LAW OF THREE (61) The Purpose of Thinking (2)

LAW OF THREE (61)

THE PURPOSE OF THINKING (2)

"If you are going to think, at least THINK. Use your own mind, heart, and grounded presence to see what is actually going on and try to understand with what is the most awake in you, not the most asleep" Cynthia Bourgeault

The question is: can we THINK?

"The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking"

Martin Heidegger, What is called thinking.

Implicit in the above quotations is that the power to THINK needs to be developed. In an earlier blog (59), I wrote: "From an intellectual perspective, thinking needs to evolve into understanding in order to become an instrument of the will." As it is, in its undeveloped state, thinking maintains the dream of a separate existence, preventing us from thinking for ourselves. We are prey of a thinking process that goes on subjectively without purpose or self-critical reflection.

In its undeveloped state our attention is trapped by thought. When the attention is free from its attachment to thought we are able to observe consciously and objectively the stream of thought. Out of this detached observing,  understanding may arise. This arising of understanding requires our conscious presence (reconciling force) or as Cynthia puts it, it requires the presence of 'what is most awake in us'.

In true thinking our attention needs to play a discerning role in the articulation of thought. We need to actively be able to think our thoughts, instead of our thoughts thinking us. This change of direction of thinking can start with the question: Am I in control of my thinking?

Only when we are in control of our thinking are we responsible for our thinking. The first step in the evolution of thought requires our witnessing presence. It requires the discerning presence or what is the most awake in us.'

Perhaps Rene Descartes was right after all in his famous 'cogito, ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) if he meant: 'I can think, only when I am'.