Ending the Search: From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of Awareness

244 Pages·2018·1.48 MB·English

by  Dorothy S Hunt

This book is dedicated to
seekers of truth
and to those beacons of light
whose Presence invites us to awaken
to what cannot be spoken
yet shines brightly in the Heart we share.
What is seeking
And the end of seeking?
Who is the seeker?
What has he found?
What need is there
For striving or stillness?
What is freedom or bondage?
. . .
Nothing is,
Nothing is not.
1
What more is there to say?
THE ASHTAVAKRA GITA
CONTENTS
Foreword by Adyashanti
Introduction
PART I BEGINNING THE SEARCH
Poem: Excerpt from “The Invitation”
CHAPTER 1 What Ends the Search Begins the Search
CHAPTER 2 Spiritual Impulse and Spiritual Ambition
CHAPTER 3 Silence and Stillness: The Greatest Teachers
CHAPTER 4 Paths and Practices in the Search for Truth
CHAPTER 5 Peace, Ego, and Inquiry
PART II SEEN AND UNSEEN
Poem: “The Footprint of the Divine”
CHAPTER 6 Background and Foreground
CHAPTER 7 The Heart of Awareness
CHAPTER 8 Presence and Personhood
PART III CAUGHT IN THE JAWS OF THE TIGER
Poem: Excerpt from “The Invitation”
CHAPTER 9 Caught in the Tiger’s Mouth
CHAPTER 10 Dying for Truth, Yet Afraid of Disappearing
CHAPTER 11 Enlightenment Cannot Be Bought or Sold
CHAPTER 12 Burning in Love’s Fire
PART IV THE SEARCH ENDS IN WHAT NEVER ENDS
Poem: Excerpt from “The Invitation”
CHAPTER 13 The End of Seeking
CHAPTER 14 Awakening Is Only the First Step
CHAPTER 15 Resting the Mind in the Heart of Awareness
PART V UNDIVIDED LOVE
Poem: “Until we have fully . . .”
CHAPTER 16 Love Flows from Emptiness
CHAPTER 17 Love Contains Both Joy and Suffering
CHAPTER 18 Fierce Grace
PART VI LIVING AWAKE, LIVING NOW
Poem: Excerpt from “The Invitation”
CHAPTER 19 Embodiment Unfolds Itself
CHAPTER 20 Living Awake Is Living Now
CHAPTER 21 Awakening and Surrender
CHAPTER 22 Freedom from Freedom
CHAPTER 23 Myths of the Spiritual Life
CHAPTER 24 An Afterword about Words
The Invitation
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Permissions
About the Author
Also by Dorothy Hunt
About Sounds True
Copyright
Praise for Ending the Search
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi 1879–1950
Adyashanti with the author
FOREWORD
F
or as long as we human beings have been walking on this earth, we
have been searching for a state of mind or way of living that will redeem the
sorrows of life and give us a deep and meaningful experience of being. In a
psychological and spiritual sense, we are forever on the move, searching for
something that we intuitively feel but have a hard time articulating. This restless
pursuit of lasting satisfaction, God, or happiness has defined the human psyche
for as long as we know. It seems to me that at the heart of this search is a desire
for a deeply rich, profound, and meaningful experience of being. An experience
of being that not only justifies but embraces the tragic sorrows inherent in life by
orienting us toward the greatest love and wisdom that we are capable of
experiencing and embodying. The question is, do we come upon such an
experience of being by forever searching for it? Or might there be some other
way of orienting ourselves toward this restless longing that might prove to be
more fruitful and satisfying?
This book that you now hold in your hands, Ending the Search, is an answer
to these two questions. Ending the search does not mean to simply walk away
from it. You may change the mode of your seeking, but you will simply pick it
back up again in some other more disguised form sooner or later. Neither does
ending the search indicate a form of defeatism or failure to engage in something
as important as our human aspirations. Truly ending the search is not a denial of
the search but rather a wise and loving way of engaging with the desire for a
deep and meaningful experience of being. It is a way of engaging with the
seeking energy in such a way that you are not looking for satisfaction in what
may happen in the future, or in who you may become, but are instead exploring
the deeper nature of your immediate experience here and now. As the subtitle to
this fine book says, it is about going From Spiritual Ambition to the Heart of
Awareness.
There is no future or the exercising of spiritual ambition in this book, nor any
attempt to aggrandize or justify the spiritual ego. Nor is this book some sort of
cheap shortcut, or clichéd promise of freedom with no price to pay. The price
will be your spiritual ambition, and the egocentric orientation that goes along
with it. Seeking can become a lifestyle with hidden perks for the ego, but to
come to the end of the search is to let go of all that is unreal about your current
idea of you, and to step into only what is real. In this sense, Ending the Search is
ruthless kindness and wise compassion. It speaks of ending the ego’s search
outside of itself and finding in the Heart of Awareness something extraordinary
and immediate. Something of great value and meaning beyond mere words. And
something immediately available for anyone who is ready to stop right now and
see.
This is not a book to simply be read; it is a book to be contemplated,
practiced, and lived. Take this book as good medicine, and as a lovingly offered
teaching. It is the product of decades of Dorothy’s experience. You will find
yourself, your true nature, being encouraged and reflected on every page of it.
For it is a book about you—not someone you may become, but something that
you inherently are.
Adyashanti