Sunday, January 13, 2013

not-seeking

Playfully, like two kittens tumbling on the living-room rug....

The wry and rueful aphorism suggests, "Be careful what you pray for. You may just get it." My own suspicion is that the saying should be reworked to indicate not so much that you "may get it" as that you "will."

People get what they seek. The "wry and rueful" part is that what they get never comes in precisely the form they imagined and what "would be perfect" is never perfect.

People get what they seek.

But what do they get when they don't seek?

I don't mean the question in some snazzy or mystical or let's-play-Buddhism sense. Leave the spiritual formats in the broom closet for a moment. Seriously, what does anyone get when they don't seek?

And never mind imagining that not-seeking is something special or worth seeking. The not-seeking function has plenty of on-the-ground proofs. It's every bit as empirical as seeking. To laugh or sneeze or kiss or sleep or breathe -- there is plenty of evidence to show that not-seeking is as ordinary as a hangnail.

What do people get when they don't seek?

It's not exactly "nothing" and yet it's not precisely "something" either.

What is it?

Don't wuss out!

1 comment:

  1. I wouldn't wish for either-or, nor neither-nor, i dunno u see, yet at times in life.. sex and meditation, both promised me lotsa stuffs as I grew, one suggesting that there was some elusive "orgasm" that would be the highest bliss (which is fine) and the other suggesting that there was some elusive "nibbana" that would also be the highest bliss (which again is fine)

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