Tapas prepares you for the moment of Enlightenment
Without tapas, even if satori, a glimpse of enlightenment, happens to you, your body and mind will not be prepared to hold the experience.
Many people want spiritual truths only as a kind of lubrication for their lives, some consolation, some entertainment, nothing more than that. Even if they have some spiritual experiences, it will not stay in them. They will simply go back to society and live in the same way as before. Naturally, they will not be willing to give their life to the process.
After all, all our tapas is only for this one thing: to catch the moment of enlightenment when it happens to us. Tapas itself is nothing but a training or preparation for the ultimate moment. Life is always throwing up possibilities of enlightenment. This consciousness shift happens in our life many times, again and again. It is we who are not aware. If you are not aware, you will only keep missing it. You will not even recognize that such a moment has come and passed!
There is a beautiful Zen story:
A Zen nun was fetching water from the monastery well to her room. She was carrying the water in two pots tied to both ends of a bamboo stick, which she was carrying on her shoulder. It was a full moon night, and the reflection of the moon was seen in the water.
The nun was totally in tune and feeling connected with that reflection, with nature; she was completely connected to the beautiful scene and walking. She was gazing at the moon's reflection in the water and walking.
Suddenly, the bamboo broke and the pot fell and broke. The story says, at that moment, in the shock of discovering that the reflection is gone, the nun became enlightened! She says, I was so completely connected to the nature, to the beautiful reflection of the moon; there was nothing else in my mind. When the bamboo broke and the pot fell and broke, the reflection disappeared and something in me broke and I disappeared.
It is not that everybody will have the same experience. You can also pick up a pot, you can also fetch water from the well, carry the bamboo stick, and if you want you can also break the pot. Nothing else will happen except a bamboo and two pots will be wasted! No, seriously!
If the same incident happens in your life, your first reaction will be, 'Oh! God, two pots are gone!' You either worry or fear or suffer. That will be the first thing you will experience. Only if you are aware and conscious enough, you can catch yourself before the suffering starts in your inner space.
How did the experience happen for the Zen nun? Because she was ready, her consciousness was in such a high, intense frequency. She was able to catch that shift. When the shift happened, she was able to be aware and catch that precious moment and center herself. She was able to catch that neutral space when the unclutching happened.
Discovering you