When Seeking Becomes the Problem
Cuando la búsqueda se convierte en el problema
A question about the apparent contradiction between cultivating a desire for awakening and the common teaching that such desire is itself a form of clinging.
When Seeking Becomes the Problem
A question about the apparent contradiction between cultivating a desire for awakening and the common teaching that such desire is itself a form of clinging.
I've heard it said that the desire to be awakened helps in the process. But at the same time, I've also heard teachers say that wanting to be awakened is itself a form of clinging, and therefore it won't work. That if you really want to be awakened, you should let go of that desire, and perhaps then you could awaken. These seem to conflict. Could you speak to that?
I understand what you're referencing, and I relate to it. It does make sense. But in this work, every teaching, every phrase will be problematic and flawed, including what I say and the teaching you're bringing up about desire.
The curiosity to inquire, to wake up, can be problematic as well. But it often depends on the stage, on where we're at. It's a personal thing.
Every teaching is a pointer
You could consider every teaching to be a pointer: left or right. Even the teaching that says "there is no left or right, there is no duality" is itself a pointer in one direction. Everything put into words is going to say "go left" or "go right." So it depends on who is listening and where they are.
Because the human condition, generalized, has some very common problems or obstacles, you can generalize a teaching, and for many people "right" will be the right direction. But at a certain point, the guidance needs to become more refined and more personal. That's why the recommendation is to work with others, to have the kind of interaction where the teaching is really specific to where you are. For another person, it could be completely the opposite. What I suggest to one person might be exactly what someone else already does all the time, and it's not what they need. For one person it's right; for the other it's left.
Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater
What you're bringing up depends on where you're at. Often we need to first inspire and awaken the desire to wake up, and not throw out the baby with the bathwater by dropping that desire too soon.
There's a lot of teaching around the idea of seeking as if seeking is the problem, as if you have to stop seeking. But that's only for some people, those who have been seeking nonstop in every spiritual circle all their life and haven't noticed that the seeking itself has become an obstacle. For somebody who hasn't done much seeking, the instruction is: seek, seek, seek. I think the very first phrase in the Gospel of Thomas from Jesus is "Seek and don't stop seeking until you find."
For somebody who has been seeking nonstop, hearing "you have to stop seeking" might be a revelation. But the way I put it is this: often the problem is that we're seeking the wrong thing. The seeking isn't the problem. It's our understanding of what we're seeking. If what you're seeking is not here, it's the wrong thing.
Recognizing what is already here
At some point, when you recognize that what you're seeking is already here, to the degree that you don't need to find it over and over again, when it's so obvious that it doesn't need to be re-experienced or re-confirmed, that is when I would say, yes, you can stop seeking.
Sometimes hearing "stop seeking" might itself help you recognize that it's already here. Because often seeking means you're seeking something in the future, seeking something in a process, seeking an awakening that's going to happen later. That kind of seeking, yes, is not going to work. It's impossible to find something in the future.
Thank you. That's very clear.