“Are you not also a seeker of the right path?”
There was a smile in Siddhartha’s old eyes as he said: “Do you call yourself
a seeker, 0′ venerable one, you who are already advanced in years and
wear the robe of Gotama’s monks.”
“I am indeed old,” said Govinda,
“but I have never ceased seeking. I will never cease seeking. That seems to be my destiny. It seems to me that you also have sought. Will you talk to me a little about it, friend?”
Siddhartha said: “What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.”
“How is that?” asked Govinda.
“When someone is seeking,” said Siddhartha, “it happens quite easily that he
only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he is only thinking of the thing he is seeking, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free,
to be receptive, to have no goal. You, 0′ worthy one, are perhaps indeed a seeker, for in striving towards your goal, you do not see many things that are under your nose.”
— Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha”