Unsent Letter #10: The Paradox of Spiritual Seeking

November, 2006

Dear Friend,

The difficulty that arises with what is called "spiritual seeking" is that the seeker--the one who is assumed to be searching for something, is actually imaginary. There is no separate individual and there never has been. The process of seeking therefore only sustains the sense of separation that goes with the concept of individuality and does nothing to do away with it. Seeking is in fact not the solution, nor will it lead to a solution, but is a continuation of the problem.

One who knows this truth will tell you about it directly and not make you any promises or guarantees. He or she will explain that no external teacher is needed and that there is nothing to be gained or acquired by spiritual seeking. To one who is suitably prepared, this may be the only message that needs to be transmitted.

To come to the end of seeking is simply to realize that you have always been what you are: formless, limitless, beyond thought, and that your taking yourself to be an individual who was in need of something was only a false assumption. There is nothing mystical or even "spiritual" about this understanding. It is just a simple fact.

Teaching implies that there is some course of study that can be followed in order to reach a particular goal or to accomplish something. Actually, what is being pointed out is that there is no such goal and no one to pursue it either. All that is available is a deconditioning which indicates that what was taken to be true is only an illusion. The "problem," such as it is, is that something is there that is not needed, not that there is something missing that needs to be found.

It is amazing that such vast structures of concepts and beliefs have been built to justify the pursuit of "spiritual" goals and to distinguish them from the so-called mundane activities of human life. All religions and paths emphasize the notion that there is something fundamentally wrong with the human being that needs to be put right. Each one claims to have the solution, while other paths or ways are missing the point. But what is the difference between all of these ways that promise so much but which deliver so little? They are all equally the product of thought, which is always only interested in controlling the natural flow of life and making it conform to that particular pre-existing pattern with which it happens to have been programmed.

Life has its own natural rhythm, which is disturbed by thought. Thought is essentially unnecessary, except for the most practical matters. It really functions as a means of orienting the body and communicating with other bodies in this complex dream-world that has been created by human interaction. Life goes on, with or without thought. It animates the form of the human body, but is not related to the interpretations and speculations that are superimposed on it by thought.

The book "You Are He" is an exploration of the paradox of spiritual seeking. The paradox that what we speak about cannot be found by seeking--yet only seekers find it.

A.