That's actually the story of Ananda, Gautama's assistant and one of his closest friends.
The full story is that he spent so much of his time helping other people on their paths to enlightenment that he never had time for his own practice. This continued even until Gautama passed away. After his passing, there was a gathering of Arhats (enlightened individuals) to determine what the future of the practices would hold. All Arhats were included, but since Ananda had not actually achieved this himself, despite being Gautama's closest disciple, he was not considered to be allowed to join.
With that in mind he set about meditating and spending hours and hours trying to reach enlightenment. After days of meditating under a tree, he was exhausted and his body was tired, yet he still had not achieved enlightenment. Then, he gives a sigh and relaxes and lays down to get some sleep, telling himself, "I guess I'm not an Arhat", and as he lays his head down he is suddenly filled with enlightenment. For he stopped trying to be anything and simply relaxed in to the truth of himself. For being an Arhat is not a 'thing', just as 'enlightenment' is not a thing, it is a truth we must pull the veil away from.
He was then able to join the meeting. Not by trying to be something, but by recognizing the truth of his own state.
The full story is that he spent so much of his time helping other people on their paths to enlightenment that he never had time for his own practice. This continued even until Gautama passed away. After his passing, there was a gathering of Arhats (enlightened individuals) to determine what the future of the practices would hold. All Arhats were included, but since Ananda had not actually achieved this himself, despite being Gautama's closest disciple, he was not considered to be allowed to join.
With that in mind he set about meditating and spending hours and hours trying to reach enlightenment. After days of meditating under a tree, he was exhausted and his body was tired, yet he still had not achieved enlightenment. Then, he gives a sigh and relaxes and lays down to get some sleep, telling himself, "I guess I'm not an Arhat", and as he lays his head down he is suddenly filled with enlightenment. For he stopped trying to be anything and simply relaxed in to the truth of himself. For being an Arhat is not a 'thing', just as 'enlightenment' is not a thing, it is a truth we must pull the veil away from.
He was then able to join the meeting. Not by trying to be something, but by recognizing the truth of his own state.
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