Post by Figgles on May 8, 2021 22:33:45 GMT
ZD for one has talked about differing motives behind seeking and with that, he makes a distinction of importance between those who seek for happiness/to end suffering vs. those who seek out of an intense curiosity.
The two are really not different in any meaningful way. In both cases, there is an SVP in play....in both cases there is the sense of something being amiss. The curious seeker "needs to know" something he feels is missing in terms of his bank of knowledge. The feeling behind that lack of knowing something he is certain exists TO BE known, is a feeling of something missing....something lacking....of wrongness/intolerance.
Where there is seeking for abject happiness/well-being, to end emotional suffering, there is an intolerance to the feeling/experience at hand.
What is going unseen where ZD is concerned, is that where there is seeking due to intense curiosity, there is also a deep sense of emotional 'unrest' in play....a need to possess knowledge that one feels his is currently not privy to. In both cases of seeking (in ALL cases of seeking actually) one is seeking to 'know/experience' something other than what he is currently knowing/experiencing.
The lack of knowing something one is sure exists TO BE known = a sense of emotional unrest, just as the sense of lack of a particular feeling state = a sense of emotional unrest. Both senses of something lacking/missing, hinge upon a sense of separation.
What you are missing is that the search for knowledge is also, similarly doomed to failure. The existential questions of the seeker do not get answered, but rather, they get seen through as 'misconceived.' Same with the idea of a continued state of happiness; When the SVP is no longer in play, the very idea of ANY feeling state, continuing on indefinitely, also gets seen through as 'misconceived.'
The two are really not different in any meaningful way. In both cases, there is an SVP in play....in both cases there is the sense of something being amiss. The curious seeker "needs to know" something he feels is missing in terms of his bank of knowledge. The feeling behind that lack of knowing something he is certain exists TO BE known, is a feeling of something missing....something lacking....of wrongness/intolerance.
Where there is seeking for abject happiness/well-being, to end emotional suffering, there is an intolerance to the feeling/experience at hand.
What is going unseen where ZD is concerned, is that where there is seeking due to intense curiosity, there is also a deep sense of emotional 'unrest' in play....a need to possess knowledge that one feels his is currently not privy to. In both cases of seeking (in ALL cases of seeking actually) one is seeking to 'know/experience' something other than what he is currently knowing/experiencing.
Zendancer: Again, this is only true for some people. Those who are driven by curiosity don't think about happiness as a goal unless it's in the sense of "I'll be happy when I understand what I want to understand." In this sense the word "happiness" is pointing more to satisfaction and contentment with an intellectual understanding than an escape from suffering or some sort of perpetual bliss state.
The lack of knowing something one is sure exists TO BE known = a sense of emotional unrest, just as the sense of lack of a particular feeling state = a sense of emotional unrest. Both senses of something lacking/missing, hinge upon a sense of separation.
ZD:Of course you're right that a pure search for happiness as a continuing state of bliss is doomed to failure as long as one remains trapped within the consensus paradigm and imagines that one is a SVP. If one is reflecting, "Am I happy now?" that reflective thought, alone, will almost guarantee that happiness will remain in the future as an imaginary possibility. When self-reflectivity is absent, however, one sort of disappears into life and there is what we might call "the joy of being."
What you are missing is that the search for knowledge is also, similarly doomed to failure. The existential questions of the seeker do not get answered, but rather, they get seen through as 'misconceived.' Same with the idea of a continued state of happiness; When the SVP is no longer in play, the very idea of ANY feeling state, continuing on indefinitely, also gets seen through as 'misconceived.'
