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The Trap Of Seeking

godnotgod

Thou art That
"We already are that which we are seeking. Every spiritual path tells us this:

"That which you are seeking is causing you to seek."

"We are God man-ifest in time and eternity."..."For behold, the Kingdom of God is within you."....But why is this so hard for us to know? To me, it is because the social conditioning we receive as children teaches us there is something wrong with us, and that to be loved and accepted we must improve ourselves. We start out just how we are, and then we are changed, fixed, punished, and altered until we become someone who is "appropriate" and "acceptable." Then we are able to fit into a family and a society. Miss Manners(!) said, "We are all born charming, fresh, and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society."

Rest of essay here:

Cheri Huber-Zen Teacher, Writer, Speaker
 
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YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
I take this a bit further. I openly suggest that my current self directly influenced the younger me, encouraging him to go way beyond his wildest dreams. The jury is still out if he learned anything along the way, but it certainly has been an awesome ride. :) To be honest, I still feel this way (that my future self is coaxing my current self. It's a bit hard to describe.)

For me, it was never about seeking, per se. It was about trusting what I had found and desperately trying not to let it go to my head.
 
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godnotgod

Thou art That
I take this a bit further. I openly suggest that my current self directly influenced the younger me, encouraging him to go way beyond his wildest dreams. The jury is still out if he learned anything along the way, but it certainly has been an awesome ride. :) To be honest, I still feel this way (that my future self is coaxing my current self. It's a bit hard to describe.)

For me, it was never about seeking, per se. It was about trusting what I had found and desperately trying not to let it go to my head.

If you really trust it, then you should be able to relax and not worry about it 'going to your head'. If you are too concerned with it going to your head, then it is going to your head. LOL

tumblr_lz6xuhonj71qg7ex5o1_500.png


:D
 
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godnotgod

Thou art That
Lecture by Suzuki Roshi,
founder, San Francisco Zen Center

Given January 30,1970

This lecture is reprinted from the September 2000 Berkeley Zen Center Newsletter.

"The world that is within our reach is the world for us. There is no other world for us. You may say, "this world or the other world"; this world or the future world, but there is no such future world. Because people say, "this world or that world," Mahayana Buddhists began talking in that way, as a result of a delusive substantial idea. It is easy for us to think that there is some other world which we cannot see. But we do not put any consideration on something like that. When we say the "whole world," the whole world may be this room or the zendo. That is the whole world. Another time it may be this country or this earth or this universe. According to the situation, "whole world" will be different. So when we say "whole world" the world we live in is the whole world. We as Buddhists are not philosophers. Our practice, our life, is concentrated on this world which we see or hear, and we extend ourselves to things which are within our reach. So when you practice zazen, a black cushion is your world and there is no other world and no place to go. With that understanding we should practice zazen; then your practice will work. That is to live in each moment or the eternal present. This kind of world will continue eternally. Big world, small world; painful world, happy world... one moment after another our world continues. And there is no connection between this world and the other world. Because there is no connection, we should not sacrifice our present life for a future life, and we should make our best effort in each world. That is our way of life.

When Buddha began his practice, he saw our human world as very restless and evanescent, where you cannot rely on anything. So he denied it. This world can look very good, but actually it is not so good. I think most of the students here, after realizing this point, came to Zen Center and started our practice. So you gave up making effort in this kind of world. It doesn't make much sense and so you wanted to find some meaning in our life, and you came here denying this usual world.

But to deny this world does not mean to escape from this world. That is not possible for you. As long as you are a human being, a physical body, that is not possible. Even though you make a space trip, it is not possible. You cannot escape from this world. But still you deny it. You are not satisfied with it. This dissatisfaction will lead you to find a new meaning of life. Not in some other world, but a new meaning of our materialistic life. So what you do, actually, will be the same, but the meaning will be different. To find a new meaning in our life, we practice zazen. The teaching of "everything changes" means that even though you realize that there is nothing to rely on, we still make the same effort and still live in the same world. The difference is that, before, you were attached to a materialistic world, and what you strove for was materialistic success. But after you realize the teaching that "everything changes," and that you cannot rely on a material result, what you do will be the same because you have to eat and sleep and so forth. The difference will be that you are no longer attached to success in the material world. To enjoy the materialistic world as it is given to you moment after moment and to enjoy your life will be your purpose, your effort. The point of your effort will change. Before, you sacrificed this moment for the next, for the future materialistic result. But after, you are no longer attached to that kind of result, you will never sacrifice your present life for a future result. That is a more Buddhist way of life. So Buddhists say, "eternal present." Moment after moment our life is the continuity of the present, eternal present... present... present... Present, without sacrificing anything."

BZC: Discussion with Suzuki Roshi
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
Why? If you truly trust what your discovery, what is the problem?
Indeed, as things turned out for me, that was the case. My inner experiences stood my previously held notions about reality on its their pointy little heads, and that did take some getting used to. To my young mind, at the time, the implications were enormous. Fortunately, for me and those around me, I am a very quick learner.
 

godnotgod

Thou art That
Indeed, as things turned out for me, that was the case. My inner experiences stood my previously held notions about reality on its their pointy little heads, and that did take some getting used to. To my young mind, at the time, the implications were enormous. Fortunately, for me and those around me, I am a very quick learner.

....or 'un-learner', LOL.
 

TurkeyOnRye

Well-Known Member
In my expeerience, the appearance of a seeking is simply a fundamental attribute of the viewing process. To fight against this phenomena would be a pointed waste of time. Before a rather pivotal moment some time back, one could have easily said I was seeking something, but really I was attempting to magnify an experience that already exists within me.
 
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godnotgod

Thou art That
In my expeerience, the appearance of a seeking is simply a fundamental attribute of the viewing process. To fight against this phenomena would be a pointed waste of time. Before a rather pivotal moment some time back, one could have easily said I was seeking something, but really I was attempting to magnify an experience that already exists within me.

I would like to add a bit more of dimension to this idea. Firstly, I assume we are limiting 'seeking' to a spiritual quest. In this context, I would say that most of mankind is subject to this inclination, but it does not understand why. A small handful realize at the moment just before seeking, that what they believe they are seeking is something they already are in possession of. In Christian terms, for example, we would say that the gifts of the Incarnation are already given. In Hindu terms, we would say: 'tas atvam asi', or 'Thou art That'. In Buddhist terms, it would be: 'Where do you wish to go to find Enlightenment if not right where you stand?'.

Now what is interesting is the Hindu view of man's scenario, and that is that God is playing a supreme game of cosmic hide and seek, in which It has forgotten It is God, and is hiding within all the forms of the creation. That is the first phase of the game. But something nags at us, and we begin to suspect that something is'nt quite right, so we begin to 'seek', not understanding that what we seek is who we already are; that we ourselves are the divine essence. The realization of that is what we call Enlightenment.

Hence:
'That which you are seeking is causing you to seek'.

How is it that babies know the game of Peek-a-Boo early on, without any instruction, and can express delight over it? They seem to come fresh from the universe, already equipped for play.

One of the things that makes it so difficult to 'find' is the idea that the very Miraculous that we seek is also completely in union with the Ordinary of everyday life. And so, we are always looking 'beyond', when it was always right under our noses. So the Buddhists say:


'Before Enlightenment, sweeping the floor;
after Enlightenment, sweeping the floor'.

while the Taoist says:

'I chop wood and carry water. How miraculous!':D
 

godnotgod

Thou art That
"The fundamental process of reality is, according to the Hindu myth, hide-and-seek, or lost and found. That is the basis of all games. When you start to play with a baby, you take out a book and you hide your face behind it. Then you peek out at the baby, and then you peek out the other way, and the baby begins to giggle, because a baby, being near to the origins of things, knows intuitively that hide-and-seek is the basis of it all. Children like to sit in a high chair, to have something on the tray, and "make it gone.' Then somebody picks it up and puts it back, and they make it gone again."
Alan Watts
 

godnotgod

Thou art That
I'm don't know if that's really what it says, but in any case...correction, Mr. Watts, it only APPEARS that way.

You are referring to maya, the appearance, via of lila, or 'divine play', that the world is real.

Here is Baba Ram Dass on the subject of the cosmic game of Hide and Seek:

"But out of its creativity, or its lila ['divine play'],... the One begins the game of hide-and-seek with itself, partitioning itself into different aspects. Its first division is into the three major deities: Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.

In Hindu cosmology, the powers, or energies of the One are divided into three primary expressions: Brahma, the creative power; Vishnu, the energy of preservation; and Shiva, the force of change. Creation arises, is sustained for awhile, and then things change. That’s the dance."


Hinduism
*****

...and from a Hindu website:

"God also likes to play hide-and-seek, but because there is nothing outside God, He has no one but himself to play with. But He gets over this difficulty by pretending that He is not Himself. This is His way of hiding from Himself. He pretends that He is you and I and all the people in the world, all the animals, all the plants, all the rocks, and all the stars. In this way He has strange and wonderful adventures, some of which are terrible and frightening. But these are just like bad dreams, for when He wakes up they will disappear.

Now when God plays hide and pretends that He is you and I, He does it so well that it takes Him a long time to remember where and how He hid Himself. But that's the whole fun of it—just what He wanted to do. He doesn't want to find Himself out too quickly, for that would spoil the game. That is why it is so difficult for you and me to find out that we are God in disguise, pretending not to be Himself. But when the game has gone on long enough, all of us will wake up, stop pretending, and remember that we are all one single Self—the God who is all that there is and who lives for ever and ever."


Hindu Gateway: Article
*****

Now, in the Hindu cosmology, there are 4 phases, or kalpas, to creation, each of which lasts for millions of years. In the first kalpa, all is bliss and harmony. In the second kalpa, a bit of chaos is introduced. By the third kalpa, chaos has grown and is about equal to harmony. In the fourth kalpa, chaos overcomes harmony and the world is destroyed completely. However, this entire scenario is but a dream in the mind of the sleeping godhead. He awakens and the dream vanishes, and he walks in the Radiant state for a period of 4 kalpas, after which he again falls asleep and the dream begins all over again.
 
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godnotgod

Thou art That
I like that. :D

Unlearning may not really be any 'harder' than learning,
but it can be an awful lot scarier,

much like pulling the entire ground out from under your feet.

....or so it may seem, as you have been living with the illusion of having real ground under you for so long, a ground built on concept, belief, and ideaology. But this upheaval can result in you finding the real ground of True Reality to stand on, solid and robust, which shows you beyond any doubt that what you thought you saw is not what is.
 
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