Curiosity
Remember when I told you, in an earlier article, that the opposite of fear is curiosity?
Curiosity is that, and more. ((The important thing is not to stop questioning… Never lose a holy curiosity.
Albert Einstein))
I have found that curiosity is the main component in aliveness… so it is also the opposite of dead, deadened, alienated, dull, and foggy.
It is also the main sparker of intelligence.
We are all born curious. Most of us kill our curiosity. Curiosity, what I call curiosity, is open ended.
Finding THE answer to a question is not the curiosity I am talking about.
Thinking that you need answers is the number one killer of curiosity, of aliveness, of intelligence.
Our parents, teachers, like us not curious, not intelligent, so they kill our curiosity.
At least seemingly.
You have the spark… buried, covered up with deadness, but it is there.
It is now your job to allow it to come alive, and start burning inside you, animate you, and turn the desert of your life into lush forests.
I mean it.
If there is anything divine in us, anything like spirit or soul… it is curiosity.
Curiosity is the capacity that takes you beyond… beyond the veil between this visible world and the bigger one… apart from all woowoo, it is obvious that each person has a “this visible world” and a one, vastly bigger, beyond.
Most people who come to me (or the site) for help, are looking for answers. Looking for answers is NOT curiosity. It is the mind’s way of telling you that our world is limited, and the answers can be found within.
Once the answers are found, depending on your temperament, you’ll accept it as the answer, and stop looking, or if you are a “professional” seeker, you’ll continue seeking for answers or The Answer… and yet, you are NOT curious.
It is all mind-stuff.
So how does being curious differ?
Curious is a penetrating, constant, and inextinguishable inner force… deep.
It is not looking for answers (cheap closure now is the mind’s dominion) it is looking. It is engaged. It is integrative.
If you don’t even know what I am talking about, but would like to have that…
What can you do to become curious again? Because if curiosity is the main function of the Self… then curiosity may even equal the self…
If you are not curious, then you don’t have a Self.
Or said in another way: to the degree you are curious, that endless engaged and engaging curiosity is what I am talking about, to the degree that you have it, timewise, topicwise, in what social setting, to the same degree you have a self.
For most of you that is such a low percentage, that your experience of your life and of yourself is, that you don’t have a self.
What is running your life is the outside forces, or the inside forces, that nevertheless are the not-self… the mind, the genes, the urges, the body… but not the Self.
So, if you are following what I am saying, your seeking for the Self is fruitless, unless you start to do things that awaken curiosity, your natural curiosity, your youthful curiosity.
Butterfly like, curiosity seeker like curiosity is NOT the same curiosity… it is more like an addiction to newness, to scandals, to something moving, something happening.
Real curiosity is interested going deep.
Reading is a great way to go deep and get curious.
Even some Netflix shows awaken curiosity.
One of my students has a deep curiosity into how things, machines, work. This same student is fascinated and goes deep into putting things together in a way that it works, not just a machine, but documentation: that is what she does for a living, the latter.
It is a good idea to go where your natural inclination takes you… I never force myself to get curious: there are tons of things I am not interested in.
I am almost certain I can invent a webinar workshop that makes it more obvious to you what you would be interested in… at this point I am drawing a blank.
But teasing the area out may be your most important job, if you feel that without a Self, your life cannot be meaningful.
You may not feel it… but it’s true nevertheless.
Without Self it is hard to have meaning, purpose, and joy in life.
PS: I just came back from my weekly exercise class. Today I was really well until I left the chiropractor’s office. I guess the treatment left me unbalanced and in pain. Hm. Interesting.
Walking down the hill to the class was painful, and every exercise hurt.
Then climbing the steps, 140 feet or so (it’s like climbing to the top floor of a 13-14 story building…) was murder.
How was my experience? I was intensely curious. Every stab of pain, every tight muscle, tight ligament was interesting.
When you are curious, then life is an adventure. When you are curious, then life is a pain in the … wherever, and pain is bad.
For a curious person pain is fascinating. Something to observe, something to experiment with. Delightful.
Read the original article: To the degree that you are curious to the degree you have a Self