Osho : One day it happened: Edison was writing some letters. His wife came, and she knew that he never likes to be disturbed in the middle of his work because sometimes he loses track of his theory. She had brought his breakfast, so she kept the breakfast by the side and went away to do some other work. Meanwhile a friend came. Seeing the breakfast is getting cold and he is so much in his writing, just to play a joke on him he ate the breakfast. When he finished the letter he looked around.
He saw the empty plate he said to the friend, ”Sorry, you came a little late – I have finished my breakfast.”
Seeing the plate empty he thought he must have finished, he must have eaten the breakfast. Not even the ordinary people, but your so-called geniuses… Edison is one the greatest talented persons ever: he discovered one thousand things – one thousand things is a rare achievement – but remained his whole life unconscious, so much so that once he forgot his own name.
It is said of Immanuel Kant, a great German philosopher, that he had to be reminded of every small thing he lived such an unconscious life. Each small thing had to be reminded to him, even things like this: One day he came home after his evening walk, stood in the comer of the room, laid down his walking-stick on the bed thinking that he is lying on the bed and the walking-stick is standing in the comer of the room.
The servant, seeing the light on, looked through the keyhole, was puzzled – what is happening? – because he saw Immanuel Kant standing in the corner of the room and the stick lying down on the bed. He knocked on the door.
Immanuel Kant opened the door and the servant asked, ”What is the matter? What are you doing?”
He said, ”I also am feeling a little bit strange. Something is wrong, but I am not exactly certain what it is. I am feeling very tired!”
Every man has a Buddha inside him, but the Buddha is not holy, is not whole. We are living in fragments. Somebody is living in his head, somebody is living in his body, somebody is living somewhere else. Somebody is focused on the money, somebody on power, somebody on some other trip, some other number. But nobody is wholly, fully aware what he is doing, what he is being.
Source: from book “Zen: The Special Transmission” by Osho