To
look for something, first we must know what we are looking for, for if
we don’t know, how shall we be able to recognize it if and when we
find it? We talk of searching for Truth, God, Peace, Happiness, etc.,
but do we know what these things are? It is rather like a person who
goes to the beach to search for pearls, but never having seen a pearl,
he goes with the idea that a pearl is something red and cubical. So,
while peering in the rock-pools, opening shells, overturning stones,
and so on, maybe he sees a small, round, white object gleaming there
in the sand, but he thinks: "That’s not a pearl; the pearl I am
looking for is red and cubical". So he passes on and continues
searching. And he might indeed come across a red and cubical object,
but it will not be a pearl.
Looking
is active, something we do, while seeing is passive and receptive,
something that happens. We look with the accumulations of the past,
that is, with our conditioning, and this prevents us from seeing. And
yet it is necessary to search, for if we do not search, how shall we
be able to stop searching, and SEE?
