Fellow seekers...

What's the point?

“Why?” This is the question my beautiful wife keeps torturing me with.

When studying philosophy, researching spiritual traditions, and developing my own practices of meditation, contemplation and so on, that question haunts me.

What is the end game? Why are people so invested in religious, spiritual and/or philosophical systems, traditions and practices?

Why do people, myself included, bother?

I thought I had finally come up with something clever to explain it. I imagined two types of seekers. The first is someone who is looking for an internal experience that we might call ‘enlightenment’ or ‘liberation.’ The second is someone who is looking for external benefits: results and rewards. I am mostly of the former type and my wife is mostly of the latter type.

Thinking I had solved this riddle, I continued my reading of ancient and medieval Indian spirituality and religion. It seems obvious now that I am not the first person to wonder about this and to come up with something to explain it. B…