{"id":240,"date":"2014-08-04T23:06:21","date_gmt":"2014-08-05T06:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/?p=240"},"modified":"2014-08-04T23:06:21","modified_gmt":"2014-08-05T06:06:21","slug":"seeking-without-seeking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/?p=240","title":{"rendered":"Seeking Without Seeking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you seek, how is that different from pursuing sound and form.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t seek how are you different than soil, wood or stone.\u00a0 You must seek without seeking.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

–<\/em>Chan (Zen) Master Foyan<\/p>\n

Seek without seeking sounds terribly incongruous in terms of Western logic.\u00a0 But then isn\u2019t that precisely its purpose \u2013 to diminish our dependence on rational thought when we inquire into the nature of being?<\/p>\n

Haven\u2019t 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?<\/p>\n

On the other hand, take the words attributed to Jesus Christ in the New Testament: \u201cSeek and you shall find, Knock and it will be opened unto you.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

How comforting, how inviting those words seem in contrast with Master Foyan\u2019s admonition.<\/p>\n

Of course, we have no way of knowing if Christ actually said those exact words.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the saying conforms perfectly to the linear process of Western logic based on cause and effect.\u00a0 First, there is the Seeking<\/em> which in turn leads us to the Finding.<\/em>\u00a0 First, there is the Knocking <\/em>which causes the Opening.<\/em><\/p>\n

But in the Taoist and Buddhist traditions the process is circular not linear.\u00a0\u00a0 The Seeking<\/em> and the Finding<\/em> are one and the same as are the Knocking <\/em>and the Opening.\u00a0 <\/em>Only when we divide the processes into linear increments of time do we create separation \u2013 beginnings and endings.<\/p>\n

But a circle has no beginning and no end, the same for the nature of being and reality.\u00a0 So, Master Foyan is urging us to realize that the Seeking<\/em> and the Finding<\/em> are one and the same.<\/p>\n

How is this possible?\u00a0 It becomes a circular process when there is no Seeker<\/em>.\u00a0 Christ\u2019s phrase from the New Testament implies a Seeker<\/em> and a separate Thing Found.<\/em>\u00a0 In other words, a subject that does the Seeking <\/em>and an object that is Found.<\/em><\/p>\n

However, when the Seeker <\/em>is no longer the subject but the object, then the Seeking <\/em>is the Finding.\u00a0 <\/em>This occurs the moment we seek within ourselves and not externally.<\/p>\n

This is the meaning of Master Foyan\u2019s \u201cSeek without Seeking.<\/em>\u00a0 When we seek for things outside of ourselves, we are pursuing sound and form \u2013 material objects or situations.\u00a0 But when we look within to come to terms with the meaning of our very own existence, we are seeking without seeking.<\/em><\/p>\n

Master Foyan emphasizes this kind of seeking when he states: \u201cThose who will not stop and look into themselves go on looking for intellectual understanding.\u00a0 That pursuit of intellectual understanding, seeking rationalizations and making comparisons, is all wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people would turn their attention back to the self, they would understand everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIf you seek, how is that different from pursuing sound and form.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t seek how are you different than soil, wood or stone.\u00a0 You must seek without seeking.\u201d –Chan (Zen) Master Foyan Seek without seeking sounds terribly incongruous in terms of Western logic.\u00a0 But then isn\u2019t that precisely its purpose \u2013 to diminish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":241,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240\/revisions\/241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socaltaichi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}