The Headache of Enlightenment

Esteemed Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein tells of being in an Indian chai shop with his teacher, the famous Munindra Ji, and telling the teacher that he had a splitting headache. Munindra Ji replied, “I hope you are enjoying it.” Goldstein doesn’t talk about enlightenment much at all, certainly not his own, and he does not in any way connect this headache to any putative enlightenment he may have achieved, but it is still an…