Curious about curiosity

Recently I started teaching at the Sunday Dhamma School at the Calgary Buddhist Temple. I was a little bit reluctant to take on the invitation to teach, since I had never taught children before. Plus I was not sure whether I would be able to relate to them and make them understand the Dhamma as I knew it. Anyway, throwing caution to the wind, I decided to take it up. It's been about a month siince I started and I must admidt that those 10 year old children have been wonderful guides in my teaching career.

The one thing that took me by surprise was their level of curiosity. I did not think children as 10 years of age would be, of all things, curious to know about the Dhamma. But I guess they do not see it as Dhamma. They see it as just another topic for them to know, understand, be curious about and fun with. I find it very refreshing. They are never shy or hesitant to ask questions and all kinds of questions. Wonderful perspectives, inviting more questions. I find with each class I take, that my knowledge of the Dhamma increases just becasue I need to be able to keep up with their questions.

After being a Human Resources Professional for about 8 years and using most of my career for training, development and coaching of adults, I find that children have a sense of curiosity unparrelleld to most adults. It made me wonder why?

One reason could be because they have an open mind undiluted by years of what we call "experience". Hence, they tend to absorb things fast and because they have little previous training they have little to match against what is being taught. So, things stick easily. Becasue they know little, they also tend to ask questions to learn more, grasp more. I guess in some ways they are building their 'future templates'.

This is greatly helped by the fact that they have very little ego. Ego is having a sense of who we are. The bigger the ego the bigger the sense of who I am. If one has a big ego, then one is less likely to learn because learnig is taking on new and different perspectives, new ideas, and unlearning and relearning what you already know. So a person with a big sense of ego, will not find it easy to learn new things, becasue that means they have to put their ego aside, at least for a while. Putting the ego aside means letting go of your sense of self worth for a while. For adults this is a very difficult exercise. That's why some people go through the same problems and issues in life over and over again without changing their way of approaching that issue. Also as adults we need to worry about how well our ego looks and matches up aginst the rest of the world. So asking a question, basically showing that you may not know the answer is a tough one. So many adults pretend to know, understand rather than ask questions. Isn't that why there are so many misunderstanding in the adult world?!!! Or isn't that why sometimes when an adult is given instructions, despite showing full comprehension, they go do something totally different to what was told?!

Children, in my opinion, have very little ego. So they are not scared to ask questions. They are not scared to voice an opinion and certainley not scared of learning something new without questioning why they ought to learn it or the validity of what is being taught. I find that very refreshing.

I wish that most adults would cultivate that level of curiosity in themselves and their children. Of course I don't mean the curiosity to know what your neighbour is up to, or what everyone else did during the weekends or who is wearing what and the list goes on. This kind of curosity is actually a way of building up your ego. Are you curious about others because you want to talk nice things about them? More often than not we are curious about things and others becasue we want to make ourselves look good compared to others. Or becasue we are jealous. "Oh they have an increadible wardrobe, a great body, I wish I had that"....and so on.

The kind of curiosity I'm talking about is the kind that helps you to learn something new that would add value to your life. It's the kind of curiosity that would help you to gain a fresh perspective, a change in direction in life and a way to solve a problem that you may have struggled with over and over. It's the kind of curiosity that would help you to see the truth, no matter how difficult that truth may be. Basically, it's the kind of curiosity, if developed, that can make you a better person.