Curiosity that Extends Everywhere

   I have been reflecting today about the importance of having an open curiosity to learn from others. It's not so easy to cultivate this curiosity, but I believe that it's possible to do so intentionally, just as one practices loving kindness with intention. What would be the ingredients in this curiosity, however?
  When I think about what it means to be curious about anything, I think about the leap of faith that is required. If a person doesn't have faith that there is a fundamental common ground that connects all sentient life, it's hard to make that leap of faith: how easy, in fact, it can be to go the opposite direction and think that there are enormous and insurmountable 'gulf' of difference between people. But without that basic faith, it can be quite difficult to try to be curious about others. Christian faith sees the life and death of Jesus as the bridging between all people, while Buddhist faith will tend to look at Buddha nature as a universal potential that links all living forms. In both cases, there is the cultivation of a belief in what life shares in common, which far surmounts the elements that make people different.
   I am also aware that curiosity needs to be tentative and not connected with a pretentious aspect of self-advancement. To be curious seems to involve a kind of tentative grasping that is somewhat playful and not overly ambitious to fulfill an agenda. From a spiritual view, this is perhaps because we again are imbued with a faith that things are already deeply fulfilled within us, and there isn't anything to 'join' since the joined bond already exists. To be really convinced of this (grace or forgiveness?) is to have the liberty to participate in a communion with others without having the burden of self-judgment and self-condemnation around or within us.