The Seeking Mind

Enlightenment is not an object and therefore cannot be grasped
by any strategy of the goal-seeking mind.

LET US AGREE for a moment, just for the sake of discussion, that thinking is like the mind in motion and enlightenment is like the mind at rest. It will then be easy to see that the very thought of stopping the mind is a movement of the mind and therefore an obstacle to enlightenment, the opposite of enlightenment. The act of visualizing the goal creates the conditions that separate the seeker from the goal. It's like a mirage in the desert or a carrot on a stick: the objective is always right there is front of you, yet somehow you can never reach it.

At the end of the day, even the most devout spiritual practice, to the extent that it involves any goal-seeking strategy of the mind, can be of value to the seeker of enlightenment only insofar as it frustrates his every effort so completely that finally, in utter despair of ever reaching the goal, he surrenders even the desire to reach it. At that moment, when all strategies finally crumble and the so-called ego is forced to admit defeat, the goal itself disappears since it means nothing to the seeker without the desire to reach it.

Now, if the spiritual journey is like a path from point A to point B, it is easy to see that all three components (point A, point B and the path connecting them) disappear when point B disappears. Without an end point, there is no starting point and no journey from one to the other. Without a goal, there is just now—nothing and nobody silently humming in empty space.

The whole point of seeking, one could say, is simply to exhaust the urge to seek. There is no goal to reach, no answer to find—only the possibility of no further questions.

Peace.