Temple of the seeker

As the sun rose in the backdrop of the ancient mountain,
I walked in to the temple of the seeker
– the one with the lamp that never runs out of fuel
The old caretaker was there by the courtyard, his hair grey
looking patiently as I paid my respects to ancient Masters
And when I was ready, he greeted me with the usual cup of tea
The silence was broken, as I was the only one there with him

 

“Where have all the seekers gone?”, sighed the old caretaker
“everyone is caught up in things that come and go
I see the young and old every year, with a heavy heart,
coming from the city, only to pray for childish things,
And I ask myself if they will ever become true seekers someday
and dare to seek what the Masters themselves did
How much longer will they live like children?
But then, I am not as young as I used to be and my knees falter
so I worry that I might pass away with my faith shaken
What if the Great treasure becomes lost forever?”

 

I looked at the old face with a hundred wrinkles
and the form that had always welcomed and comforted me
during my days of confusion, doubt and frustration
Now, as I sipped the cup of tea he had made
I saw the doubt and confusion in his eyes instead
The temple of the seeker waited for me to answer him
and ease the grief of the man who had spent all his life by its side!

 

They are seekers too, old friend, I said
They are seekers. All of them.
Their pursuits are old, though the things they pursue are modern
The treasure is never lost with time, for it is the creator of time itself
What was found in ancient days
will be found again, in the heart of the city
So listen to my story of how seekers become finders.

 

There are some who have set out to seek friendships
To fill their loneliness and time
They will add 5000 friends online, subscribe to 500 sites and join 50 clubs
But they will soon worry that this number might shrink,
and that their lives will be reduced thereby to insignificance
Fearing this emptiness, they will be ready to lose anything to keep their friends
And so, in the course of their seeking, they will find
…if they are aware,
That the true friend they are seeking is within themselves
Not judging their mistakes, appreciating every effort,
accepting every flaw and accompanying them everywhere
When the face of their true friend is revealed, their sense of fullness will be profound

 

There are some who have set out to seek wealth
To own half the world’s assets would be enough, they will feel
But as they work hard and reach their goal – buying bonds, stocks, dollars and euros
more of what they hold will be printed, flooding the market
They will then own only a fourth of the world’s assets, not half
The value of their holdings reduced, they will need to work harder,
to retain the position they previously had
And so, in the course of their seeking, they will find
…if they are aware,
That being wealthy is not about how much you can hold
It’s about how much of infinity you can give away, without feeling poorer

 

There are some who have set out to seek the bond of a family
Find someone to call their “precious” and treat with great care
at the expense of everyone else and everything else in the universe
They will struggle to stay connected with their loved ones above all else
using e-mail and late night phone calls to bridge distance and time
till the pain of physical and emotional separation becomes unbearable
And so, in the course of their seeking, they will find
…if they are aware,
That they were never separated from anyone or anything in the first place,
And that all beings have been one family for eternity

 

There are some who have set out to seek power
dividing all they see into inferiors, superiors and equals
Declaring success at every opportunity and claiming every victory to be their own
they will ignore the cries of the many who were crushed by their victory
Yet, just as society will be busy praising its heroes,
it will equally enjoy watching them fall, the harder, the better
And so, in the course of their seeking, they will find
….if they are aware,
That all great things when they rise, contain within them,
the seeds of their own destruction
Men and women of true power therefore, wield it humbly in service of all
not forgetting where their power truly comes from

 

There are some who have set out to seek pleasure
They will decide what makes them happy and do more of it
They will decide what makes them unhappy and do less of it
Soon, their life will be spent chasing one and avoiding the other
for the universe faithfully manifests both in their life
And so, in the course of their seeking, they will find
….if they are aware,
That the things they desire are made of the same stuff that they themselves are
When they realize that happiness is not a property of materials
they will let go of clinging to the things they associated happiness with
Their own happiness will then be unshakeable and long-lasting

 

There are some who have set out to seek knowledge
to organize atoms or wars or companies or countries or society
Soon, they will be puzzled whether things are random or predictable, chaotic or orderly
Beneath the orderly organization structure, they will find the chaos of real work
Above the chaos of commerce, they will be asked to make reliable annual forecasts
But when they are ready to abandon hope, declaring it all to be random,
new order will emerge, yet quite not in the way they expected
And so, in the course of their seeking, they will find
…if they are aware
That both Order and chaos dance together in the mind
All knowledge has meaning only when subject and object are set apart
even though there is no essential difference between them

 

So, old friend, when you come across a seeker from the city
Whatever they may be seeking, don’t mock them or feel sad for them
If you wish to help them,
Awaken in them their own gift of awareness so that
seekers become finders and Masters on their own
And having done that…step aside gracefully
for that is the greatest proof of your own faith
The temple of the seeker is a gift, not a cult

 

“Does it have to happen this way?” he asked, with tears of relief
Perhaps it is best it happens this way, I said
We, forever seek to create what is not there
In doing so, we will find out what is always there
We, forever seek to possess what we don’t have
In doing so, we will find out what we already have
We, forever seek to become what we are not
In doing so, we will find out what we really are

 

And when the answer was given, the courtyard disappeared
So did the temple of the seeker
with the lamp that never runs out of fuel
So did the faithful old caretaker
And they all reappeared –in the heart of the city!