Trevor, this is one of my favorite Greenleaf quotes, and one I think often confuses people in this goal-oriented society. Like the term "servant-leader," the word "seeker," when it describes one who is interested in the search, is ultimately a description of identity, not activity. Meister Eckhart, George Fox and D.T. Suzuki all influenced Greenleaf's thinking about the meaning of seeker.

Fox's early Quakers were called seekers because they wanted to experience truth beyond doctrines. Meister Eckhart wrote about emptying oneself of constructs and categories - even categories of God: "Man's last and highest parting occurs when for God's sake he takes leave of God." And the Zen thinker Suzuki was a friend of Bob and Esther Greenleaf.

I've been lucky to meet a few highly creative people in my life and every one of them was a seeker, as was every transcendent religious thinker who crossed my path. And by the way, these people produced results; they didn't just sit around and wonder about the nature of life and truth.

Darin's story in an earlier post is a good example of how a servant-leader can be misjudged even after meeting outcomes expected by employers. Greenleaf hoped for a day when people like Darin would be honored, not demoted, and seeking would be seen as an expression of strength, not weakness.
Don Frick | 04.18.06 - 6:35 am | #