curiosity
First I want to focus on the emotion of curiosity. I have always thought of curiosity to be a pure and childlike innocent emotion. First lets look at the cause that begins the journey that curiosity takes as an emotion within human beings. The cause is always that of ignorance. Buddha stated that the primary defilement of the mind is that of ignorance. Since this is the case, it can then be said that which dictates the flow and tide of Samsara is that of ignorance. So then what begins the pursuit of knowledge and power? Once again, this would be that of ignorance. It appears to be that being an entity within an incomplete system will always inevitably carry with it the fundamental source which appears to be that of ignorance or not containing every solution. Ultimately, curiosity seeks to rectify and solve the problem of ignorance that it identifies. To then try to reduce and eliminate the problem of ignorance from a point that is provided by ignorance itself seems to be an infinite regress. You will perpetually find yourself within an inescapable recursive loop that can trickily trap the mind within a circle of ignorance. Such a circle is a clever trap that can render a person to either the ultimate goal of nirvana or a vicious circle of clinging and grasping torment of perpetual craving.
Such is a trial we all constantly face in being conscious beings floating within the tides of Samsara. Now I want to quote a part of the Dhammapada to help better illustrate what brought on this thought. “Joy follows a pure thought, like a shadow that will never leave.” This verse from the Twin Verses within the Dhammapada explicitly carries the weight of positivity. But let us now look at the preceding verse: “Suffering follows an evil thought, as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it.” Now let us apply the concept of curiosity to both instances and try to determine what the emotion of curiosity ultimately is. Curiosity is a emotion or finally that which is a 'thought.' Since both verses do not hint towards either of the root causes in relation to curiosity, it is still not clear which of the two possibilities of 'good' or 'bad' curiosity lies upon.
But since I previously stated that the ultimate beginning of curiosity was born from the primary defilement of the mind, ignorance, it does seems to want to inherently point toward a negative conclusion. This is a subtle bias that comes along with the fact that the entire initial force that begun the movement of the tidal forces of Samsara was the negative force of ignorance. But then how does one discover what is that which supplies the contents of a 'pure' thought? Well to then to try to answer this, if the initial primary defilement of the mind is that of ignorance, we then must consider its opposite. The opposite of ignorance is knowledge or wisdom. But then if we inspect all forms of knowledge, in the process of inspecting or deconstructing them, we always seem to find ourselves back to the initial root force of ignorance! Does this then mean that Buddhism is ultimately a pessimistic and negative outlook upon phenomenal existence?
Perhaps I think the trick lies within our conscious modes and choices of representing and demonstrating knowledge itself. All abstract attempts of trying to build a system being able to adequately provide a clean and absolutely pure solution have failed. In trying to correctly show how and why something is absolutely the case, it always must start from the point of nothingness. Trying to perfectly show how something 'is' concretely from the point of 'nothingness' philosophically is an ancient problem that has crumpled the greatest minds time and time again from the beginning of conscious existence. I personally have found the insights of the Buddha to be the most helpful and relevant upon this issue. I honestly believe that the simple verse I begun with provides the answer that I was trying to provide in the initially. “Suffering follows an evil thought just as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draw it.” “Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that will never leave.” This concludes my exploration upon the topic of the emotion of my personal curiosity. A patient disposition is the best response to the quailing demanding tugs of ignorance.
Cheers!
周培森