Curious Knowing

 An exploration into the nature of manifestation

“What is to give light must endure burning.”
― Victor Frankl

Occasionally we hear the question, “Why manifestation? Why does the One appear to become many? Why does anything appear to exist at all?” 

A frequently proffered answer is that the question is, at best, inappropriate, as Infinite Being is free of desire, and not subject to the time-based phenomena of cause and effect implicit in the question. From this point of view, the question of, “why” is a futile attempt by our finite mind to bring the infinite within the realm of its limited understanding. As a concession to the limitations of our finite mind, the best we can say is that uncaused manifestation is just the nature of Being. There is no “cause”, no “purpose” to manifestation The One manifests because manifesting is essential to it.

But many find this answer fundamentally unsatisfying, like the enlightened equivalent of a parent’s exasperated outburst to their endlessly inquisitive child,  “It’s that way because that’s just the way it is!” Which may be true, but does little to quell youthful curiosity. Nor senior curiosity, for that matter.

A somewhat more appealing response conceives of an underlying motive for manifestation similar to the impulse of love that motivates people to become parents. Manifestation is thus analogized as an overflowing of love. This is a beautiful and noble sentiment which nonetheless tends to disenfranchise those who, for reasons of physiology, orientation, preference or choice may not experience the procreative impulse in this way. Perhaps a more inclusive expression of this formulation could be, “love begets love.” 

But even though this ancient truism appeals to our desire for a world grounded in compassion and intelligence, when examined closely we find it still leaves the “why” question unanswered. It is not so much a “thorn to remove a thorn” as it is palliative care for a mind ablaze with curiosity. It’s a compassionate dodge, but a dodge nonetheless, and one that may provide at best a temporary distraction, a brief sleep for a mind so engaged. Eventually, though, the persistent “why” will disturb us into wakefulness, and the curious mind will arise once again.

Rather than attempting to put the curious mind to sleep, let’s consider a formulation that unpacks the manifesting aspect of the One in a manner that respects its timeless, uncaused nature, while allowing the curious mind, fully awakened, to find the joy it seeks. 

To begin, let’s first examine and distinguish the curiosity that underlies the question of why the One manifests. 

One common definition of curiosity is, “a desire to know”. Oftentimes we synonymize curiosity with “inquisitiveness”, but by digging a bit deeper into the experience that underlies the force we call curiosity, we may discover that it points to something far more profound. 

Curiosity is not a desire, and is distinct from longing. Longing and desire arise from perceived lack. Thus the experiences of longing and desire betray our belief in separation. Curiosity, on the other hand, arises from love emboldened by its inherent unity and celebrating its own potential. Certainly one may desire or long to have their curiosity satisfied, but that does not make curiosity itself synonymous with either desire or longing. They are distinct phenomena.

Like love, curiosity is open, vulnerable, admitting all. But unlike love, curiosity is not content to be at rest. Picture the way you experience new love. Having merged with the beloved, are you content to just relax and be done with life? Of course not. You want to know everything about the beloved, experience all of life with them, endlessly discover ways that you can experience joy together. 

Our zest for life in loving is not driven by lack. It is not a longing for something we do not have. Quite the opposite. It is an openness to the infinite possibility we experience in loving as we become aware of ourselves as infinite, limitless Being. This is our experience of curiosity. 

Unlike longing, curiosity does not die in love. On the contrary, curiosity propels love and vice versa.  In the same way that love begets love, curiosity begets curiosity. Curiosity is not a longing for something missing, it is a celebration of what is present. It is the embodiment of the joy of discovery. It is joy that engenders more joy.  

Curiosity may find a brief rest in love, or knowing, but that rest is never permanent. Thus we cannot accurately say that curiosity is synonymous with a love of knowing, for if it was merely a love of knowing, then in knowing, curiosity would find an end. But this is not our experience. We see that curiosity is driven both by knowing and by the activity of knowing, and that what curiosity appears to favor most is for the dance of knowing and not knowing to be unending.

This experience is exemplified in the archetype of the explorer, who enjoys the exploration for the thrill of it, and revels in the knowledge that the quest for discovery and knowledge is never ending. A similar experience is intrinsic to creative activities of all kinds. Artists, designers, musicians, poets, writers, builders and many others recognize this self-perpetuating nature of their creative process.

We might therefore say that curiosity is the love of both knowing and not knowing. Divested from longing and desire, curiosity stands revealed as a continuous opening to Truth. As such, curiosity provides a clear pathway to the present moment, to Now, to the heart of Being.

In this way, we see that curiosity is knowing in potential, and knowing is curiosity in potential. The two originate co-dependently. They cause each other and arise as one complete, seamless, eternally self-causing ontological primitive. One could say that curiosity and knowing, or love, are like active and passive principles of Being. 

To express this relationship within the context and language of traditional Advaita Vedanta, Shakti does not emerge from Shiva. They cause each other. “There is no Shiva without Shakti, or Shakti without Shiva. The two […] in themselves are One”

Thus, to expect curiosity to find a permanent end or rest is to deny or resist the blossoming of life itself. 

Like the light of the sun, the light of curiosity appears to become what it touches. That is manifestation. Manifestation is the light of curiosity illuminating the reality of Being, and the source of that light is burning, or the quest to know.  But the sun does not burn in order to provide light. The sun provides light because it burns. Burning, or to be perhaps more scientifically accurate, thermonuclear fusion, is essential to what it is to be the sun. If the sun did not burn, it would not be the sun. Curiosity is that burning.

Extending this metaphor, we might imagine that Being, when asked of its experience of manifestation might report, “I burn with the fire of curiosity, and by my light manifest and know myself as the world.” Ultimately, of course, Being experiences no such thing, cannot experience a quest for knowing or any other activity for that matter, and has no ability to speak about it even if it did.  This is just a metaphor. 

Being does not know that it is Being, knows nothing of “burning” nor of manifesting. All Being knows directly is itself, but not as a subject knows an object. Being knows itself by being itself. Manifestation is the activity of Being being itself. Ultimately there is no activity of Being. There is just Being.

However, from a relative point of view, when we know and feel that our apparently limited being is derived from, and identical to the one Being, then we may experience ourselves and the world in this metaphorical way. Our burning life force reveals the world to us as ourself made manifest. This is curiosity in action.

Pure curiosity is the force at the heart of play. Play, or playfulness, figures prominently in many ancient wisdom traditions of southern Asia, and is sometimes referred to as the source of manifestation. In this context, these traditions use the Sanskrit word “Lila” to refer to the divine play of the universe, or God. For example, from Wikipedia: 

“Lila (Sanskrit: लीला līlā) or leela (/ˈliːlə/) can be loosely translated as “divine play”. The concept of lila asserts that creation, instead of being an objective for achieving any purpose, is rather an outcome of the playful nature of the divine. As the divine is perfect, it could have no want fulfilled, thereby signifying freedom, instead of necessity, behind the creation.

The concept of lila is common to both non-dualist and dualist philosophical schools of Indian philosophy, but has a markedly different significance in each. Within non-dualism, lila is a way of describing all reality, including the cosmos, as the outcome of creative play by the divine absolute (Brahman). In Vaishnavism, lila refers to the activities of God and devotee, as well as the macrocosmic actions of the manifest universe.

Seen through this lens, manifestation is revealed as the playful nature of Being. We experience our quest to play in the world as identical to the activity of the One knowing itself as the world. Manifestation is made of play and our playful nature is manifestation itself. Through curiosity, in the form of play, we are the One knowing itself as the world and we are the world knowing itself as the One.

Seeing this, we find that curiosity is not merely something that we do, nor is it something that is done through us. Curiosity is an intrinsic opening or blossoming of Being that continually invites the play that reveals knowing. Knowing is what we and the world are. Thus, the knowledge, “I am” propelled by curiosity is both something we “sink back into” and also something we “blossom out into”. It is not a point of view behind the mind, nor a greater “Self” that pervades the world. It is ourself as the world experiencing ourself in the world.

“Knowing” in this context is more than a mental concept. To know something in this way is to experience it intimately, to draw it into oneself and merge with it. This total acceptance and merging is a collapse of the subject/object relationship and is synonymous with our experiences of love, beauty and joy.

We, Awareness or Being, see and experience curiosity through the agency of the apparently finite body-mind as the transparent fire that playfully illuminates and manifests the reality of ourself as the body, mind and world, that is reflected back as knowing and is felt as love, beauty or joy, and that in turn fuels the fire of curiosity. This manifesting dance of curiosity and knowing arises mutually and self-perpetuates eternally.

Curiosity is the transparent fire that illuminates the reality of Being, is reflected back as Knowing and felt as Love, Beauty, or Joy, which are the fuel that feeds the fire of curiosity.

By distinguishing curiosity in this way, the nature of the question, “why manifestation?” reveals itself. The “answer” and the question are made of literally the same stuff. This understanding further unveils why the question of “why manifestation” can never be answered satisfactorily. Any answer would be an attempt to bring the question to an end, which is impossible.

To help this understanding blossom in your experience, I suggest you try the following exercise. 

Begin by being, knowingly, that which is aware of all you experience. 

Allow all experience to be just exactly as it is. Allow all thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, and relationships to arise and occur just as they are, without any need for them to be any different. 

Simply allow yourself and the world to be.

Abide in that being.

Now, with open eyes, look around you and, continuing to abide in being, say to yourself, “All that I see is curious me.” 

Notice what happens. 

We are the One knowing itself as the world. All that we know of ourselves and the world are our thoughts and perceptions. All that we know of thinking and perceiving is the knowing of them. We are that knowing.

But we are not just knowing. We are curious knowing. And this dance of curious knowing can never and will never come to an end.

What becomes of our curiosity when this understanding is known and felt?

Allow your curiosity to find its purest expression in joy.

“And I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things. Therefore am I still
A lover of the meadows and the woods,
And mountains; and of all that we behold
From this green earth; of all the mighty world
Of eye, and ear,—both what they half create,
And what perceive; well pleased to recognise
In nature and the language of the sense,
The anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse,
The guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul
Of all my moral being.”

-William Wordsworth

Excerpt from “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, July 13, 1798”

Thank you.