On a lighter side of enlightenment:

Once upon a time a guy named Steve decided to become spiritually enlightened, so he quit his day-job, sold all of his worldly belongings and deleted all of his social media accounts, and joined a local monastery to begin a new life as a novice monk.

On the very first day of his novicehood, Steve and his fellow novices were assigned to a wise old master who led them on a field trip into the nearby city. After a somewhat long and grueling trek of several hours, they came upon a hot dog stand. Being quite hungry at this point, Steve stopped at the stand, handed the vendor a ten dollar bill and said “Please make me one with everything” whereupon the vendor pocketed the bill and handed Steve a large hot dog piled high with assorted condiments. Pausing a brief second, Steve then asked “Hey, where’s my change?” The hot dog vendor looked at Steve and said, “Change must come from within.” Not wanting to make a big scene on his first day, Steve just let it go.

Once Steve and the other novices had satisfied their hunger, their wise master resumed the trek, marching them along until they arrived at a small airport. The master then guided them to a small plane and ushered them all in. Once everyone was inside, the plane took off and soon was flying high over the city.

Shortly, the master gave each novice a parachute and announced “Today’s lesson is about the power of your personal faith and commitment to enlightenment. When I tap your shoulder, you will jump out of this plane and parachute back to the temple below. If by any chance something should go wrong, just say ‘Buddha oh Buddha’ as loud as you can and you will be saved.”

One by one, the novices obediently jumped from the plane, making a beautiful sight as their robes rippled through the air. When Steve’s turn came, he jumped as directed but was so scared that he forgot how to pull his rip cord. As he plummeted to Earth, he remembered his master’s words and shouted “Buddha oh Buddha!!!” at the top of his lungs and a giant hand came out of the sky and grabbed him and began to gently lower him to the ground.

“Oh thank God!” Steve exclaimed, and the hand disappeared.