. This nirvana is your
own fundamental and ultimate nature. Everyone, whether he realizes
it or not, is in the state of nirvana.