You already are that which you seek

• You are what you are seeking. Adyashanti
• What you seek, you already are. Deepak Chopra
• You are already that which you seek. Rupert Spira
• You yourself are the object of your quest. Balyani
• The seeker is that which is being sought. Gautama Buddha
• Where all search ends, there you are. Shri Ramakant Maharaj
• What you are looking for is what is looking.  Francis of Assisi
• If you do not get it from yourself, where will you go for it? Dogen
• You already are awareness. You just might not be it knowingly. Anthony Lambert
• No effort in the world can make you what you already and actually are. Leo Hartong
• You do not have to wait for grace to set you free. You already are free. Leo Hartong
• I am always awareness. I have never been anything other than awareness. Rupert Spira
• Seeking love keeps you from the awareness that you already have it—that you are it. Byron Katie
• Be the Self and that is bliss. You are always that. The Self is always realized. Ramana Maharshi
• You are all Buddhas. There is nothing you need to achieve. Just open your eyes. Siddhartha Gautama
• Self-realization is effortless. What you are trying to find is what you already are. Ramesh S Balsekar
• The seeking and the seeker are both annihilated in the realization that he is already home. Leo Hartong
• You already are this Awareness, and you do not have to work to become what you already are. Leo Hartong
• The only thing that blocks your seeing this right now is your insistence that you’re not there yet. Leo Hartong
• We imagine that we will realize that Self some time, whereas we are never anything but the Self. Ramana Maharshi
• There comes a time in the seeker’s life when he discovers that he is at once the lover and the beloved.  Sri Chinmoy
• You are that which is looking for this ‘I,’ and as long as the search continues, this will be overlooked. Leo Hartong
• We have what we seek, it is there all the time, and if we give it time, it will make itself known to us. Thomas Merton
• Why am I seeking? I am the same as he. His essence speaks through me. I have been looking for myself. Jalaluddin Rumi
• The great satisfaction you’ve sought through everything you ever desired; you already have, you already are. Adyashanti
• We are on a journey of becoming that which we already are. That is the impossible paradox of our lives. Leonard Jacobson
• All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for. Jon Kabat-Zinn
• The only thing standing between you and self-realization is the belief that you are not already fully realized. Sri Ramana Maharshi
• The cosmic joke in the journey of the seeker is that the energy that fuels the seeking is precisely what is being sought. Leo Hartong
• What you seek, you already are. Your awareness has its source in unity. Instead of seeking outside yourself, go to the source and realize who you are. Deepak Chopra
• One of the things I believe is that we already are what we spend our lives trying to attain, but we just don’t realize it! Anita Moorjani
• The power is in you. The answer is in you. You are the answer to all your searches: You are the goal. It’s never outside. Eckhart Tolle
• Your ego’s biggest trick is getting you to spend your entire lifetime looking outside yourself for something you already are. Michael Jeffreys
• The question and the cry ‘Oh, where?’ melt into tears of a thousand streams and deluge the world with the flood of the assurance ‘I am!’ Rabindranath Tagore
• Enlightenment is understanding that there is nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody you have to be except exactly who you’re being right now. Neale Donald Walsch
• No book or teacher can give you what you already are. The only thing a teaching can truly do is point to what you already are and to the fact that seeking what you already are is insane. Scott Kiloby
• Indeed we ARE that which we are looking for, when our seeking ceases….What then prevents us from seeing this simple truth? Nothing but the misconception that ‘we’ can do something about it. Ramesh Balsekar
• Behind the veil of ignorance, you are the Awakened One, aware of – as well as appearing in and as – this marvelous show of manifestation. You are, at once, Awareness and the totality of its content. Leo Hartong
• The ‘I’ that is experiencing the feeling ‘I am not experiencing myself’ and the ‘I’ that is thinking the thought ‘I do not know myself’ is already that One that seems not to be experienced or known. Rupert Spira
• The beautiful insight that is gleaned from all of this is that you already are that which you have always longed to become. It’s just that, at this level, you have no direct constant access to it and you have to go through the steps toward it.  Ziad Masri
• True freedom is realizing, with absolute clarity and conviction, that we are already That for which we have been searching. All one needs is to call off the search entirely and abide in That which they presently are—empty of the mind’s illusory and nonsensical distractions. Brian Thompson
• To search for the Seer is to miss the point. To search forever is to miss the point forever. How could you possibly search for that which is right now aware of this page? YOU ARE THAT! You cannot go out looking for that which is the Looker. Ken Wilber
• By self-realization I do not mean something you have to get or attain. After all, there is a reason it has been labeled Self-realization instead of Self-improvement, Self-attainment, or Self-acquirement. Self-realization means simply to recognize what you already and truly are. Leo Hartong
• For enlightenment to happen the perceiver must turn right around and wake up to the fact that he is face to face with his own nature – that HE IS IT. The spiritual seeker ultimately finds that he was already at the destination, that he himself IS what he had been seeking and he was in fact already home. Ramesh Balsekar
• Enlightenment cannot be attained if it is sought as a future goal. Give up the search.  The entry point is now, not in the future.  The ego can only be transcended in the now.  In the depth of you, your essence is already complete.  You are already it.  You just need to realise it.  Eckhart Tolle
• The spiritual search is a cosmic joke. Out of the non-dual awareness, a movement of seeking arises. A misperception happens. The misperception is that you need to seek or to do something in order to be what you already are. If you can see the futility of that right now, all seeking comes to an end. Scott Kiloby
• Seeking arises and falls in the space of awareness. When it is seen that this space, this opening, is who you really are, it is realized that you cannot find yourself in time. It is seen that there is no separate you to find anything. There is only this timeless awareness and you are That. Everything is That. Scott Kiloby
• The cold hard facts are: There is no difference between a ‘sage’ and a ‘seeker’ they are both appearances in that which you really are – ONE without a second –pure intelligence energy (Awareness) – BE what you are, you cannot really be anything else, though at times you may think so (both –mind clouds). ‘Sailor’ Bob Adamson
• To seek something, you must have at least some vague idea or image of what it is you are seeking. But ultimate truth is not an idea or an image or something attained anew. So, to seek truth as something objective is a waste of time and energy. Truth can’t be found by seeking it, simply because truth is what you are. Adyashanti
• Happiness arises when you relax into the reality of your natural condition. The secrets of the universe are already in you as you. Seeking anything implies that you don’t have it; every search for the idea of enlightenment  leads you further away from it.  The magnificance of life does not await you – it actually is you. Mark Whitwell
• There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous! A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be the day you laugh is also here and now. Sri Ramana Maharshi
• The little wave is inherently a seeker, and he runs around the world like a headless chicken, trying to find something which of course he never lost in the first place. And he never lost this because he never had it. He always was it. The wave was always, always, a perfect expression of that which cannot be expressed. You – the character, the person, the individual – were always the divine expression, expressing itself perfectly, completely, and exhausting itself in that expression, leaving no trace, no residue.  Jeff Foster
• The very desire to seek spiritual enlightenment is in fact nothing but the grasping tendency of the ego itself, and thus the very search for enlightenment prevents it. The ‘perfect practice’ is therefore not to search for enlightenment but to inquire into the motive for seeking itself. You obviously seek in order to avoid the present, and yet the present alone holds the answer: to seek forever is to miss the point forever. You always already are enlightened Spirit, and therefore to seek Spirit is simply to deny Spirit. Ken Wilber
• Most of us have heard and read more than enough times that we are what we’re looking for, but can’t deliberately let go of the belief that the holy grail of unity, of enlightenment must be something other, something extraordinary that is hidden but can be discovered given sufficient vigilance, seriousness and dedication. Unfortunately there always seems to be some lack in our commitment, some failing that constantly trips us up and reinforces the idea that we’re inadequate and that realisation is only for the very special few. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, nothing is hidden so seeking will never succeed. Roger Linden
• The root of all desires is the one desire: to come home, to be at peace. There may be a moment in life when our compensatory activities, the accumulation of money, learning and objects, leaves us feeling deeply apathetic. This can motivate us towards the search for our real nature beyond appearances. We may find ourselves asking, ‘Why am I here? What is life? Who am I?’ Sooner or later any intelligent person asks these questions. What you are looking for is what you already are, not what you will become. What you already are is the answer and the source of the question. In this lies its power of transformation. It is a present actual fact. Looking to become something is completely conceptual, merely an idea. The seeker will discover that he is what he seeks and that what he seeks is the source of the inquiry. Jean Klein
• The moment you have an individual, you have separation, and the moment you have separation you have the longing to end that separation, to heal the divide, to come home. It’s the wave longing to return to the ocean. And of course on some level the wave knows that it was never for one moment separate from the ocean – that the sense of being a wave is merely a temporary contraction of the whole.     The little wave is inherently a seeker, and he runs around the world like a headless chicken, trying to find something which of course he never lost in the first place. And he never lost this because he never had it. He always was it. The wave was always, always, a perfect expression of that which cannot be expressed. You – the character, the person, the individual – were always the divine expression, expressing itself perfectly, completely, and exhausting itself in that expression, leaving no trace, no residue.  Jeff Foster
• What are you seeking? You may believe that you are seeking more money, a better relationship, a better drug, a new job, or enlightenment. But what is it that you really want? If you are really honest, you will discover that you already know those ‘things’ outside you will not provide the permanent contentment you are seeking. Even if you get the new job or the new lover, at some point the newness will wear off and the seeking for something more or something better will begin again. If you are really honest, you will discover that what you are really seeking is the end of seeking itself. But if you listen into the quietness that is already here in this moment, that silent stillness already contains peace. That peace is who you already are. The notion of seeking into future to find what you already are is insanity. Just rest as awareness in this moment. The end of seeking is already here in the quiet stillness of awareness. Scott Kiloby

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What you seek is already here

• Liberation is not to be gained in the future. It is there for ever, here and now. Ramana Maharshi
• But there is no place where Spirit is not. Every single location in the entire Kosmos is equally and fully Spirit. Seeking of any sort, movement of any sort, attainment of any sort: all profoundly useless. The Great Search simply reinforces the mistaken assumption that there is some place that Spirit is not, and that I need to get from a space that is lacking to a space that is full. But there is no space lacking, and there is no space more full. Thre is only Spirit. Ken Wilber
• The problem with following a spiritual path is that it can give us the impression that ‘we are not there yet’. Jan Kersschot
• Right here and now, you are in the realized state. But you try to judge it through desires and mind concepts, hence your inability to apperceive it and abide in it. Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
• All that you seek is already within you. In Hinduism it is called the Atman, in Buddhism the pure Buddha-Mind. Christ said, ‘the kingdom of heaven is within you.’ Quakers call it the ‘still small voice within.’ This is the space of full awareness that is in harmony with all the universe, and thus is wisdom itself. Ram Dass
• Give up the search and fall in love with what’s here now. Anthony Lambert
• Give up the search for something to happen and fall in love, fall intimately in love with the gift of presence in What Is. Here, right here, is the seat of all that you will ever long for. It is simple and ordinary and magnificent. You see, you are already home. Leo Hartong
• If there is anything at all to do, it is to verify in this instant the truth of what you are; to confirm that Awareness is fully present and that no effort is required for this to be so. Leo Hartong
• If you could just STOP, you’d realize that you’re already there – or rather HERE. Leo Hartong
• It is here. It is in you, it is in me, it is in all life, both sentient and insentient. It is everywhere. As long as you are searching for it, it cannot be found because you assume that it is someplace else. Gangaji
• Life is not about a gradual progression to a future goal, but about a radical awakening to what is. Leo Hartong
• Never be so focused on what you’re looking for that you overlook the thing you actually find. Ann Patchett
• The quest to awaken implies a futurity that precludes basking in what actually is right now. I am unable to see the value in any method of evolution that implies getting somewhere to becoming something different. As soon as one embarks on a path to somewhere, the awesomeness of what is, here and now, becomes unavailable.  More important, the somewhere people are trying to arrive is actually not located, since it is everywhere all the time.  Suzanne Segal
• The thing which we speak of as beauty does not have to be sought in distant lands … It is here about us or it is nowhere.  Allen Tucker
• There is no such thing as “getting to heaven.” There is only a knowing that you are already there. The irony is that most people think they have to leave where they are to get to where they want to be. Neale Donald Walsch
• Waiting is self-defeating. We have whatever we need. This realization often is hidden behind veils, but as we peel these veils away through our awareness practices and our actions to improve ourselves and the world, we discover that everything we ever wanted is right here. Messianic consciousness is not something that comes in the future; it is our intrinsic nature. Rabbi David Cooper
• We meditate not to attain enlightenment, because enlightenment is already in us. We don’t need to search anywhere. We don’t need to practice to obtain some high position. We can enjoy every moment. People talk about entering nirvana, but we are already there. Aimlessness and nirvana are one. We have everything we need to make the present moment the happiest in our life. Thich Nhat Hanh
• When the trying and seeking drops away. Then, total acceptance, love, and bliss could be recognized as being already here. Leo Hartong
• You get lost because you think there is somewhere to go. If you give up believing in a goal or a destination, then you cannot get lost. In the present moment, there is no destination.  Leonard Jacobson
• If you cannot find the truth right where you are where else do you expect to find it? Dogen Zenji
• The Seeker himself becomes the knower. The thing to be known is already there. There is nothing to be known afresh. More-over there are no two things. There is only the seer, the knower. Ramana Maharshi

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Seeking is a fish looking for water

• I laugh when I hear that the fish in the water is thirsty. I laugh when I hear that people go on pilgrimage to find God. Kabir
• Look at you, you madman! Screaming you are thirsty and dying in a desert, when all around you there is nothing but water! Kabir
• Where is God? Where can I find him?” we ask. We don’t realize that’s like a fish swimming frantically through the ocean in search OF the ocean, Ted Dekker
• The self that seeks happiness is like a wave that seeks water.  Rupert Spira

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Seeking is to ride a donkey looking for a donkey

• A man searching for enlightenment is like a man sitting on an Ass in search of an Ass. Thomas Merton
• It is the belief in the perfection of our original nature, the realization that the process of enlightenment consists merely in becoming what we already are from the beginning. When the Zen master Po-chang was asked about seeking for the Buddha nature he answered, ‘It’s much like riding an ox in search of the ox.’ Fritjof Capra
• You are riding an ox in search of an ox. Zen saying

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Seeking is to shine a torch around in order to try to find the source of the light

• Looking for the self is rather like being in a dark room with a flashlight, and then shining it around trying to find the source of the light. All one would find are the various objects in the room that the light falls upon. It is the same when I try to look for the subject of all experience. All I find are the various ideas, images and feelings that the attention falls upon. But these are all objects of experience; they cannot therefore be the subject of the experience.  Peter Russell

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Seeking is to search for your spectacles while wearing them

• Wei Wu Wei compared it to looking for your spectacles, not realizing that they are on your nose and, were you not looking through them, you wouldn’t be able to see what you are looking for. Leo Hartong
• You wander from room to room,Hunting for the diamond necklace, That is already around your neck! Rumi