I think therefore I am

The purpose of the brain is not for us to realise we are the agent of all our actions. This is the ultimate egotism. A sense of self was an evolutionary necessity so that external behaviours could be fed back for examination and improvement, for an advantage to be gained over bigger teeth or longer claws. The ego is merely a by-product, not the cause of thoughts, or ‘our’ actions. ‘I think, therefore I am’ is a sham. The truth is there is no independent ‘I’, just the thought that thinks ‘I am!’

Chasing your own tail

This mind is a dog that cannot cease
to chase its own tail,
wondering if on the next pass
it will be victorious,
and kill itself with a final bite.

The sword

The sword that has no enemy to kill,
Can only cut it’s wielder.

A new definition of intelligence

So perhaps instead of defining intelligence by the number and brilliance of the thoughts that occur to us, we should instead look to the brain that can quieten its own thoughts; that can know their value and their place and keep them in check? This is a mind that never loses perspective and can learn from experience without being enslaved by it.

Observing thoughts

But how can the brain select between thoughts without relying on some past criteria? Any greater intelligence cannot use a selection process, for this is nothing more than one thought measuring another in its cage of space and time. Therefore intelligence cannot select, it can only observe. And this is what we can do to leave the ‘I’ behind and experience freedom from our thoughts. We should become a keen observer and student of the process of thought. Only that way can the brain be shown the fallacy and limitations of thought.

Next: a new definition of intelligence

A question that cannot be answered

Yet the idea of leaving the past and our old selves behind, of living in the moment where life is fresh and new and original, is one that won’t go away. This becomes like a question that cannot be answered. Such questions disturb and unbalance the brain because they perpetuate thought – thought that without a greater intelligence cannot answer the question because they are just memories. They never have quite enough information until after the event. To solve the problem the brain must be able to dismiss such thoughts until at last a thought occurs that can advance things by allowing a new question to be formed.

Next: Observing thoughts

No way beyond thought with thought

And yet thought cannot go beyond thought. We cannot put ‘I’ away, for that would be nothing more than one thought saying ‘shoo’ to another. This just creates more division in the mind, where we think ‘I must do this’, ‘I must not do that’. This has led to the world we live in today, with country against country, and ethnic, religious and political groups all opposed to one another on the basis of nothing more than an idea made with thought.

Next: A question that cannot be answered.

More than thought

Yet the fact that we can be aware of our thought and not be absorbed entirely into it proves that we are not thought, we are more than thought. Then, when we become wearied by the weight and repetition of our incessant thoughts, we seek a way to quieten them, a way to go beyond them. This is the spiritual quest.

Next: no way beyond thought with thought.

Victory & Defeat

Can victory ever last,
When our beaten foe desires revenge?
Can we ever cease to want our way,
When we have been cheated?
There is another way -
Where abundant spoils are shared,
When we do not fear for tomorrow’s meal,
And where winner and loser labels are put away,
As the outdated terms of an unenlightened age.

Fades to Grey

Thought – a regurgitated memory,
Repeated again and again,
An image blinding eyes that would see clearly,
If not for this litany of comparisons,
This life escaped from,
Pain fled and pleasure sought,
Till all fades to grey.