Introduction: Searchless Responsiveness
Searchlessness is the negation of any ultimate system or system-of-systems, and as a corollary, a negation of any ultimate goal, as any ultimate goal constitutes an implicit system in itself. Searchlessness is a relaxation unto vanishing of the infinitesimal energy that seeks a eternal system within which to measure existence, or final goals to attain.
Searchlessness is descriptive, not normative. I do not posit searchlessness as in any way preferable to embracing a system as “the ultimate system” or having a goal as “the final goal”. That would make a search of searchlessness. Rather, is a possible attractor, and some will recognize searchlessness as very attractive to them; they might no more ask that others share this attraction than we would ask others to share our attraction to a particular flavor of ice cream.
“Enlightenment” or “spiritual attainments” are posited final goals, within systems that take them as so. They can be analogized to, say, the artistic goal of trompe-l'œil, art that fools the eye. Within such a system, there may be “perfectly attained masters”, but they are so within that system. Many historic cultures have contained within them a clear system that valorizes a particular outcome; from their perspective, there is a clear final goal. This is not wrong. Rather, from the view of Searchlessness, it is a possible aesthetic to engage with.
And be clear: standing and judging things as just an aesthetic can be a deeply unfulfilling pastime. It is making a fetish object and search out of searchlessness, just as nihilism is an eternalist view of denying eternalism.
Similarly, the highest realizations of religions and spiritual traditions, whether “Christ Consciousness”, “Being a Righteous Man”, “Non-Dual Realization of Unity with the Transcendental Self”, “Non-Dual” anything, even “The Recognition of the Inseparability of Non-Duality and Duality” are all attainments within systems.
This is not to demean them, but to free them to be chosen paths in the Art of Being. Just as a developing artist may engage with a variety of traditions, growing more skilled within them, before finding their mature artistic style, spiritual and religious paths are opportunities to develop ways of being.
Some will never be drawn to any artistic, spiritual or religious path.
Some will be drawn to a single artistic, spiritual or religious path: they wish, for example, to be a concert pianist playing Scarlatti, or a Shaivite Realizer.
Some will explore deeply multiple artistic, spiritual or religious paths, and slowly settle into what they are most attracted to. Perhaps that will become a singular engagement, perhaps they will develop a unique artistic, spiritual or religious offering, informed by their lineage, but also a revelation with respect to their lineage.
These are just a few of unenumerable possibilities.
If searchlessness is attractive, and relaxation of the complex search develops at all levels of being (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, formless, etc.), what is there to do?
What I am attracted to is Searchless Responsiveness. This is my attraction; it is not an intrinsically superior option to any other. Searchless Non-responsiveness is an equally valid choice. Searchless Responsiveness is offered here for those who may also find it attractive.
Let me illustrate aspects of Searchless Responsiveness from five sources in my lineage, in “scientific”, “psychological”, “somatic”, “spiritual” and “transcendental” aspects:
Evan Thompson, writing on Merleau-Ponty, from the Western philosophical tradition which mixed with the Western scientific tradition of Cybernetics and contributed to Enactivism:
When Merleau-Ponty writes that the two poles of behavior (organism and milieu) participate in the same structure, he means, first, that behavior or comportment is a structured whole, a dynamic pattern, and, second, that milieu and organism participate in this structure not as stimulus and reaction but as situation and response. Behavior is a kind of dialogue in which the organism has an “aptitude” to respond to situations as in effect questions that need answering. Behavior is, as it were, dialogical and expresses meaning-constitution rather than information processing. It follows that behavior does not exist in the nervous system or in the body any more than a conversation exists in the individual speakers (or their brains) or a jazz improvisation exists in the individual instruments or soloists.
Bruce Di Marsico, speaking from the Western psychological tradition:
There is no reason for me to eat, there is no reason for me to sleep, there is no reason for me to work, and there is no reason for me to do anything. I say to myself, “What am I going to do if I have no reasons for doing anything?” What I usually answer is “watch, wait and see.”
It makes no difference. Why should I go to work? Why not? Why should I stay home? Why not? What am I going to do?
Watch and find out.
And I watch myself do these things. And that’s a way of living without reasoning and of really being in peace.
The ultimate fear is “If I know that I will be happier always under any circumstances, how will I decide what to do? How can I answer the questions ‘Okay, what shall I do next? What would I like to do?’ ”
My great goal in life is provided for; there’s no room for the question of my happiness.
If I were to really allow myself to believe that I would be happier no matter what I do, then what do I do?
I suggest: wait, watch, and enjoy what happens in you and around you and as you.
If you find that you make up reasons for doing things, enjoy that.
You don’t have to fool yourself, though, that these so-called reasons are anything more than made up.
If you find yourself making plans for the future, well, you could enjoy that game.
You don’t have to pretend that you have a reason to do that.
Let yourself happen. The way you’ll happen is happy and beautiful and true. Happiness lives in you. It directs every beat of your heart, every thought, every desire, every movement in your body. Absolutely everything. Perfection is moving you. You are now perfect.
Keith Dowman, speaking from a Himalayan Buddhist tradition:
We can regard ‘nonaction’ as effortless, spontaneous, display, implying change and therefore motion, but motion without any trace of motivation or intention.
To say that the movement of the nature of mind is effortless activity spontaneously arising without cause or consequence, without striving for a goal or a result, is a mantric or a poetic statement….
Da Free John, speaking from a tradition rooted in the Indian subcontinent:
Fundamentally, I ask you, in every moment and stage of life, “Avoiding relationship?” This question reminds you of the inherent dilemma or contraction in every context of conditional existence. If this question (or self-enquiry) becomes most profound insight, then no path based on the conditional standpoint of any of the six progressive stages of life [physical, emotional, cognitive, relational, spiritual, formless] (or the traditions associated with them) will continue to motivate you. When this insight or true hearing is perfect, the conditional standpoint (which is self-contraction) is no longer presumed, and the search based on that standpoint is no longer animated.
We are not truly or Really in the situation we presume as a matter of convention. There is no problem to solve, no dilemma to escape, no self to transcend, no God or Reality or Happiness or Transcendental Self to be located. All of that is a presumption that is based on the uninspected convention of self-contraction (or the presumption that the self-contraction is our actual situation and the not-self—or all objects, including gross relations, thoughts, subtle forms and states, and the Transcendental Reality, Condition, or Self—is to be sought and found).
Loil Neidhöfer, Lydia Becker’s teacher, speaking from the Western Somatic tradition, offers good notes on the somatic experience of searchless responsiveness [translated from the German]:
In the final analysis, we don't know what we're doing, but over time we can develop a mastery in getting involved in the mystery: not having to know, not having to understand, but resonating with it, empathizing, feeling in motion, and letting our own actions happen out of this movement. Then a lot is possible.
Searchless Responsiveness is a non-path of non-action. All the words I write about it are gestures towards something that cannot be tightly specified in words.
I hope you enjoy this consideration.