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Seeking

The world is full of seekers whose identity is wrapped up in seeking wisdom, truth, or enlightenment. This is basically the same as seeking riches, beauty, fame, love, or recognition. The purpose of all of these identifications is to fill emptiness. But if you could look at the situation with complete sincerity, if you could just see what is really there without the props, you would give yourself a little chance of finding true intrinsic meaning.
Diamond Heart Book III, p. 42   •  discuss »

Understanding, itself, is very simple. Understanding is there when you are not searching. You do not need to look for understanding; it is not something to pursue. You do not have to make efforts to have insights. Your efforts are not rewarded with realizations. Understandings, realizations, and insights appear when you are relaxed, when for a moment you have stopped your seeking.
Diamond Heart Book IV, p. 25   •  discuss »

The individual seeking self-realization is generally really seeking certain states of consciousness. Now seeking any particular state of consciousness, whether it is painful or ecstatic, is obviously an activity that is oriented in a certain direction; and this implies the presence of a prejudice or a coercive agency dictating this direction, whether through the promise of reward or through the threat of punishment. So, seeking any state of consciousness is really an indication of the presence and influence of the superego. As we already know, this implies the loss of objectivity, or loss of contact with reality, and leads to the rigidity inherent in such seeking. Although this rigid seeking might lead to blissful and ecstatic states, it necessitates repression of all states other than those sought, and is motivated by the pleasure principle; and so is just as coercive as our childhood experience which curtailed our freedom and growth.
Work on the Super-Ego, p. 17   •  discuss »

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