Stopping the Search

Seeking.

So many teachers have suggested that we stop seeking, that what we want is already here, but how many times do we ignore that suggestion and keep right on seeking?

“What did they find that is already here? Clearly I haven’t found it. I gotta find it!”

Whatever it is that we want, we may believe it is contained in the next experience, the next thought, the next feeling, the next moment, the next manifestation, the next realization, the next guru, the next location we visit, the next lifestyle change, the next meditation session, the next relationship, the next success, the next whatever.

After years of this, eventually we may have enough failures that we quit trying to seek something in the future so much. What seems to be more common in our society, however, is to read a book or take a workshop on how to be more successful, and if so then the seeking-something-in-the-future game continues right along, just like it has for thousands of years.

Heck, we might explore spirituality, learn about “being in the now,” and then engage in spiritual present-moment seeking, trying to do a good job at stripping away the delusion and illusions so that we can see and experience whatever we are “supposed” to see and experience in the now. “I know it’s already here because teacher so-and-so says so, but I’m not seeing it, so I’m gonna find what’s supposedly already here.” More seeking.

For thousands upon thousands of years, mankind has been spiritually retarded. Completely and utterly ignorant of reality. Mass delusion has been the norm for ages. This is how deep the egoic energy runs through our psyche. We’re talking about unraveling millions of years of conditioning here. No small feat. A simple saying of “This is It and I already am That. Separation is an illusion! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah!” doesn’t cut the mustard. For most, those are empty words. Without direct experience of what those words point to, they are hollow. The lack the aliveness that comes with inner seeing. We can become the most adept spiritual student (as if spirituality was like academia where the point was to read all the books and memorize the important points, as if we’re going to be tested on our conceptual understandings and the better we do on the test, the more “successful” we will be), but in the end none of that really matters. Not a single thing you’ve ever read is IT. Not only that, one day you may discover, much to your own dismay, that NONE of that is satisfying or fulfilling. Years of seeking, and it brought you not one inch closer to what is already here. Hopefully that’ll sink in enough to where you stop seeking more from books and gurus, but maybe it won’t. Who knows…

Stopping Seeking

Life’s not all seeking though… In those fleeting moments of satisfaction that we have experienced throughout the course of our lives, it is usually because we have accomplished something or achieved something and for a short period of time, we have stopped seeking. We think that we are happy because we have achieved something and in that current experience of happiness we have stopped seeking, but if you’ve noticed, shortly thereafter the dissatisfaction with life arises again and the seeking resumes. Time to get another hit from our source of happiness!

When we live this way, we think that our happiness is found in the next goal, an achievement which invariably lies in the future. Go get it! Chase that carrot on a stick!

If what you found was really what you were seeking, why do you now experience lack once again? Why does the seeking need to resume?

What if seeking was not a path to the solution, but actually the problem itself, masquerading as a solution?

Perhaps the answer is not in finding the elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, or even jumping from one pot to the next. Perhaps it’s not about finally getting that prized whatever that seeking is supposed to bring about, as if you are less without it and more with it. Perhaps it’s about stepping off the path of seeking altogether, even if it meant you’d never “find” happiness or enlightenment. What about that? Crazy!

What if we stopped for a moment and asked ourselves, “What if happiness was not found in the achievement of anything, but revealed in the absence of seeking happiness?” What if we stopped this insane journey of needing more MORE MORE and just relaxed into this moment?

What if everything was always totally okay right now, and it was only our thoughts which suggest otherwise that were ever causing any issues? What if it was never the getting of the thing that was the real solution but only the seeing through buying into the idea of lack and limitation? hmm??

For thousands of years man has sought to find the magic pill that gave him what he wants. Are you going to fall into this same old trap as well?

What if nothing outside of you had to change one iota for you to be completely, totally, and utterly happy and fulfilled?

We may have heard this before, and if so, why don’t we experience life this way?

Being In The Moment

What if this moment was IT? All that you were looking for. Imagine for a moment that you had no memory of the past and no imagination of the future. Imagine what it’d be like if you literally lost the capacity to even believe a single thought.

Without any memory of the past or any hope for salvation in the future, what is this moment like, purely, and without the dream for more?

I’m not talking about the content of this moment, but rather this moment itself. The spacious presence that envelops all happenings.

What is life like when we simply notice whatever is arising in this moment, without neurotically trying to sculpt our world so that we can be happy and fulfilled?

Without the energy of seeking, without the thought that what we want is contained in past or future, what is it like to simply just be here, as you are?

This question is not meant to be answered. It’s pointing towards a stopping. It’s suggesting that we explore what it’s like to just experience this moment.

Full Stop.

What is life like, without seeking?