Knowers and Seekers
Characteristics of knowers are those who are guided by an overall position of knowing: They are often convinced that they have acquired, discovered, or were simply blessed with a position of access to truth. More generally speaking, knowing is the default foundation of how a person is being raised and conditioned in most societies: The acquisition of knowledge is at the basis of most educational systems. Those who have evolved sufficiently and been successful in acquiring knowledge are typically attracted to teaching. Passing along some of the knowledge they feel is helping them to advance towards their objectives, or simply to feel better, becomes a deeply fulfilling purpose for them. They enjoy the role and feel good about it. Society has a favorable perspective on those who help others. It is considered a noble, useful, and rewarding role, based on the presupposition that the more knowledge a person has, the better they can navigate life successfully.
Seekers are people who believe they are missing something. It is characteristic for them to operate from a deeply held belief that if they only had more knowledge, practice, insight, and time to learn, they would feel better, more whole, and fulfilled. Striving to achieve objectives is a foundational platform they are operating from. Hope continually feeds the motivation to exert the effort it takes to confirm that they are on the right track. Experts, authorities, and all sorts of teachers are being consulted for guidance and instructions how to proceed. The focus is on improving their approach, their techniques, and to acquire more and better tools that seem more promising to advance towards their goals. Categories of seekers include students, disciples, followers and scholars in many disciplines and bodies of knowledge.
Both, knowers and seekers are of course included in wholeness, populating opposite poles of the whole. One doesn’t exist without the other, they enjoy a supplementary relationship.
In true nonduality, the layers of conditioning are peeled back to reveal the driving forces of the various models of reality. At the root of the dualistic orientation is the presence of a subject and an object, a person and the world, imperfect human beings, and the almighty God. A foundational aspect of duality is the innate urge to regain the oceanic experience of being One with it all. Being complete and unified seems to offer the ultimate peace and contentment that is being sought. Nirvana is imagined to come as a permanent blissful experience that lacks any sense of suffering or striving. For the spiritual seeker, the ultimate achievement is total freedom, enlightenment, or in Christian slang, arriving in Heaven and being welcomed by the heavenly Father.
As the voices in our heads, our thoughts, keep suggesting that these layers of conditioned identifications are real and actually exist – nondual models show a different take: They suggest it is all a dream, created out of thin air, using the threads of stories made up from biographic materials stitched together to the perception of a “me” that exists in space and time and living its life in a human body. Nondualism essentially suggests, that when examined more closely, no person can be found. In fact – what is seen is a variety of appearances – ephemeral events, scenes, and apparent occurrences that come and go. There is no person, neither seeker nor teacher, there are no objectives to be achieved for no one. It all is “just as it is” – perfect as “it is”.
This is often rejected by the “me” as being too simple, as the “me” would be totally gone from the scene, altogether: With the “me” gone – there is no judgment, no personal perception, no seeking or holding of a particular state such as “enlightenment” or “bliss”. That is a huge threat to the “me”, hence it is rejected and there is often an insistence that the “me” is real and part of life is to come to terms with that. The way to do so is seeking for the right tools, teachers, techniques etc. to eventually escape the human drama, or, if there is a believe in a Higher Power, the release from repetitive tours back into a human body until all karma is burned off. And so the cycle continues.
Where is the-hum in all of this? – Nowhere. The writer of this post is simply a contributor who happens to be posting perspectives, viewpoints for the purpose of stimulating exploration and provied food for experimentation during the zoom meetings on Sunday.
Cheers
