Dr. Vijai S Shankar MD.PhD.
Published on www.academy-advaita.com
The Netherlands
9th October 2016
Thinking (1)
“What is it?”
A philosopher or an intellectual is proud of the capacity of his thinking powers.
They are applauded by society and are bestowed with awards for their thinking capacity.
Many want, wish and desire to be world-renowned philosophers and likewise renowned intellectuals in any field.
Though they want, wish and desire, only a minority turn out to be renowned either as philosophers or as intellectuals in various fields, while the majority do not. This is attributed to the capacity of the intellect in the minority.
Now, does logic and reason validate that has man control over his intellect? The obvious answer by reason and logic is that he has none, because if man has control over his intellect he could very well be as intellectual as he wants, wishes or desires. Man has no control over his intellect because the intellect evolves and logic and reason validates that man has no control over evolution. Evolution is a natural process and man does not control nature.
This indicates that the thinking is a natural process that has evolved in man as a process in evolution. Man needs to be grateful to life for gifting him the thinking process.
Thinking process is a doing that gets thoughts done, just as doing is a process of action that gets things done. Both the doing of an action and the doing of thinking, however, happen in the moment and have evolved.
Now how could logic and reason indicate that the thinking process has evolved? The answer is revealed when a child is observed as it grows up. The child initially utters sound and the parents do not teach the child how to utter sounds.
As the child grows the child evolves to speak and eventually the process of thinking evolves as well. This indicates that sounds have evolved as the process of thinking. Now what could the logic and reason in evidence be that thinking has evolved from sound?
The evidence is the deep understanding of a moment. The time duration within a moment has not been defined as yet. The smallest unit of time defined so far is one atto second, which is one billionth of a billionth of a second. Within this time-frame only a part of the process of thinking could be present within a moment and not the complete process.
A part in the process of thinking is a part of a phoneme and not the complete phoneme. A complete phoneme is a unit of sound, and every letter is a phoneme. Therefore, not even a letter is present within a moment. Only a part of a sound is present within a moment. As the child only utters sounds and not even a letter, it is obvious to logic and reason that sounds evolve as letters and words and eventually to the process of thinking. Sound is an inherent characteristic of any living being and neither man nor any living being makes sound. Sounds evolve in man as they do in any living being.
That thinking evolves is evident because the first thought in the morning happens to man and he does not make it. He also does not know the last thought before sleep overcomes him.
Therefore, thinking evolves in man and he is what life has evolved him to be. He cannot be other than what he is. Therefore, it is wisdom to accept man as he is in any moment and not expect him to be as he should be according to man’s logical thinking.
Author: Dr. Vijai S. Shankar
© Copyright V. S. Shankar 2016
Editor’s Note:
In this remarkable article, life reveals yet another step out of the unreality of two of the most basic, assumed, human features for which every human being, no matter his or her age, is held entirely responsible: doing and thinking.
The wise provide a simple yet scarcely understood, never mind practised, release: deep understanding. The deep understanding of a moment is offered and is available to every human being as a release from a life-time of mental conditioning. This conditioning slaps a conclusion or verdict, often in the form of an adjective, on any and every expression of human activity or thought. The word ‘adjective’ is derived from its Latin origin meaning ‘thrown at’ or ‘added to’. Respect for the detailed precision of the expressions of nature, albeit illusory, is a hall-mark of deep understanding.
Julian Capper, U.K
German Translator’s Note:
Humans are thinking and talking animals, this makes them believe in free will instead of instinctive living which is attributed to animals. As the expression, as a synonym for man, “thinking and talking animal“ suggests, man is an evolved animal. There is no free will in evolution, so where could have come free will into play when animals evolve as humans? The illusion of free will has evolved, not real free will. Deep understanding of what thinking really is, as presented in this article, is freedom from free will. It does not bother us any more, though the illusion of free will is precisely present.
Marcus Stegmaier, Germany.