"This very search – what this search is and why it is there – has to be understood. It seems that there is a gap in the human being, in the human mind; in the very structure of the human consciousness there seems to be a hole, a black hole. You go on throwing things into it, and they go on disappearing. Nothing seems to make it full, nothing seems to help towards fulfillment. It is a very feverish search. You seek it in this world, you seek it in the other world; sometimes you seek it in money, in power, in prestige, and sometimes you seek it as godliness, bliss, love, meditation, prayerfulness – but the search continues. It seems that man is ill with search.

"The search does not allow you to be here and now because the search always leads you somewhere else. The search is a project, the search is a desire: that somewhere else is what is needed, that it exists, but it exists somewhere else, not here where you are. It certainly exists, but not in this moment of time, not now – and somewhere else. It exists 'then-there', never here-now. It goes on nagging you; it goes on pulling you, pushing you, it goes on throwing you into more and more madness; it drives you crazy and it is never fulfilled.

"I have heard about a very great Sufi mystic woman, Rabia al-Adabiya.

"One evening people found her sitting on the road searching for something. She was an old woman, her eyes were weak and it was difficult for her to see. So the neighbors came to help her. They asked, 'What are you searching for?'

"Rabia said, 'That question is irrelevant, I am searching. If you can help me, help.'

"They laughed and said, 'Rabia, have you gone mad? You say our question is irrelevant, but if we don't know what you are searching for, how can we help?'

"Rabia said, 'Okay. Just to satisfy you, I am searching for my needle, I have lost my needle.'

"They started helping her – but immediately they became aware of the fact that the road is very big and a needle is a very tiny thing."