So, a man comes to a spiritual teacher and says, “Show me enlightenment.” This was back in the time in the days of Zen. The teacher looks at him and says, “Oh it’s easy. You just go home, for one night. You spend the entire night not thinking about monkeys and come and report to me in the morning.”
Of course the guy comes back in the morning and you can guess what happened. He’s bleary-eyed. He hasn’t slept the whole night. He says, “Oh my gosh! all I could do was think about monkeys all night long!”
And the master says, “Okay now are you willing to put some time into this? Learning how to master your mind and to find out who you is not a simple fix.
The guy bows and says yes. He, at least, saw how difficult the path is going to be.