Thoughtless Minds - Refashioned

    I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately: thinking about life, thinking about happiness, thinking about the future, and indeed thinking about thinking. Out of all this thinking I was hoping to find some answers, some meaning I could take with me and share with others. But the problem is that thoughts have a persnickety tendency to get more complex, more convoluted unless under the tutelage of a supremely focused mind. One thought leads to another which leads to another and another and another; it is a never ending stream of run-on ideas, parenthetical additions, and dialectical digressions (see fantastic picture right). The end result of all my mental meandering was something that resembled graffiti on a bathroom stall more than a carefully constructed concept worthy of telling another person.

While nearly drowning in my own sea of thoughts (that would be quite a way to go),  a thought emerged that stated thinking is not the answer. This was quite a peculiar thought, I thought to myself, sort of like a stop codon in a transcribing RNA. Such a self-sacrificing thought says nothing lies ahead, terminate thinking process here. So I did what any sensible person would do, I obeyed the thought which told me to stop thinking. And there among the sunshine and sands of a pristine Thai beach, I tried my hardest to suspend all thought and just be.

This is not the first time I’ve stopped thinking. In fact I do it quite regularly when I’m meditating or exercising. The truth is that cultures have been cultivating the art of “non-thought” for centuries. Meditation centers around the practice of moving beyond the thinking mind to a state of higher awareness. Similarly, Taoism and the Kabbalah teach that we should strive to flow mindlessly in the currents of life. Despite such traditions, the ethos of Western society places such a tremendous value upon thinking, specifically scientific, analytical thought, that we often overlook the benefits of a thoughtless mind. Although we might take a long stroll to “clear our head”, such acts of thoughtlessness are scarcely scattered between our preferred mode of operating--utilizing the medium of thoughts. Just listen to our language. “Let me think it over and get back to you.” “I’d like to share a few thoughts.” “Oh, how thoughtful of you.” In today's world if you don’t bother to think about it, you may as well forget it all together.

Our cultural penchant for thinking is either the cause or symptom (I’ve yet to decide which) of our industrious work ethic. Americans idealize hard work, and idleness is synonymous with laziness. In fact when I look up idle in the thesaurus, the overwhelming majority of synonyms are negative: redundant, indolent, futile, pointless, worthless, useless, empty, etc. In other words, idle is bad; work is good. If we’re not constantly thinking or keeping busy, we feel guilty. Even when we have some downtime, there’s a nagging notion that we should be somewhere else doing something else. As a result, even our leisure time is a carefully doled out activity that must be scheduled in advanced. We have successfully demonized any state of inactivity; as a result, we’ve forgotten the joys of quiescence and thoughtlessness. In Alexander Green’s blog post In Praise of Idleness he says: “Hebrew sages taught that when you are first welcomed into heaven, a record is revealed to you of all the many times in your past when you could really have been happy and enjoyed some moment but failed to do so. And then you are called to repent of each and every one of those moments.”

In a similar vein, Eric Weiner the author of the wonderfully witty travelogue The Geography of Bliss, describes himself as a thoughtful person prone to fall into the trap of thinking just to avoid idleness. In a chapter he wrote while (coincidentally) in Thailand, he discloses: “I’ve spent most of my life trying to think my way to happiness, and my failure to achieve that goal only proves, in my mind, that I’m not a good enough thinker. It never occurred to me that the source of my unhappiness is not flawed thinking, but thinking itself.”

Sometimes thinking, or more likely over-thinking and over-analyzing are sources of discontent themselves. For that reason, I’d like to make a plea for all the over-thinkers in the world to occasionally let it go. Just live without questioning, scrutinizing, and evaluating every act of living. Be aware of how this state of being makes your feel, but please try not to think about it.

At this point some of you who have read my first post may point out that the initial reason for naming this blog Thoughtless Minds was to mock the thoughtless existence our routinized, mechanized, and computerized society. If anything I was proposing that we need to do more thinking, not less. However I was specifically advocating deep thinking about human nature, consciousness, and how we can evolve to become better people. Such meaningful discourse is much different than the typical superficial thinking that society promotes. Thus I am not reneging my initial words, simply amending them.

I have come to recognize that analytical thought can only take us so far. While thinking is a wonderful place to begin dissecting and illuminating difficult questions, there are times when we are prone to drown in our own analysis and must stop, step back, and let the situation rest. These moments of thoughtlessness are often moments of intense creativity and enlightenment. Thus a truly wise person understands that the balance between a thoughtful and a thoughtless mind is an essential part of achieving what can be called nothing else than peace of mind.

Perhaps the ideal embodiment of this balance between thinking and non-thinking is in the Taoist sage. The sage perceives and understands all opposites as part of the same system; thoughtful and thoughtless should not be opposed to one another but brought into harmony and balance. Thus the Taoist sage acts without action and thinks without thinking. In other words, the sage acts in a manner that is spontaneous and effortless, aligned with the Tao and no longer in need of the deliberate part of mind that busies itself guesstimating and evaluating various courses of action.

So if possible, the next time you find yourself in a state of frustration, confusion, or despair, don’t try to think it through, but do as a Taoist sage would and try being without thought. Ted Kardash writes in his online reader on Taoism, “We must learn to rely on more than just our intellect and logical mind to gather and assess information. We [should] develop and trust our intuition as our direct connection to the Tao. [When] we heed the intelligence of our whole body, not only our brain…we get action that is spontaneous, natural, and effortless.” This is the highest aim of a Thoughtless Mind: acting so naturally that no thought is required.

Go forth and don't think about living without thinking. Embrace contradiction. Love paradox.