The Treasure

In Buddhism, Enlightenment can be searched for by a practitioner of meditation, or it can be stumbled upon by someone doing no practice of meditation.  You think this unfair? Well, Jesus said the same thing in his parables.  One person stumbles upon a treasure hidden in a field.  Another person is a pearl merchant who finds a pearl of great price.  So maybe you are hoping you will be the one who does not have to work for enlightenment or the Kingdom, but get it anyway?  Read the rest of Buddha and Jesus.  No matter how you come upon the gift, your response makes all the difference.  The teaching says that success is not in the finding but in the response.  You sell all you have to obtain the gift you have discovered.  No matter your search efforts, it will always be gift.  Only joy will make you give up all for enlightenment or the kingdom of God.  Greed, fear, and attraction to passing desires and the superficial will never allow you to become what the gift offers to you.  So some of us would rather not search at all.  The finding has too great a price.