What is the difference between WONDER and CURIOSITY?

This discussion is long and deep, but drink and contemplate every word.

This can have a profound effect on your spiritual life.

Wonder and Curiosity

Wonder ( Vismay ) is a state that happens when one sees something beyond reasoning and imagination.

This is where the mind reaches its limits, and it just gets shut off.

The mind becomes dysfunctional to explain what is in front of it, but there is no regret.

There is an unexplainable element of joy within.

You are defeated, and yet you are happy.

Even for a fraction, wonder creates a situation where the mind is unnecessary.

You cannot explain it, of course, but it is there.

Curiosity ( Ascharya ), on the other hand, is a sense of amazement, yes, but, here, the mind does accept the defeat; it becomes restless.

It just cannot accept the fact that there is something that it cannot comprehend.

It takes this as a challenge and embarks on a journey.

Its final destination is to crush that curiosity, exactly what gave birth to this journey.

It’s like killing your father.

It will do anything to destroy this curiosity.

It will dissect, crush, cut open whatever is in the front to ultimately prove that this also I KNOW.

Mind ( Ego ) is a journey from the UNKNOWN ( Agyat ) to the KNOWN ( Gyat ), full of struggle, full of efforts, full of competition, and never a moment of rest.

Joy is nowhere to be found on this journey because curiosity never rests.

It always keeps on finding newer and newer objects, people, and situations to become more and more curious ( and restless ) about.

The whole science is based on curiosity.

So, our mind has become scientific, always curious, dissective, and divisive.

And there is no joy left in life.

We are paying a high price for curiosity – with restless lives.

On the other hand, wonder generates a no-mind situation in that fraction and gives you a glimpse of the UNKNOWABLE ( Aghyey )- the
formless, the maker of the KNOWN and the UNKNOWN both.

What you might have been trying to achieve through years of meditation can happen in that second.

And if you are savvy enough to catch that and build up on it, your spiritual path will get established.

A wise person will choose wonder over curiosity.

Eventually, on the spiritual path, the mind starts losing its grip on you, and you start experiencing more and more wonders in life.

In a deeper state, you become so intuned with the consciousness that everything and everyone becomes a wonder.

A beautiful flying butterfly will fill you with wonder.

A tiny mushroom, a caterpillar, a flower bud, your body, or even your single breath can become a source of wonder.

Everything, even every life experience, will become a wonderful gift of the formless almighty, and you will be reborn like a child.

Wonder, unfortunately, is not something you can start practicing.

Practice is the nature of the mind, to learn and practice.

Wonder, as we saw above, has to be spontaneous.

It has to catch your mind off guard.

Otherwise, our mind is continually occupied with the known and the unknown ( trying to make it known ).

Wonder has to happen spontaneously.

You can’t just wait for it to happen either because waiting for it means expecting it to happen sometime in the future, which, again, is the function of the mind.

That’s why the spiritual path is tricky.

You just need patience, keep doing sadhana, and let things happen, but always remain vigilant ( aware ) about what is happening within.

Always stay aware of your sufferings and your joys, keep modifying the direction of your life, keep sacrificing one, and keep choosing the other to keep rising higher towards more and more spontaneous joys until life becomes the joy.

When I first tried solo hikes, it felt odd to walk in the woods without any friends.

But now, it has become an excellent source for my spiritual uplifting.

Going vegan, running marathons, etc, and defying the norms was not easy, but once consciousness started rising, it crushed my mind, and joy got established in my life, now spreading everywhere.

So, don’t be afraid to take challenges in life.

Taking up a challenge means you are always ready for something new.