Someone asked why seekers seem so desperate to find enlightenment.
Separation hurts. Seeking (not just spiritual, but for love, security, career, acceptance, beauty, all the idols of culture) hurts.
One day you hear someone who seems to have escaped that. Why would you not want it, even if what you imagine is not what it is?
Most of the happiest seeming people I've known in the culture, with great jobs, families, homes, still worry: they could lose their job, their kids could go astray, the spouse could have an affair. It's a life of contentment with a constant undercurrent of fear and anxiety.
No wonder people seek, and no wonder many would be willing to trade their life for the peace sages seem to possess.
I'm always surprised when sages say seekers wouldn't want this if they knew what it really was. Many seekers may not know what enlightenment really is, but yes, they do want it.
Many seekers would go through hell just to find a sense of ease and peace they have never experienced. Of course, there is the part where it won't be them that gets to experience it, but many are so desperate they love the idea of losing the self they already feel is unworthy and depressed and filled with pain.
Unfortunately for them, if this happens, that old self doesn't get replaced with a new, enlightened self. This is the loss no one can envision when they project an enlightened future of bliss and peace.
~~Miranda Warren
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