Enlightenment is not something you achieve. It is the absence of something you’ve carried all along. All that is needed is to let go of the illusions that obscure your true nature – the stories, the judgments, the constant striving. When you drop these, what remains is what was always there: your original mind, clear as the sky.

People think they must climb a mountain to reach the top, but in Zen, the mountain vanishes, and you discover you were never at the bottom to begin with.

Suzuki roshi, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind