We all think. Right? Wrong. Few of us really think. Thinking is a lost Art.
The Art of Thinking requires the ability to permit the mind to come fully into focus on something, to search for the essence of that something. It could be a thought, a feeling, an experience, or an object. By contemplating that thought, feeling, experience, or object profoundly, the secrets of the universe open up to us.
Yet here is the Zen of Thinking. Before we can fill our mind with the contemplated "thing", we need to completely empty o
ur mind. That is extremely difficult! The practice of Yoga and Meditation has honed the science of emptying the mind to an art. The benefit of emptying the mind is that we also release ourselves from the thoughts, feelings, sensations, and experiences that actually block our ability to think. The Zen is that the beginning of the Art of Thinking is no thinking!Once we have emptied our mind, then we are ready to fully contemplate. Paulo Coelho wrote: "All you have to do is contemplate a simple grain of sand, and you will see in it all the marvels of creation." That quote is famous for a reason. Because it is true. When we fully contemplate even a grain of sand, we peer into the way the universe is created. We contemplate the interconnectedness of creation. We ponder the beyond creation, the spiritual reality. We loft our mind into the divine. Now that is Thinking! Fully contemplating any creation of God liberates our mind and spirit.
Shakespeare portrayed Hamlet contemplating Yorick's skull. A human skull more readily has a thought provoking power than a grain of sand, especially if the skull belonged to someone we knew. We naturally drift into a contemplation of the impermanence of life on earth and reflections on the life after death. Indeed, I think that it would be true to say that the beginning of wisdom comes from the contemplation of death. We quickly come to the thought, is this all there is or is there more after death? We begin to ponder the spiritual.
You see, it is when we ponder the spiritual that our thinking is put to the real test. Can we contemplate from what we see to what we can't see? That is where the power of the mind and the Art of Thinking rises to its fully glory. Only with the mind can we fully comprehend the spiritual reality. Anyone who denies eternal spiritual reality will be a cynical Hamlet contemplating Yorick's skull. The person who embraces the spiritual reality with their mind finds liberation from cynicism.
The power of the mind, the Art of Thinking, becomes energized with the realm of feeling. There can be no profound thought without feeling. Reality is feeling and the essence of a thing contemplated can only be grasped through feeling. That is why art, music, and mathematics have such a profound sway upon the thinking person. We can grasp truth through art, music, and mathematics that can never be grasped logically. All truth has at its core ecstasy or joy.
We have the ability, and the responsibility, to discover the truth through practicing the Art of Thinking. The ability to find and recognize the truth. Ah, yes, there is the rub! What is truth?
37"You are a king, then!" said Pilate.
Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me."38"What is truth?" Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, "I find no basis for a charge against him. John 18:37-38 (New International Version)
Pilate said the
re is no way to know truth so don't bother. Jesus said the truth is within us, that the Kingdom of God is within us. Jesus taught us to have confidence in ourselves, in our ability to know the truth.
One of the key reasons we have lost the Art of Thinking is that we have lost the confidence that we are capable of discovering what is true. We feel that we need something or someone to help us understand, to tell us what to believe, to tell us what is true.
Well, here is the secret. We possess the power to know the nature of things by exercising the power of our minds to think. That's the secret. Think. We can only understand the nature of life, the purpose of life, through the naked power of the mind. We can only understand by practicing the Art of Thinking.
re is no way to know truth so don't bother. Jesus said the truth is within us, that the Kingdom of God is within us. Jesus taught us to have confidence in ourselves, in our ability to know the truth.One of the key reasons we have lost the Art of Thinking is that we have lost the confidence that we are capable of discovering what is true. We feel that we need something or someone to help us understand, to tell us what to believe, to tell us what is true.
Well, here is the secret. We possess the power to know the nature of things by exercising the power of our minds to think. That's the secret. Think. We can only understand the nature of life, the purpose of life, through the naked power of the mind. We can only understand by practicing the Art of Thinking.
