What is a saying or story that triggers the enlightenment realization? A realization maybe or a saying from an Enlightened master to his student right before the student realizes or sees what enlightenment is?

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It’s not about the saying, or the story or anything, it’s the careful build-up beforehand that determines the nature of the enlightenment. Allow this great scene from The Karate Kid to illustrate:

The student embarks on a quest to learn from a master who must do two things at the same time. Impart knowledge, and keep the student engaged. In Daniel-san’s case, through hard work. Zen schools are similar. Lots of hard physical labor to convey simple, direct truths. Mind and body work hard in order to accomplish the tasks. The work, beautiful environment, and quietude lulls the mind and it just shuts off after awhile.

In a state of exhaustion, just when the person is ready to quit, that’s when the master shows up to wake the mind up out of it’s state of sleep. The awakening that dawns is the realization that it’s all connected and there’s no reason to separate training mode from living mode from experiencing mode.

This mode of teaching was replicated in the Jackie Chan remake, and several times in the fantastic Cobra Kai Netflix spinoff, hilariously in the setting of a car dealership.

Enlightenment is a little like being saved by Jesus. It’s pervasive, and elusive. There’s always more to be enlightened about and you always lose enlightenment as soon as you grasp it. It’s everything, in that without understanding that practice and life and understanding can and should happen simultaneously and there’s no distinctions, you’re rudderless, it’s also nothing, in that there’s always more to be enlightened about, so existence is simply constant rudderless-ness, or as Buddhists call it, no-self, illusion, and suffering.

Many many paths to many many kinds of enlightenment, find yours and get to it.