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There was a smile in Siddhartha’s old eyes as he said: ‘Do you call yourself a seeker, O venerable one, you who are already advanced in years and wear the robe of Gotama’s monks?’
‘I am indeed old,’ said Govinda, ‘but I have never ceased seeking. I will never cease seeking. That seems to be my destiny. It seems to me that you also have sought. Will you talk to me a little about it, my friend?’
Siddhartha said: ‘What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.’
How is that, asked Govinda.
When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal.
Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal. You, O worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.””
- Siddharta, Herman Hesse (1922)