The curiosity brings in a lighthearted playfulness, an ease and a flow, a purposeless engagement in life. This playful quality invites a sense of adventure and experimentation in the process of exploring and discovering the nature of reality. And all of these qualities are natural expressions of the Yellow aspect, the heart’s joy and delight in participating in the creative dynamism of the soul’s unfoldment.

There can be inquiry even with stillness, when the mind is completely gone. We assume that there is no possibility of inquiry in this state, but that is not true, because inquiry does not have to be verbal. You may think that you have to ask questions with words, but if you say that, you have already put a boundary on how inquiry can proceed. Maybe inquiry can proceed in other ways. Maybe there is curiosity without words, without mind. So even the state of stillness, where there is no mind, can have an inquiring quality to it. There are no limitations.

Another quality, which usually accompanies the love of truth, that of curiosity, is required for purification of the ego. One can have the capacity to be objective, but if one is not curious then one will not have the opportunity to apply it. One must pay attention and be involved in the experience in order to see the truth, and this requires curiosity. Curiosity does not necessarily mean searching for truth. The seeking for truth, realization or enlightenment is a pale reflection of the true quality needed for them. Searching implies desire, it implies an end in mind, it implies preconceptions and assumptions, and hence it is counter to the attitude of love of truth, and counter to objectivity. On the other hand, curiosity involves love for truth, and joy in the truth. True curiosity is a rare quality. It is a quality of Being, and ego usually kills curiosity to avoid exposure of ego’s falsehood. We can often see true curiosity in the play of children. Often when a child finds a new object, he will be so curious and so involved in investigating it, that he becomes completely absorbed in the activity, pulling the object apart or putting it back together, or whatever. He is not seeking a result, or trying to gain something. In fact, after a while, when his curiosity is satisfied, he will probably throw the object away, as if it is of no more interest to him. But during the investigation, which has the character of play, he is totally absorbed, completely enraptured, fully enjoying and loving the investigation. This is just the attitude necessary for inner transformation. Although we call it work, it is more like play. When there is love for truth and curiosity about it, then there is a serious kind of play, profound but light. Curiosity can be seen as the expression of the essential aspect of Joy. And Joy, like love, is a heart quality, which again is an expression of truth.

The basic attitude in the Diamond Approach is to go about knowing where you are in terms of loving the truth for its own sake. You want to find out the truth about who you are not because you want something out of it. Not because you want to be enlightened. Not because you want to be happier in your life. Not because you want to be more successful. But because you really love the truth. When you are really interested in a person or an activity or a place, you love finding out about it, you lose yourself in some sense. You are not self-centered. You go about it with love and appreciation and curiosity. That attitude is of paramount importance in terms of exploring ourselves.

A central, crucial aspect of this work, the spirit of truth, is curiosity. That is the method, the goal and the path. They’re all there, all the time. There is no need to be enlightened to become curious, right? Curiosity is always there, a certain attitude or movement that we’re capable of at any time. And curiosity opens the joy. Joy is curious. Joy is curiosity. As you love the truth, or as truth loves the activity you are engaged in, truth shines. That shining of the truth is the joy. You are being the truth, investigating the truth, loving the truth, and your joy is joy in the truth.

Curiosity leads to the truth without being oriented by the personality. Curiosity is the motivation from Essence itself. Paradoxically, the first thing we need to do is not to seek curiosity. The point is to investigate curiosity, to become curious about curiosity. It is something that cannot be sought, just like happiness can’t be sought. You seek happiness, and you kill it. You seek curiosity, and you kill it. So just observe your moments of curiosity. Be curious about them; see how there is joy there. Joy is the flicker, the spark of curiosity. It is the spark of truth operating. Curiosity is not seeking; it is living.

The childlike quality of the heart manifests as curiosity. Children want to know about everything. What is this and why is that? That attitude has to be there when you want to know what is here. You don't want to leave any stone unturned. You want to know not from the goal-oriented scientific mind of trying to figure something out, but from the joy and wonder in every moment of discovery. If you really get into knowing what is here, each moment feels like the first time. Just like a child who repeats something over and over again without losing any delight or interest. When you explore what is here and now, everything is always for the first time. Who we are is such an infinite richness. If we allow ourselves to go through that investigation, that loving and curious investigation, that then becomes life. Life is nothing but the unfoldment of who we are.

This process of locating yourself is a profoundly personal one, a subtle and sensitive unfolding of inner awareness that does not use obvious external signposts to tell you where you are at any given time. It requires discipline and patience, gentleness and attunement, because the only one who can know where your consciousness is is you. To truly be where you are requires a capacity for listening, a willingness to be open, and a curiosity about your own experience that most likely few people have ever shown toward you. What this calls for is the development of your ability to truly witness yourself, to be a pure and undistorted mirror for where and how you are appearing in the moment. Ultimately, this means seeing yourself without the aid of anyone else’s perspective, anyone else’s experience, or anyone else’s beliefs and judgments. It means not seeing yourself from the outside or locating yourself by where you are relative to external criteria. It is by seeing yourself from inside, from the center of your own experience, that you can discover your own truth, the untouched True Nature of what you are.

Another quality, which usually accompanies the love of truth, that of curiosity, is required for purification of the ego. One can have the capacity to be objective, but if one is not serious then one will not have the opportunity to apply it. One must pay attention and be involved in the experience in order to see the truth, and this requires curiosity. Curiosity does not necessarily mean searching for truth. The seeking for truth, realization or enlightenment is a pale reflection of the true quality needed for them. Searching implies desire, it implies an end in mind, it implies preconceptions and assumptions, and hence it is counter to the attitude of love of truth, and counter to objectivity. On the other hand, curiosity involves love for truth, and joy in the truth. True curiosity is a rare quality. It is a quality of Being, and ego usually kills curiosity to avoid exposure of ego's falsehood. 

So curiosity, or the spirit of truth, is not just seeking the truth; it is not a goal-oriented activity. When the child is seeking truth by dismantling a doll, this is not time-oriented seeking. There is a joy in every second. The activity itself is full of aliveness, excitement, sensation, appreciation. It’s as if you put all of yourself in one point—mind, heart, sensation. I think this should be the main principle of our lives because when we are curious we are completely whole, happy. We are doing what we are made to do. We are not engaging in the things that bring us more and more suffering and frustration. We are engaged in something that frees the heart and mind without even seeking that freedom. The process itself is the freedom. You are free every moment that you are completely curious. Whatever happens to be there, you’re in love with it. You’re completely in love with yourself, with your existence. You’re completely in love with whatever is presented to you. You love it so much that you want to know everything about it.