A long time ago in the land of Zen, there was a great master whose name was Bankai. He had a small ashram up in the mountains, and disciples would come traveling up to find him.
One day he was out working in the garden and such a fellow came along. This seeker walked up to Bankai and said, “Gardener. Where is the master? I have come to lay myself down at his feet.”
Bankai looked up and said, “The Master, of course, is inside, sitting on the master’s chair. Just go around the back of the hut. In through the back door and you will find him there.”
So the man strode away, walked around the hut and went in through the back door. There he saw Bankai, the gardener, sitting in the master’s chair.
He was incensed, and he yelled, “Gardner, where’s the master? What are you doing in his chair? This is sacrilegious.”
Bankai looked at him and smiled, got down out of the chair and sat on the floor. But he said, “Now you will not find the master in the chair because the master is sitting on the floor.”
The seeker was still mad; he couldn’t admit his error. So he stomped away and missed his opportunity.
This seeker didn’t get it. He couldn’t believe that a Master could be so ordinary – just a simple man in a garden.
The master does not exist to fulfill your expectations. He exists to take away your expectations and let you see the wide-open sky with your own vision.
It is important to know that the enlightened person is the most ordinary person. In fact, the enlightened person is the only ordinary person; this person is able just to live, to enjoy; not hankering after the impossible.
Stop looking elsewhere and you are there.