2 years ago

Self-Inquiry
Exploring the Profound Question of Thought

AMIHAI LOVEN
JUL 27, 2023

https://creativethreads.net/2023/07/27/self-inquiry/

How is it that so rarely thought asks to know its true nature?

How is it that thought so seldom seeks to understand its true nature? Constantly, without exception, thought seeks to think, to continue generating material, to process it, come up with additions, modify it, delve deeper into it, but all using the tools of thought and all painted in the hues of cognition.

Why is it that thought so infrequently questions anything? By questioning, I mean seeking the essence, to truly perceive, to encounter what truly is.

Why is it so infrequent and even more so, why is it so rare that thought seeks to perceive its own nature clearly? It's as if by seeing that, it might vanish, and by avoiding it, its performance continues.

You're hearing this question now because someone else's thinking was orbiting around it. But how do you greet these words, which are thoughts delivered to you and intersect with your own thinking?

Do you strive to comprehend them as if it were possible to truly understand words? Do you seek meaning, depth, or even essence within the words? If you do, that is the process of thought, endeavoring to draw conclusions, striving to interpret layers of information, and so forth.

Or perhaps, as you hear these words, read them and let them resonate within you, there exists a genuine interest to look beyond the words, to discern if there's substance, a foundation, a beginning, and source for what is being said and for the words being used.

To clarify even further, it’s as if you're viewing a painting and your sole interest is to become familiar with the ink, regardless of the lines it created, the dots, the shapes, or the magnificent drawing.

In this analogy, ink—the material—is compared to thought as a material. What is the substance of thought? What is thought composed of? You've heard people discuss it, some of whom you consider wise and even trust, but with which ears did you listen? With the ears of thought that agree and disagree, that process and assimilate, that retain it as knowledge?

This is the challenge for thought, now, to observe itself, not its appearance, to seek its essence, not its reason, to transcend by producing a different kind of movement—the movement of absolute questioning.

Absolute questioning cannot be fabricated by words. Words might exist there, but the essence of the question is the absence of any knowledge, any words, any symbols, any projection of ideas, anything at all. This is the question.

What's the role of thought if not to ask the ultimate question that can engulf all that is made by thought and reveal to thought—the act of thinking—the nature of itself?

The challenge, as always, is for you, not someone else, to look at it now and question ceaselessly.

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