{"id":2260,"date":"2018-07-01T15:17:14","date_gmt":"2018-07-01T13:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/awareness-now.org\/?p=2260"},"modified":"2018-07-01T21:21:17","modified_gmt":"2018-07-01T19:21:17","slug":"knowing-without-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/?p=2260","title":{"rendered":"Knowing without Thinking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most people assume that in order to exist or to be<\/span>; one needs to \u201cthink\u201d.\u00a0 Ren\u00e9 Descartes (a French philosopher and scientist) has suggested this in 1637 in his famous statement: \u201ccogito, ergo sum<\/strong>\u201d.\u00a0 (I think, therefore I am)<\/p>\n

He suggested this as proof of the reality of one’s own mind; there must be a thinking entity\u2014in this case the self\u2014for there to be a thought. With the latest insights from neuroscience however, we now know that the \u201cseparate self\u201d is not<\/strong> an entity<\/strong>. Perhaps one could describe it as an activity, but the self is NOT a “thing”.<\/p>\n

This article poses that what most people call \u201cknowing\u201d is actually \u201cconceptual thinking\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cKnowing\u201d in the broader sense does not end however when thinking takes a pause.<\/p>\n

You can test this for yourself: look at someone and see how thoughts come up like: \u201coh, he\/she has nice hair\/a big belly\/a beautiful nose, etc. etc.\u201d\u00a0 Notice how the conceptual\/abstracting thinking puts labels on what you perceive, puts it into a box and limits it. Most people tend to believe such thinking and take it as meaning something real and important.<\/p>\n

Suppose the next day you are asked whether you \u201cknow\u201d this someone\u2026 So what do you answer?\u00a0 Perhaps in your mind thoughts come up which recall something about what you observed the day before, but what do you know really?<\/p>\n

Test this out for yourself: look at someone or something but simply ignore whatever thoughts come up. Perhaps you\u2019ll notice how now and then there is a pause<\/span> between those thoughts. You may be astonished that what you may call \u201cknowing\u201d or \u201cperceiving\u201d does NOT end in the space between thoughts<\/span>!\u00a0 During this silence another form of \u201cknowing\u201d continues, one that is not limited by abstractions, labels, conclusions, or in other words by; \u201cme thinking about something\u201d!<\/p>\n

That kind of \u201cKnowing\u201d goes much deeper, is free, immediate and needs no conclusions, it needs no thoughts actually. When looking at someone or something, you see and sense without the usual labeling and evaluating. To recognize such \u201cKnowing\u201d is the discovery of a great sensitivity, a great freedom. All of the above is not implying that (chronic) conceptual thinking is bad, but it does point to the limitations of it. There is much more to Life than that!<\/p>\n

Have you discovered this too?\u00a0 Feel free to share your experience in the comments below…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most people assume that in order to exist or to be; one needs to \u201cthink\u201d.\u00a0 Ren\u00e9 Descartes (a French philosopher and scientist) has suggested this in 1637 in his famous statement: \u201ccogito, ergo sum\u201d.\u00a0 (I think, therefore I am) He suggested this as proof of the reality of one’s own mind; there must be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2261,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2260"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2269,"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2260\/revisions\/2269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/awareness-now.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}