Whether it be for success, riches, intellect or some sort of spiritual enlightenment which includes peace, tranquility and happiness. The reasoning is that if one hasn't got happiness it follows that there should be a search for it....
But this is actually illogical.
If a person has a disease, he or she would not go in a search for health, instead they would try to restore health by getting rid of the disease.
So let us assume that we are all in a state of dis-ease and our natural state is everything that we would desire life to be i.e: whole and complete, and it is covered up by something that hides it. Whether this happens at birth or is acquired during life doesn't matter. The effects of it can be seen clearly in the actions of human beings all over the world. I am sure that we all feel this background sense that something is wrong, then off we go, trying to overcome this problem by creating a path to our dreams of happiness or creating havoc in our lives and in the lives of others, and sometimes both.
This is the original and greatest trap that humans have fallen into.
These paths to our dreams include religion, philosophy, relationships, business, learning etc. I am not suggesting that these processes should be stopped, but I am suggesting that their track record for success is negligible at the most. If proof is needed, one only has to look at our past history and especially look at the human race at the moment. We are heading for disaster after all this time of trying and we are more lost than we have ever been. As beautiful and interesting as these paths are, they have done nothing but cause separation and failure. This is not because they are bad but because we invest our belief that they will solve our problem in life and in the lives of others, but the fact is they haven't and they can't.
We are looking to solve the problem in an illogical way as stated above, because we do not realise what 'we are' in the first place. If we start life with misidentification then fear will rule our lives and the condition will worsen as time passes till our death, which we also fear. The whole human race is basically in the same condition and the result is the 'blind leading the blind'.
In some, the effect is the need for development of compassion and control which in itself is painful and unnatural. If love is our nature then nothing has to be developed. We only have to get back to it. Some people would say that love is not our nature and that would seem to be correct up to now if we take into account the horrendous effects on our home planet and all the other life forms on earth.
'But we have been sick for a long time and now it is perceived to be normal'.
In others, the effect is to turn into monsters who prey on others. The level of power one is placed in, is in direct proportion to the negative effect the person may have. Hitler would be a good example and there are many others. Other people may only cause problems for themselves. We all fall somewhere in-between the two categories, 'saint to monster', and in many different combinations.
If the background sense of fear, caused by the misidentification of what we are, ceases; then all the effects described are eliminated and we are left in the natural state. The whole process of chasing paths to add something we haven't got is very sad and is like trying to 'add purity to to something pure that is covered in dirt'.
These paths also create a security blanket which if removed will reveal the level of fear we have. Beliefs turn into fundamental beliefs which turn into madness. Threatening this security causes mental trauma and all kinds of adverse reactions which can be seen in religion, science and the like.
The motto is "Get yourself a belief and feel secure". "Fight for your belief until you reach your goal".
It is an illusion and so is the path in front of it.
All of these things that we chase could be fun instead of the illusory answer to our prayers.
How will you ever get out of the jail that you don't know or believe you're in and how many people even question it? Yes, mankind is asleep! but no, you can't wake up mankind! you can only wake up yourself because there is only you and you are consciousness itself. There is only one.
'Human beings do not have consciousness. Consciousness has a myriad of beings
for its creative expression'. Colin Francis