Hindustan Times
Only thinking leads to non-thinking bliss
All human beings think of something or the other, at least in most of their waking period. If you don’t, you come to a “stop” and it could be as good as dead as no further movement for good or bad takes place! Our thinking is conscious and we know what we are thinking of and what we are planning and “dreaming of”.
Author Eckhart Tolle, however, does not think the way we think on thinking. In his ‘A New Earth — Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose’, Tolle negates the point that we think and we are conscious of it. He says when people think, mostly, it is involuntary, automatic and repetitive.”
Hard to digest even though I can believe that at times a very little part of our thinking, particularly in routine course of life, could be without much thinking. If we accept Tolle’s argument, then we will, to some extent, be downgraded to the level of animals that may have this involuntary kind of thinking and make do with it!
To say that thinking just “happens” to you and to negate it is like saying that “I digest” and “I circulate my blood” may not have takers except a few like Tolle who can think without thinking! I would like to say that even the fact that Tolle is saying all this can’t be a voluntary output but the result of deep thinking and very conscious effort on his part. The fact that you are saying “I don’t think” cannot be involuntary; it has to be part of an active mental exercise and deliberation.
Tolle’s point is that thinking is just a tiny aspect of the totality of your consciousness, the reality of who you are. If it comes to just that, it may be true. But the point to be noted here is that it is thinking that shows the way to the reality. Until we think and very consciously and determinedly, we can’t be in a position to discover our real selves and be one with the inner self. It is thinking that helps us reach the crucial stage of “non-thinking” stage in order to be in bliss, even if for a brief period. Thinking helps one take the correct route to seek consciousness and the ultimate goal of self-realisation. Thinking makes one what one wants to be and conscious of the good and the bad aspects of life.
That is why, Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
(4 votes, average: 1.75 out of 5)
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