THE ESSENTIAL TEACHING OF GAUTAM THE BUDDHA is not a teaching at all, but an Awakening. A way to become more Aware. He does not give you a Doctrine about Existence, but he gives you a Methodology to see That Which Is. He is not concerned with God, he is not concerned with the Other World Beyond. His whole concern is you -- the Awareness Within.
    Hence Buddha has been misunderstood by almost everybody. The religious people have not been able to understand him because he does not talk about God. They have not been able to appreciate him because he does not talk about the Other World. And all the religions have depended on the Other World. They are against THIS world and for some Illusory World somewhere there in the Future and beyond this Life, beyond this Body, beyond this Moment Here and Now and beyond this Reality. Their whole world is a Fantasy World. They persuade people to sacrifice the Real for the Unreal, they persuade people to sacrifice That Which Is for That Which is Not Yet and may not ever be. They persuade people to sacrifice the Present for the Future, how can they understand the Buddha? Because he does not talk about the Other World at all. He is not an Other-Worldly One.
    But he has not satisfied the Materialists either, the Atheists either. Because they think this is all that there is, to eat, drink, be merry. And Buddha says: This is not all that there is. You are living only on the surface of things. There is a depth to things, but that depth can be known, fathomed, only if depth to you goes deeper into your own Being, into your own Consciousness.
    Naturally, the Materialists, the This-worldly People, cannot agree with Buddha, because they say, "This is all. The surface is all, the outside is all, there is no Inside to it."
    But his approach is a Methodology, not a Doctrine. It is a way of Life. People live like Robots, they live Mechanically. Buddha says, Live non-Mechanically. Each of your acts has to be Luminous with Awareness. And then each act starts revealing Reality to you.
    It reminds me of one of the most beautiful stories about Buddha's closest disciple, Ananda. Ananda lived with Buddha for forty years and he lived like a shadow. He never left Buddha for a single moment, not even in the night,  he would sleep in the same room where Buddha was sleeping. He had taken a promise from Buddha...
    When Buddha became Enlightened, Ananda came to him to be Initiated. He was a cousin brother of Buddha and older than Buddha. He asked Buddha, "I am your elder brother. Once I am Initiated, I will be your Disciple. Then whatsoever you say, I will have to do, then I cannot say no.
    Buddha promised. And Ananda lived with Buddha for forty years. No other Disciple lived so close. But because he was so close he started taking Buddha for granted, naturally. He was so close, he started forgetting Buddha. He was so close that he never tried what Buddha was saying. And the day came when Buddha dropped his body...
    Many who had come after Ananda had become Enlightened. Ananda was not yet Enlightened. He wept bitterly. His misery was great and there was no Consolation. Now suddenly he became aware that forty years had been a wastage. "I lived with this man, a rare opportunity, very rare. To find a Buddha is rare, and to live with a Buddha for forty years continuously,  it has not happened before, it may not happen again. Forty years in a long time. And still I have missed."
    And a great Council was going to be arranged soon and all the Enlightened Disciples were going to gather together to collect the sayings of Buddha. Ananda was not invited. And he was the most reliable source, obviously, nobody had lived with Buddha so long, nobody had as much information as he had. Nobody had listened to Buddha so much, morning and evening, day and night, he was always there, just watching. Whatsoever Buddha had said, he had heard it. And he had a miraculous memory, absolute memory and he had the power of absolute recall. But still he was not invited to the Council.
    It was not possible to invite him. He had known Buddha, his word was reliable, his memory was perfect, but he had no Inner Validity. He himself was not yet a Buddha. Yes, to collect facts he was the right person. But what about Truth? And Facts and Truths are different dimensions. A fact may be a fact and yet may not be True. And a Truth may be True, yet may not be a Fact.
    Truth is not the sum total of all the Facts, Truth is something more. Facts are mundane, superficial. Truths are not on the surface, they are always Inner. Ananda could say everything Factual, but he had no Inner Validity. He himself was not a witness. So even those who had not lived with Buddha were called to the Council, but not Ananda.
    Then suddenly he remembered, Buddha had always said: Be Aware, but in a relaxed way. Be Aware, but without any tension. Attention without any tension. Calm and quiet. Alert, but with no strain.
    Morning came, and he was still asleep. Other monks came to see whether he had been able to make it. They looked in the room, and it had the same fragrance as that of the Buddha, the same Luminosity, the same Grace and Grandeur. And Ananda was fast asleep but his face had the Light, the Light that comes from Within. Even in his sleep he was Mindful. There was Grace, there was a Silence surrounding the room, there was a new space.
    He was invited immediately. He asked the other monks, "Why? What has happened now? Why were you not asking me to come to the council?" And they said, "Just one day ago, your memory was just the memory of the Outside World of things. Now you know from the Inside, you yourself have become a Buddha.
    In Luke Chapter 17:20 Jesus was asked: And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the Kingdom of God is WithIn You.
    And the World goes on seeking God and Jesus from the Outside World.