Dear World,
Our thoughts are not real.
At least not in any sense that they should ever be granted primary reality value.
We are.
The objective, sensuous world is real, and it is only by treating as such that we can develop a proper morality. Throughout life, we focus our intention upon it and maybe one day a transformation may occur and we shall come to know ourselves as inseparable from that very world. This understanding may come as a tremendous shock, a satori in Zen. Or others may instinctively feel connection under the surface, a connection that may remain hidden but over time become subtly known.
It is not by belief or the process of thought that we come to care about one another. Endowed with eyes to see, a cognitive capacity and mirror-neurons, perception is paramount and religious morality is not only unnecessary, it's contradictory. That is to say, thought is not required for morality. Just Being. We need not a higher power to tell us how to behave; we need only learn how to open our eyes without tinting our experience through the lens of our thought. Just by observing empathy and noting the fact we're all trying to decipher this existential riddle together, we are united.
Our thoughts are not real. But they can become so. We have to prove our ideas real by bringing them into the world. Through scientific conceptualization, limiting-language, logic, and coherency. We must endeavour to distill them from the ether so that we might share them with others. For if we cannot share them, they will forever remain devoid of meaning. Furthermore, we must tangibly manifest them in the world to grant them an intersubjective value. This is the very maxim of science; proof by experiment.
Our thoughts are not real. An evolutionarily inherited miracle, a tool at the disposal of the Will in its search for Truth. A strong Will is capable of guiding thought to the very doors of Knowledge and having the courage to walk through it. Consider any "genius" and you'll know my meaning. Archimedes' "Eureka in the bathtub!" This giant was willfully pondering geometry and mathematics in the baths when he had his blissful breakthrough. Then he showed his work and distilled thought into reality. The rest, history.
Small minds allow themselves to be led by their thoughts. Their false opinions aggravate anger; their baseless beliefs sew stress where there would otherwise be none. They ponder petty trivialities instead of commanding their thoughts and willing their efforts towards something substantial. The unknowingly follow fear on an endless crusade to be "right," never realizing how wrong they are. They breed hate by intellectual laziness, a fear of humility and a non-existent integrity. To be sure, the fanatic fully believes he's justified. However, this is only within the confines of his own shallow mind, a place with little meaning.
It is this mistake that allows so much evil into the world. Shallow thinkers internally hypnotize themselves into an ivory tower of unfettered thought and baseless opinion and never checking it against experience it becomes grotesquely distorted. No longer do they see the real world. An ideological veil covers their senses, and they become dumb and blind.
As to the state of the world, the constant corruption and greed, fear politics and terrorism, in some esoteric sense, I know myself to be connected to that. Deep down and all the way in; in some strange way, I am that. We are that; the movement of the whole. And it's complete ignorance of this deeper interconnection that leads to the atrocities of the world.
The fanatics know nothing of Higher Knowledge. Lost in what they "think" they know.
Thought must always remain subordinate to the Will. For only Will is guided by the heart and untainted by the brain's thinking. Thought should never be given primacy and allowed to manipulate the Will. This is the error.
The philosopher sage Franklin Merrell-Wolff writes: "Will is neither good nor evil but an entirely neutral power. The Will directed by ignorance becomes evil in its manifestation, but if directed by Knowledge, it either becomes good or manifests on a level where the duality of good and evil is not relevant."
The sooner we learn how to think and decide for ourselves what deserves our attention the better the world will be. It is up to us to decide.
Choose wisely!
Casey Mitchell is an avid reader and incurable thinker who finally thought to pick up the pen to share his thoughts on life and love and the meaning of existence. A lover of philosophy, he is consistently perplexed and amazed by the ever-unfolding universe. He is the creative pulse behind SophiasIchor.com and writes to share his curiosity and thoughts about this mystery we live.
This article (Will Vs. Thought — Reality Valuation and the Roots of Fanaticism) was originally created and published by Sophias Ichor and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Casey Mitchell and sophiasichor.com It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.