The gentleman was certainly driven, at one point he runs across a fellow captain that knows him. His son is out in a boat and is lost at sea. He begs Ahab to help him, asks for 48 hrs. of his time and offers to pay generously. He even points out rightly Ahab has a wife and son and appeals to his sense of family. He is refused. Looking back on the obsessive nature of my own seeking I see that it is not far wrong.
Well....
What is the spiritual seeker doing?
The spiritual seeker is basically undoing all the layers of conditioning that has been placed upon them so that they can get back to what is real
Some people take this to incredible lengths. They will not only shed their identity for example nationality, religion, name, perceptions of race etc etc but they will even start observing different aspects of themselves
For example the buddhists tell us to act as an objective observor of the thought traffic that passes through our mind
By doing this we begin to see our ego as a seperate entity almost which kind of sabotages us in many ways as if this messed up voice over has been implanted into our minds (indeed some peoplesay this is exactly what has happened...but that's another story!)
So what happens as we embark on that spiritual journey and we shed all those layers of identity that have been put on us from birth?
What happens when a person realises that they were not born a 'christian' or a 'jew' or a 'muslim' and that these are ideas that have been given to them by others who also were not born those things?
Well they begin to critically analyse those things and they begin to ask themselves where these ideas originated from
But alongside that process of breaking everything down what else happens?
If a person lives in a community that defines itself certain ways for example it says: ''i am a US american and i identify with this flag and i have this name that my parents gave me and i believe this set of religious ideas and i see myself as belonging to this ethnic group'' etc etc then what happens if an individual suddenly stops believeing all that stuff?
They no longer fit into that community. On one hand they transcend the community because they suddenly become a part of a much bigger community called 'humanity' but on the day to day level they suddenly are not conforming to the modes of behaviour of that community
So the spiritual path is a difficult one that basically throws you out of synche with those around you who are not operating on the same level of conscious awareness
You awaken to a greater and awe inspiringly beautiful reality but at the same time suddenly you are not gelling with the people around you
So the ahab character is in the situation you are describing above acting in a very selfish way so is that something that is identified with the spiritual path?
I don't think so
It might seem like that to someone who is still conforming to the old modes of thought and behaviour but the person is not being selfih by walking their own path they are simply following the tao.....they are flowing where they need to flow
So in this case, in this example, and lacking the required wider context that can be gained by having read the book i would say that the example here of ahabs selfish obsession is not a good parallel with the spiritual seeker
i think a person who does not help someone in need, right in front of them when it is well within their powers to do so is not someone who is engaging with spirit (probably the opposite ie materialism: see for example the selfish pursuit of money or fame)