The fish in the ocean is born in the ocean, lives in the ocean, but knows nothing about the ocean — unless you take the fish out of the ocean. Then, suddenly, a recognition arises in the fish. Only when you lose something do you remember.
Only in that contrast does remembering happen. Then let the fish go back to the ocean. It is the same fish, it is the same ocean, the same situation — yet everything is different. Now the fish knows that the ocean is her life, her very being.
Before, she was in the ocean but unaware; now, she is in the ocean but aware. And that's the great difference, the difference that makes the difference.
We have lived in God, we all come from the original source of existence, but we have to be thrown out into the world so that we can start searching for God again, searching for the ocean — thirsty, hungry, starving, longing. And the day we find it again there is great rejoicing. And it is not anything new.
The day Buddha became enlightened he laughed and he said to himself, "This is very strange! What I have gained is not an achievement at all, it is only a recognition. I had it always, but I was unaware of it."
OSHO