Seek without seeking sounds terribly incongruous in terms of
Western logic. But then isn’t that
precisely its purpose – to diminish our dependence on rational thought when we
inquire into the nature of being?
Haven’t we been warned time and time again by Laozi,
Chaungzi and many Taoist and Buddhist masters that words can never access the
nature of reality nor can we grasp it with conventional thought?
On the other hand, take the words attributed to Jesus Christ
in the New Testament: “Seek and you shall
find, Knock and it will be opened unto you.”
How comforting, how inviting those words seem in contrast
with Master Foyan’s admonition.
Of course, we have no way of knowing if Christ actually said
those exact words. Nevertheless, the
saying conforms perfectly to the linear process of Western logic based on cause
and effect. First, there is the Seeking which in turn leads us to the Finding.
First, there is the Knocking which
causes the Opening.
But in the Taoist and Buddhist traditions the process is
circular not linear. The Seeking
and the Finding are one and the same
as are the Knocking and the Opening. Only when we divide the processes into linear increments of time do
we create separation – beginnings and endings.
But a circle has no beginning and no end, the same for the
nature of being and reality. So, Master
Foyan is urging us to realize that the Seeking
and the Finding are one and the same.
How is this possible?
It becomes a circular process when there is no Seeker. Christ’s phrase from
the New Testament implies a Seeker
and a separate Thing Found. In other words, a subject that does the Seeking and an object that is Found.
However, when the Seekeris no longer the subject but the object, then the Seeking is the Finding. This occurs the moment we seek within
ourselves and not externally.
This is the meaning of Master Foyan’s “Seek without Seeking. When
we seek for things outside of ourselves, we are pursuing sound and form –
material objects or situations. But when
we look within to come to terms with the meaning of our very own existence, we
are seeking without seeking.
Master Foyan emphasizes this kind of seeking when he states:
“Those who will not stop and look into themselves go on looking for
intellectual understanding. That pursuit
of intellectual understanding, seeking rationalizations and making comparisons,
is all wrong.
“If people would turn their attention back to the self, they
would understand everything.”
And if we understand everything, then there is nothing that
we could ask for that we would not receive, nothing that we could seek that we
would not find, and no door that we could knock on that would not be opened to
us.
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