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Curiouser and curiouser!
lobster
Crusty Veteran
in Meditation
When I was a Krill, I was curious about awakening ...
http://www.dummies.com/religion/spirituality/how-to-practice-curiosity-for-mindfulness/
Now that I am more attentive to awareness I wander more in Wonderland ...
Curiouser and curiouser!” Cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English).”
Alice in Wonderland.
Is awakening the end or beginning of curiosity?
0
Comments
Yes.
Awakening is like coming into the sunlight out of a heavy fog on a beautiful day.
It is a state of perpetually living in curiosity, awe, rawness, opennes.
It is both.
Curiosity is defined as a state of not-knowing accompanied by a drive TO know.
The need to know is a direct contradiction of the state of enlightenment .. which is an openness to whatever comes next, and a relaxation into whatever that might be.
Yet Pema Chodron tells us to be curious about what will happen next .. when you flush the toilet, will it go down or come up?
But she also warns us that fixed ideas close down our mind ... so if curiosity is defined as the need to find answers, then that is a process of closing down our mind.
Because after all, who REALLY knows if the flush will go down or come up when you push the handle?
The important questions in life have no answers.
Actually, I can answer that one: In an Italian lavatory, where the diameter of the pipework is all-too-commonly HALF of that anywhere else, it's a 95% certainty that with some.... 'left luggage'... the flush will horrifyingly, come up.
I'm not going to expand too much on my experience this summer, when visiting Naples. Suffice to say I spent an interesting hour re-organising the direction of the flush.
On a need-to-know basis? Trust me. You don't need to know.
hmm...i know and dont know.maybe thats my curiosity,lol.
I don't know yet, but I enjoyed the article about curiosity.
"When he remains mindful in this way, examining, analyzing, & coming to a comprehension of that quality with discernment, then analysis of qualities as a factor for awakening becomes aroused. He develops it, and for him it goes to the culmination of its development."
-- Anapanasati Sutta
Dhammavicaya killed the hindrances.
Tee hee.
Curiously enough, exactly so. The end of the beginning is much the same. ????
Before awakening you're curious if there's really a rabbit in the hat. After awakening, you're curious when he'll pop his head out next.
Wonderful sounds like a fun and good word for a reason.
We are natural born explorers and when I am ever at my darkest hour when thoughts of obliteration are most inviting I find that it's the wonder and curiosity that drives me to live over anything else.
One way to look at the conditioned is that everything is the result of information being shared (or conditions ripening and coming together).
I don't want to get too far out there or be too long winded so I'll just agree that curiosity seems like it would be conducive to awakening even as the questioning might seem less important than just being full of wonder.