Spiritual Practice

Can you End Seeking ?

The 'End of Seeking' is a By-product and not something you can aim for.

Seeking implies an existing belief in a 'me' , a seeker, that needs to be fixed .... for various reasons.

The key issue is the 'me' and not what the 'me' is interested in or thinks it needs resolved. Those things are just part of the story of the 'me'. If the desires of the 'me' are satisfied, seeking momentarily stops, but then restarts with a new set of things it needs or wants resolved.

The issue is the 'me'. The 'me' is kept alive by the story, and there is no better story than the seeking story.

Wonderful things to achieve, some really good or challenging things to do to get there and the final achievement. A wonderful and/or tragic person in the starring role - 'me'. What more could a story want? Seeking is just another story.

The mind may then come up with "dropping seeking". This is just another story as well. Just another tragic. Just another "practice" done by the Ego on the Ego, which reinforces the belief in the Ego, the 'me'.

So you cannot just try to "drop the seeking".

When seeking ends - it happens by itself and some time later - days, weeks, or months later - you notice it.

When seeking ends it is a by-product. It is not directly addressed and cannot be as it involves incorrect underlying assumptions on which it depends and relies.

The key is the belief in the 'me'. The 'me' with the needs. The 'me' with the issues that need resolving. The 'me' that is the seeker.

When the belief in the 'me' is investigated the 'me' is found not to exist in any form other than the content of thought.

It is not enough to counter this belief with another belief saying that the 'me' does not exist. This just creates two thoughts in conflict. The existence of the original thought believing in the 'me', which still exists, is reinforced and is now being disagreed with.

You cannot counter this belief in the 'me' with a firmly held conviction that the 'me' does not exist. Implicit in this is the existence of the belief in the 'me', which is now being opposed with conviction.

You cannot counter this belief by attempting to remove from your speech (or thought) all references to the first person - 'me', 'I'. 'mine' etc.

This is 'mental panel beating' done by the ego on the ego. The original belief is reinforced by attempting to wipe it out by the use of force, which cannot succeed. Attempting to wipe something out implies an existing belief in it - which is the reinforcement of that which was do be eliminated. Catch 22.

All of the above 'ways' to eliminate the 'me' are Dualistic and reinforce the 'me'.

They are Catch 22 Practices.

The question - "Does the 'me' actually exist?" and variations on that question are the only questions that can be asked that do not take the existence of the 'me' for granted.

They are only questions that do not reinforce the existence of the ego, but actually challenge its very existence.

The SEEing that the 'me' does not exist in any way other than the content of thought (and is therefore insubstantial) is liberation itself.

When the belief in the 'me' has lost it's credibility it is not taken seriously any more. It's credibility is so low that it does not need opposing. Who bothers to oppose a joke?

If the very 'me' who was seeking is seen through - what then happens to the seeking?

It goes too, along with the suffering.

But only as a by-product.

Catch 22

Catch 22 is a Book and Movie (War / Comedy) wherein the main character attempts to avoid war service (WW2) by pleading insanity. Those who make the decision hold the view that anyone who would use that as an excuse must certainly know what they are doing and therefore are not insane and cannot be excused from the war. Catch 22.

'Catch 22' by Joseph Heller, ISBN 0684865130

See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065528/

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_22

Written by Mike Graham, 25 Jan 2008, last edited 17 Feb 2008