Curiosity

Osho, you said the first condition should be curiosity and thirst, and secondly that one should be able to give oneself totally. As long as there is curiosity, there is doubt—then how is total giving possible?

In fact, on the day inquiry is complete, doubt will no longer remain. This is a very interesting point; it’s worth understanding a little. When does doubt actually arise? Inquiry is not doubt. Doubt happens only to those who have some belief. One who has a belief can doubt; but if one has no belief, what is there to doubt? On what will doubt stand? How will you doubt? Where there is search, there is neither doubt nor belief. Doubt arises only when there has been some prior belief; it is born in opposition to a preconceived belief. Someone says, “I doubt God.” That means he must have had some belief in God—otherwise how would the doubt arise? No—the seeker has neither doubt nor belief. The seeker says, “I don’t know—so how can I doubt? How can I believe?” The seeker is not an unbeliever. The seeker’s mind is unclouded,…

I am a very curious person. That's why I have come to you. Osho, what do you say about curiosity?

Curiosity is good, curiosity is beautiful, but don't stop at it. It is a good beginning, but not the end, because curiosity always remains lukewarm. It is an intellectual gymnastics. It is good to be curious because that is how one starts the journey of inquiry into existence; but if one simply remains curious, then there will be no intensity in it. One can move from one curiosity to another -- one will become a driftwood -- from one wave to another wave, never getting anchored anywhere. Curiosity is good as a beginning, but then one has to become more passionate. One has to make life a quest, not only a curiosity. And what do I mean when I say one has to make one's life a quest? Curiosity creates questions, but your life never becomes a quest. Questions are many, a quest is one. When some question becomes so…

Question: BELOVED OSHO, WHY AM I NOT CURIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING ANYMORE? Devageet, twelve hundred years ago there was a mystery school exactly like this. The mystery school belonged to one of the greatest Sufis, Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi. The Turkish word mevlana means Beloved Master; it has never been used for anyone else. In front of his mystery school was written in bold letters: "This place is not for those who are only curious." Curiosity has no spiritual meaning. Curiosity is something like itching in your mind: if you itch it goes; if you don't itch it goes also. Curiosity has no passion in it; it is very superficial. Just by the way, an inquiry, a question arises in you -- but it is not your quest, you are not to dedicate your life in searching for the answer to it.

Beloved master, could you please say something about curiosity? I often have experienced it as something which makes me feel alive and excited. But when I tried to meditate, it turned out to be a disturbance. And now, when I sit in your presence, getting more and more silent, I don't want to know anything anymore.

Anand Preeti, curiosity is childish. It certainly keeps you excited, but it has never made anyone wise, in tune with himself and the universe. Curiosity is a kind of itching in the head. You scratch, it feels good, but don't scratch too much; scratch in different places. But itching is not going to make your intelligence more pure, more clear, more far-reaching. That's why in meditation it becomes a disturbance. It is your old habit, so you go on being curious about everything, what it is. But in meditation you have to remain centered within yourself: no curiosity, no thinking, no question. And I am happy that you managed and that you can say, "Now when I sit in your presence, getting more and more silent, I don't want to know anything anymore." To not want to know anything anymore is to be at the stage of a sage. He…