The Benefits Of Curiosity

So much of our experience is clouded and hampered by our assumptions that we know so much already. Having a curious mindset opens the world and our experience. It allows us to really see and be present.

Transcript

Curiosity,

The mindset of curiosity is really a don't know mindset,

Right?

I don't know what that is.

What is that?

Let me explore it.

So when we have that curious mindset and we're looking at something or we're hearing something or feeling something or we're trying to understand something,

We're not bringing any preconceived notions to it,

Which is so much of our challenge.

So much because we bring our expectations,

Our past experiences,

What we think we're going to see.

We rarely see the world or hear or touch or taste or smell.

We're always imputing what we think we already know on top of it,

Right?

The opposite of curiosity.

And so curiosity really just having that like,

Wow,

What's that?

Let me hear that sound.

Wow.

What's hearing really like?

We take for granted hearing,

Right?

And we think,

Well,

What is hearing?

If you had to explain to someone what is hearing,

We'd really struggle with it,

Right?

Or even just tasting.

What is tasting?

What is the taste of chocolate,

Right?

Maybe some of you have heard that question before,

Right?

To be able to describe what the taste of something is to someone else,

Right?

Like so having that curiosity,

That kind of openness that we don't have very much of the time.

We come and eat our meals expecting what it's going to taste like and just kind of matching up.

Well,

Is it really tasting like that?

Or eating our meal and thinking about the next meal,

So not really fully tasting with that sense of curiosity,

Of openness.

And I think we miss so much,

Like 99% of it,

We miss because of a lack of curiosity,

A lack of curiosity,

A lack of having that mindset of I don't really know,

Like I don't know.

There's a lot of things we don't know.

The more we can admit what we don't know,

I think the more we pay attention,

The more we have that sense of curiosity for our lives,

For what's happening,

For the wonder and the joy and the miracles that are happening all the time,

But that we don't see because we don't see with that lens of curiosity,

With that mind state of curiosity.

Even when we bring our attention to the breath in our meditation,

And I know I've said this on some meditations,

I didn't say it today,

But having that curiosity is if you're seeing your breath for the very first time,

Like we take our breath for granted.

We take so much for granted and we just assume,

We always have this assumption,

Oh,

I know what that is,

I know what that is,

I know what that is,

Kind of these cursory superficial knowledge or information.

Instead of having that curiosity,

Well,

What is that?

Like even looking at a flower,

Like really looking at it.

Past the labels,

Past I like it,

I don't like it,

Is it a weed,

Is it growing in my garden,

Is it growing in someone else's garden,

But really just looking and experiencing the colors and the textures and the layers that are in there.

And like having that curiosity and seeing,

Like seeing all that's in the flower and that interdependence,

Right,

Thich Nhat Hanh would say,

Like in the flower,

Seeing the clouds,

Right,

Because the clouds bring the rain that's in the flower,

And seeing the sunshine in the flower,

Seeing the bee in the flower,

Right,

Seeing so much,

Like we don't go deeper,

We don't have that sense of curiosity so much to see and explore.

So I think the benefits of curiosity is that we're present,

We're paying attention,

We're not seeing through our labels and our judgment and that me-centric,

I'm the center of the universe and I know what everything is,

Right,

Instead we're seeing like,

Wow,

Look at that,

What's going on over there,

Right,

Just with that sense of openness,

Of non-attachment.

Yeah,

I think there's so many benefits to curiosity,

To having that,

That we had talked about a few weeks ago,

That mind like,

I don't know,

I don't know,

What is that,

Right,

Again people will ask us what is that and we'll even just come to some quick assumption instead of even saying like,

I don't know,

Let's see,

Let's explore it,

Let's look,

Let's see what's going on.

We're so busy rushing towards what we think is the exciting moments or think are the exciting moments of life,

Rushing towards validation or praise or winning or something along those lines,

Like we're so,

We're always so rushing for these things and not having curiosity for all these little moments,

The little mundane moments that are happening,

Which there's so much joy,

So much joy and peace and tranquility in the simplest of things when we have that open mind state,

That curious mind state,

That kind of,

I don't know,

Let's see,

I'm moving along here,

I'm doing this,

Maybe you're just,

You're just dusting the house,

Dusting the bookshelves,

Right,

And just kind of,

Oh,

Look at the dust kind of fluttering up and wow,

Look at the little patterns,

Like just seeing,

We take so much for granted.

We assume we know so much,

There's so much we do not know and I even think with,

We've been able to explain so much of the world scientifically,

Right,

There's a lot that science can explain but there's also a lot that science cannot explain and there's some mystery and curiosity in that,

Right,

As opposed to saying,

Well,

Just science hasn't figured it out yet,

Right,

Yes,

Of course,

Science is going to figure out more things as well too but let's not,

Let's not inoculate ourselves from the mystery of whatever this life force is that's moving through us,

That's connecting us,

You know,

That when someone says just a,

You know,

Happy New Year,

Meredith and everyone from CHAR,

It's like,

You know,

What is it that touches when we see,

You know,

We connect with someone that we know on our sangha here and there's kind of this something that touches us here,

This sense of connection,

You know,

And having curiosity about it because I think it brings us closer to,

Closer to that sense of awe and wonder,

Right,

That just opens everything up for us,

Opens up awe,

Right,

Awe,

Right,

That's,

Right,

It's just like awe.

Instead of this kind of closed,

You think about how we live our lives so much of the time in this kind of narrow looking down,

Oh,

What are my problems,

What's going on over there,

They shouldn't be doing that,

I'm such an idiot,

I can't believe I did that back there,

My life sucks,

Right,

We think in this very narrow kind of,

And very left hemisphere dominant part of our brain,

Right,

Very narrow,

Very kind of,

And very,

I've talked about this before,

The right hemisphere and the left hemispheres of our brain,

And in fact,

I'll bring this up again because I'm reading,

So this is from Dr.

Ian McGill-Kress' book,

The Master and the Emissary,

And he tells this story about the master and the emissary to start with,

Where there's this thriving town,

Thriving small town,

And there's this master that kind of runs the town and keeps everything going,

But as the town grows,

The master realizes that in order to keep the town thriving,

He needs to enlist an emissary to go out and do the day-to-day functions,

That it would be wiser for him to be able to step back and keep a big picture kind of feel for what's going on,

And that if he's not getting involved day-to-day,

He would be better served to be able to keep a closer look on the big picture,

See how things are connecting,

And how things are happening,

And how to move forward,

So he enlists this guy as his emissary,

And he goes out every day and kind of does the day-to-day logistics of running the town,

And he'll report back to the master,

This is what's happening,

And the master will give him some advice,

Okay,

Do this,

But then after a while,

The emissary starts to think,

You know,

I'm the one out here doing the work every day,

Like he's just sitting back there,

Like what's he doing,

Just sitting back thinking about all this,

And then giving me instructions,

Like I don't need the master anymore,

I've got this,

So he gets rid of the master,

And it's just the emissary running the town that's now gotten much bigger,

And it doesn't take long,

Because he doesn't have a handle on the big picture,

He's just so kind of caught up in the myopic that the whole town disintegrates and falls into ruin,

And what this is meant to represent in this analogy that Dr.

Miguel Crest is is trying to point us to is that the left hemisphere of our brain is like the emissary,

It takes care of the little details,

It's about manipulating and grasping in the world,

It's a good soldier,

It's a good soldier,

But it's not a good general,

And the right hemisphere is the general,

The master,

The right hemisphere can see how all things are connected,

And isn't interested in manipulating and grasping,

But instead just seeing how all things are interconnected,

Interrelated,

And at the left hemisphere of our brain,

Not only does it not know what it doesn't know,

It doesn't want to know,

And the right hemisphere of our brain understands what it doesn't know,

Like the right hemisphere understands it needs the left hemisphere,

We need both hemispheres of our brain,

But the left hemisphere doesn't think it needs the right hemisphere,

And so the two hemispheres are of our brain are both involved in paying attention,

But paying attention in very different ways,

The left very narrow,

Very myopically thinking just I'm just going to take what I need over here,

I'm going to do what I want to the earth over here,

And I'm not going to think about there's any consequences,

In fact don't even tell me there are any consequences,

I don't want to know,

Because I'm convinced that what I'm doing over here is not having an effect anywhere else,

And the right hemisphere would say,

But hang on,

Sure we need this resource over here,

But it is going to have consequences down the road that are going to eventually affect us,

And so I think in the left hemisphere,

And where I was going with this with Kathy's question,

There's not a lot of curiosity in the left hemisphere of our brain,

And we have become this is what Dr.

McGilchrist's hypothesis is that we have become a very left hemisphere dominant culture,

I mean very anger as an example lateralizes to the left hemisphere of our brain,

Being very tribal,

Lateralizes to the left hemisphere of our brain,

Very me versus you,

Taking very complex nuanced problems that we take one problem and it's and when we look at everything in a very binary way,

It's black and white,

Instead of having that curiosity to look and go wow,

There's a little nuance here,

And there's some nuance over here,

And yes something's right over here,

And something's not so right over here,

All within this one problem,

Like that we don't have this ability to look at problems anymore in this more complex way,

Right?

It's just oh,

You don't believe in that?

Well you're a right-wing conservative,

And you must be an idiot,

Or you don't believe in that?

Well then you're a liberal,

What do they call um you know liberal,

And and you're just uninformed or something,

Right?

Like we're very quick to cut people off based on their views because we have this very binary view,

We want to put everything in a little box,

And so curiosity also yes coming out of the right hemisphere of our brain that kind of I don't know,

I don't know what's going on there,

Looking at it from a much more bigger picture,

And and the reason it's on my mind right now is I'm reading his latest book,

What's the Matter with Things,

Another huge book,

He writes it takes him like 10 years to write a book,

And it's like 1,

500 pages,

But excellent,

Excellent book,

And and you can just see how we are becoming more and more and more left hemisphere dominant,

We're less curious,

We're less interested in things,

We don't look at the bigger picture,

We see people as again in very this binary way,

Black and white,

And not understanding the implications for seeing others in that way without the curiosity and the openness of just oh you have these views on this,

Why is that,

How did you come to that conclusion,

Oh because this is what I'd heard,

And right we don't talk,

We don't communicate anymore,

And and some of the things um well meditation and mindfulness,

Right hemisphere of the brain,

Right um you know more dominant,

It's not like we're going one side the other one side lighting up and the other side isn't,

But that there's there's more activation in the right hemisphere of the brain,

Every time we look up we're activating the right hemisphere,

Right,

When we have a problem notice how again we look down right oh we're so oh my problems and and the world seems very small and very closed because all we can see is this one little problem,

Which is usually not happening often just made up in our minds or taking a little thread of something and exaggerating it,

And and we just we focus and look down getting more and more kind of into that you know into that left hemisphere of just kind of drilling down more and more and more into it,

But when we look up so when you have problems or just any time look up it doesn't you don't even have to be outside you can just do it inside looking up,

But particularly outside at night when you see the stars and you get this sense of oh yeah oh yeah i had this little thing over here i've got to do later and yeah it's an inconvenience it's not this big problem i was thinking it was a minute ago,

But man i'm just i'm one of eight billion people on this big rock curling through space like this is crazy right and so it kind of giving you that sense that big picture again because whenever we can get step back and even see the big picture of things it's like yeah okay i've got or i've got this problem i've got this bill and yeah i'm gonna have to work a little bit more to pay it or something's gonna happen like yeah but it starts to put everything in perspective again so being in nature looking up uh listening just listening and closing your eyes and like listening to classical music in particular like just brings us that right hemisphere like ah right so there's there's um so so just also just one or two other little things i'm going to get to your questions there too while the left hemisphere is language it's the right hemisphere that uh gets the punch line in the joke it's the right hemisphere that that understands the meaning in the poetry so again it's they're both attending to the same things but in different ways which is why we need both hemispheres of the brain we need both hemispheres clearly and all of his research was really done on stroke victims someone had a left hemisphere or right hemisphere stroke that they just kept kind of looking at all of these until they really could drill it down and say yeah this is this is what's going on still a hypothesis by the way still a hypothesis but um but i think it is helpful for us to know this and i think also just where you were asking in the question kathy about curiosity and and just being interested in things like we're just not as interested anymore and i think a lot of that also comes out of the right hemisphere which has been neglected where we try to you know we spend so much time grasping and manipulating the world and just doing that out of our egos right grasping and manipulating right or just manipulating in our thoughts like how am i going to control this situation how am i going to get that situation and instead of stepping back and just remembering how all of this is arising right how you are arising moment by moment by moment right and just getting that that that sense of the big picture again but with curiosity because there is so much we do not know and that's fascinating right how boring to know everything right that's what makes so much of this interesting

Reviews

Thanks Meredith I love this topic. Curiosity is my fav life hack. It replaces fear and conditioning with very little effort or resistance.
Love and peace to you

Thoroughly enjoyable and thought-provoking reflections. 🌟 Thank you very much 😁