About
Update February 2025
The sheer volume of spiritual information available today makes it nearly impossible to know what to focus on if you want to come to the end of seeking for yourself.
As well, the current spiritual marketplace is not always a pleasant or enlightening place to be.There is much misinformation and half-truth peddled as truth. Self-promotion and polished and prolific marketing figure heavily.
There are of course many fine teachers and organizations, but they are not always easy to find and you have to know what to look for. Usually by the time you have gathered enough experience to be able to make an informed judgement you have already made many missteps and wrong turns.
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Having been involved in spiritual life for over forty years and having experienced many of the pitfalls and wrong turns for myself, I wanted to see if I could create a no-frills, honest, non-doctrinal, dogma-free, quintessential guide to awakening. One that would be relevant to those starting out in spiritual life and needing guidance and an overview of what is involved, and for those long term seekers who may be feeling lost or discouraged about the possibility of their own liberation.
I hope these pages are useful and of benefit, and help to clarify and simplify what is often a confusing and complex endeavour.
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I have received generous support from others along the way and in turn I wanted to make a contribution of my own with this website. It is in this spirit that 'The End of Seeking' was created.
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If you would like more details about me and my background please visit the 'About Anne' page.
I am a member of the Association for Spiritual Integrity www.spiritual-integrity.org
A straightforward approach
Looking into the essential core of different traditions and spiritual teachings, it becomes clear they are all pointing to the same thing: that we are blind to our true nature as simple, present awareness/beingness and instead lead lives of unnecessary suffering due to our identification with the ego or false sense of self. Moreover, many claim our true nature is in no way separate or ultimately different from the Source/Reality/the Absolute.
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From this relatively simple premise vast tracts of doctrinal texts and methodologies, and multiple traditions, sub-sects and belief systems have emerged.
The enormous amount of information and choice available today can easily obscure the basic fundamentals of the spiritual path: what am I seeking and why, and what is the most direct and effective approach? What do I need to cultivate in myself, and what are the possible pitfalls, misunderstandings and obstacles I may encounter? Do I need a Teacher?
These are the questions we will be investigating in the following pages. There is little point in waiting for a thunderbolt mystical experience to permanently transform and enlighten you, although many are still waiting and waiting in vain. This is a pragmatic approach which points you towards understanding who you truly are in a practical and straightforward way.
This practical approach however, is in no way intended to deny or overshadow the very heart of any genuine spiritual pursuit: the Unknown Mystery itself.
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I didn’t have an interest in enlightenment. I had never heard of it until I read a book about it in my early twenties and from that moment on I was choicelessly consumed by the wanting of it, even though I had no idea what it was.
This choiceless search turned my life upside down for over two decades, and took me all over the world in search of answers. I knew there had to be a way out of the existential angst and suffering I felt, but although I had many insights and glimpses of freedom fundamentally nothing changed.
Until it did: In the midst of a crisis after leaving my teacher and with my mind starting to fragment under the pressure, I recognised in meditation an unchanging, profound, peaceful stillness within me.
This peacefulness and wholeness was untouched by the crisis and in stark contrast to my wildly fluctuating thoughts and emotions was completely stable and always available.
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It became apparent to me for the first time the clear-cut distinction between the limited, contracted personal self and the unlimited ground of my own being, my Self. That understanding changed everything.
Over the period of a few months my identity shifted from the personal ‘me’ to the unlimited ground of being or Self, and this shift slowly stabilised and became permanent.
Seeking had been the main motivating force in my life for over twenty years and I was shocked to realise that all seeking had disappeared.
The angst gave way to an ongoing peace and equanimity and a self-arising joy. I was no longer obsessed with ‘me’. In fact ‘me’ fell into the background and became a flimsy, insubstantial thing. All forward momentum seemed to stop, leaving only being, the simplicity of being.
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Anne
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After several years of fully engaging here and in other public forums, conferences, interviews and mentoring work, I began to realize the contemporary spiritual world was not for me. I had never wanted to be a spiritual teacher but as I continued to participate it became increasingly difficult to avoid both the title and the role.
My love for the perennial wisdom and my calling to share what I have learned and understood was at odds with what I saw as the outdated position of ‘guru’ in contemporary society. The guru model is heavily weighted down with historical expectations of infallibility; specialness; and the unhealthy power dynamic between teacher and student. None of this struck me as being relevant or desirable.
I also felt that the spiritual world was largely disassociated from the rest of life and operated as a niche outlier. The key lessons of spirituality – self-knowledge, ethical behaviour, kindness, the recognition of a greater context than our small limited selves, and the liberating discovery of our true nature should be an integral part of everyday, ordinary learning for those who are interested, and not restricted to ashrams, meditation halls and specialised websites. While I respected and honoured the work of many teachers and traditions, I longed for plain, jargon-free language and a fresh updated approach.
I was also aware of the corruption on all levels (sexual, financial, emotional, physical, spiritual) occurring in many of these same ashrams and meditation centres where the stated aim is the liberation of humanity but which unfortunately often descend into prisons of control and exploitation.
After taking time out to reflect, my ongoing inquiry now is how to harness the best and most valuable learning from the wisdom traditions, and bring it right smack bang into the marketplace where the vast majority of us live. How to democratise and make easily accessible the spiritual dimension of life while hopefully leaving behind some of its more problematic aspects: outmoded hierarchies, empty rituals, inflexible belief systems, corruption, and the perils of the ‘follower’ mentality.
The initial purpose of ‘The End of Seeking’ website was to clarify and simplify the spiritual path while encouraging self-reliance and objectivity. Building on that foundation, the evolving purpose now is to help dissolve the boundaries between our spiritual and our everyday lives: to explore, understand and integrate all aspects of ourselves and to discover what it means to be fully human in our vulnerability, capability, challenges and unlimited potential.
I hope this strikes a chord with you and you join me here in this ongoing exploration.
Anne
The artworks shown on this site are by Sweet+Shore, an art/science collaboration with my partner, Dr Jesse Shore.
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Please keep in mind this is a personal account based on my own particular experience and circumstances and is intended as a guide only. I have attempted to keep the scope, concepts, and definitions as simple and straightforward as possible for the sake of clarity. I urge everyone to do your own investigation and draw your own conclusions.
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I would like to thank Peter Mitchell, Amir Freimann, Maury Lee, Dr Leith Taylor and Suzanne Brown for their invaluable help and support with this project. Jesse, for your constant patience, love and generosity, my gratitude and love always.
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