I Think Therefore...

Sunday, Oct 5, 2008 10:54 PM

Posted By CoCo

Yes, yes, it was Rene’ Descartes who said, “I think, therefore I am.” Cogito Ergo Sum. This was his philosophical theory that was based on the fact that if he doubted things (via thinking) it proved his existence.

If you are one of the few souls with my personal number and get my voicemail upon a missed called, you will hear this thought; not the Latin version of course. In my reading last night, I came across the passage by the 16^th century Saint Teresa of Avila:

“…thinking is not the same as mindfulness.”

However, she also pondered the idea that if the mind is one of the faculties of the soul why then is it sometimes so restless? I can totally relate.

Yesterday sitting a few feet from the shoreline allowing the waves to speak to my soul, my mind was restless. I had come there to think -- both actively and passively. At one point, I’d gotten into a phone conversation with a dear friend about a topic and, they reminded me not to over think the issues at hand.

You see, I am a thinker. This includes actively guiding my thoughts when solving problems at my desk, as well as being passive sitting before the ocean as I did yesterday. But as a natural scientist and engineer, thinking is the essential tool – and critical thinking at that. Moreover, as a creative artist I am always thinking of the endless possibilities of plots, articles, entries, essays, character sketches, dialogues, etcetera.

According to Descartes’ deduction -- I AM. Maybe I should have one of those sculptures of that Greek chin resting on fist ‘thinking’ guy with my own face etched in. I’m cerebral; both hemispheres – the engineer and the artist. I love thinking and figuring things out, just as much as I love writing or sketching or painting. Descartes was a philosopher, mathematician, scientist, and writer – arguably a master of dual hemispheres. How great is that?

In the book How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci the author, Michael Gelb, provides an introduction to the essential elements of genius derived from Da Vinci’s notebooks and his celebration of an insatiably curious approach to life and willingness to embrace uncertainty and paradox.

The New Age era ushered forth the idea of thinking things into being with concepts such as creative visualization techniques. Nowadays, we have books/films such as The Secret teaching the concept that our reality is ultimately shaped by our fundamental thinking patterns and the energies we attract by our thoughts.

But there’s more. Or less, shall I say…this is perhaps what Saint Teresa of Avila was getting at -- this notion of mindfulness. I personally understand this more as a passive mode of thinking, or better yet, being, versus active thinking. Mindfulness allows for the intuitive processes of the soul to come into play. It’s best characterized by a heart thinking, versus mind thinking. Saint Teresa teaches a further step as she wrote back in the late 1500’s:

“...the important thing is not to think much but to love much,

and so to do whatever best awakens you for love.”

Yes, I will always, always be a thinker. I am most grateful for this. But better yet, I am more grateful for the insatiable quest for knowledge and incessant thirst for spiritual awareness and soul-growth.

So as I am reminded by friends (and saints) one of my primary goals in life can be most articulated as the desire for mindfulness and the desire for my soul to be whole within its quietude, its love, its longing, and its clarity of consciousness. I whole-heartedly feel that mindfulness has much to do with the absolute personal development of humility entwined with intuition.

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2 Comment(s):

CoCo said...

Hey Lin, Fantastic! When I get to visit this winter, I would love to be welcomed with a mindless game of Scrabble. But you are dead on with this mindlessness -- this is exactly what's going on when I sit and color with my girls. Kids really do have the luxury of enjoying such mindless, mind-building activities. Can you imagine the looks we'd get if we sit at the coffee shop coloring in coloring books - even knowing how good that mindless state feels? But let's do that as well. Mindless Merida, here I come!

Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 8:01 PM

lin dorton said...

I would like to add this. Mindlessness. Think this: Mindlessness "allows for the intuitive processes of the soul to come into play." I think that occasional bouts of mindlessness are brain stimulants. For a thinker like you (or me) I suggest a good game of Scrabble, some crossword puzzles, or better yet a coloring book! I find I do my best thinking about serious matters when I am concentrating only on which colors will best fill those white spaces. Or looking for the best word with my letters. Later I feel like somehow I worked through the deeper matters at hand without going through the overthinking process, or any thinking process at all for that matter. Next time your head is spinning with too many thoughts take a coloring book and a few gel pens to the beach with you, or better yet a sketch pad. I prefer the coloring book because my sketches suck.

Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 3:57 PM