Enlightenment is like a joke—a fish searching for the ocean. The irony is, what we seek is already the core of our being. We come into this world gifted with innocence, our hearts filled with purity and silence. But as we grow older, something shifts. Gradually, we lose that innate simplicity as intelligence creeps in. We start losing touch with the essence we were born with, as we become entangled in the complexities of the mind.

We were born with silence, but as we grew up, words flooded our heads, drowning out the quiet wisdom within. We were born living from the heart, but over time, we shifted from the heart to the head, moving further away from the peace and purity we once knew.

Enlightenment, then, is nothing more than the reversal of this journey—a path back from the mind to the heart, from words to silence, from complexity back to our innocent nature. It’s not about rejecting the intelligence we have gained, but learning how to live in harmony with it while rediscovering the innocence we’ve lost.

The greatest achievement is not in choosing between innocence or intelligence but in maintaining both simultaneously—being intelligent while staying innocent, using words while never losing the silence within.

In this sense, the ultimate purpose of knowledge is ignorance. True knowledge brings us to a point where we realize, “I don’t know.” If knowledge leads you to believe that you know everything, then the journey is not complete. The deeper wisdom is found when we understand that there is nothing to know, nothing to attain, because enlightenment is already here—it has always been within us, waiting for us to return.

It’s like the fish looking for the ocean, unaware that it has been swimming in it all along.