When you’re curious about something, there is a difference between asking simply what something is and asking whether it’s the “right” one.

Starting an exploration on Buddhism, for instance, by asking what different types of Buddhism exist and exploring them all openly is much different than starting with your underlying question being “what type of Buddhism is best?”

With the Internet providing easy access to everyone else’s opinions about everything, it’s easy to slip into the habit of using others’ opinions as shortcuts. This might work well for a quick restaurant choice, but perhaps not so well when trying to explore something more holistically and decide what the right fit is for you.

If all of our curiosity ends up getting filtered through the reviews of others, we end up placing value on and ranking things we haven’t even had a chance to explore for ourselves yet. And we can develop anxiety around whether or not we are choosing the “right one,” forgetting that we have the capacity to decide for ourselves what works and what we like, even if it conflicts with what others have already earmarked as the right choice.

Stripping away the question of rightness and focusing solely on exploring what is leads to an openness in exploration that we too often deprive ourselves of.