Stop Looking For What You Want

I’ve heard this song dozens of times.  And every time I’ve paid attention to the words, I understood what was being said just a little bit more.  I thought I knew what it said, but there’s a big difference between listening to the words and actually applying the simple advice of trying to let go of my wants in THIS moment. When I figured that out, I cried a little.

Lyrics

So it’s absolutely simple, what I have to say to you.
That’s what my teacher said to me and I’m still, um, deeply discovering the reverberation of that.

And it’s simply, “Stop looking for what you want”.
Not cynically stop looking for what you want
’cause there is a way of stopping looking for what you want
in resignation and cynicism and closing down,
but innocently, openly stop looking for what you want in this moment,
not tomorrow when you have it, but in this moment.

So take one moment, whatever it is you want, however mundane or profound
and just stop looking for it and you will find more than what you could ever want
because more than what can be wanted is already who you are.

If, and it is a huge if, of course, you are willing to give up your hope
that what you want will be found in the next thought or the next activity
or the next day or the next man or the next woman or the next teaching or the next experience.
So that’s huge, that’s the challenge and I’ve blessedly traveled to challenge you in that direction, that directionless direction.