Curiosity and Emptiness

The scary thing about striving for intellectual pursuits is that as soon as one stops thinking, stops having something to think about, it's all gone, as if it's not even there. When there's no epiphany going on, I feel empty, and I know that I need to let anything that's to come next come out of this emptiness, but for some reason I'm afraid to let go, afraid that it will swallow me up and I will not emerge from it again. How can I trust the emptiness to bring me to enlightenment? But that's the point, that's what intelligence is, and that's why most people lack intelligence: they fear the unknown and will not surrender themselves to it. In fact, the more I let go, the more intelligence I will achieve. The Dalai Lama is living proof of that: they picked a more or less random person, but he became so intelligent because he learned to always be curious through meditation. Everyone else was waiting for his blessing: he could not rely on anyone else. We need to remain curious about what will happen when we submerge ourselves into the emptiness, into the unknown, and what new insights will come out of it on the other side.