In this
modern age, it is not unusual to associate thinking with a mental activity that
creates ideas. It is, I suppose in a certain sense, one of the most strenuous human
activities that can be undertaken. Even when we may not appear physically
active, it is not unusual to feel exhausted after thinking. But what is
thinking really? What actually transpires when we think? Not easy questions for
sure but let us try to imagine what happens when we think.
Whenever I
have to think, I used to believe that in my head, some phenomena occurred that
resulted in thought. And somehow, I could “see” that thought as a result. This
would then lead me to do whatever it is that I did. As I grew older and began
to learn about anthroposophy, I began to observe what actually took place when
I was thinking. At first it was difficult to imagine this as I thought it was
instantaneous. In many ways it is, and in other ways, it was actually
observable. What I began to observe and understand was thinking involved life
experiences. As my life experiences grew, it was like my thinking grew as well.
I was not necessarily smarter than before; but my connections to these life
experiences grew stronger in some cases and weaker in others. I could now see
that when I had to think or really apply myself to thinking that it was like
there was a whole array of life experiences that flashed before my eyes and by
linking them, I found out that idea or thoughts were born. This observation,
combined with what I had studied and continue to study in anthroposophy, led to
an interesting conclusion. Thinking is not about intelligence per se but about like experiences. Since
the life experiences occurred in the world, then thinking was about a
connection (my life) with the world (experiences). In a sense, if feeling, as mentioned in my
previous post, is about how I experienced the world, thinking then was about
how I connected to the world or as various literature of anthroposophy puts it,
I make the world mine.
We are
flooded with experiences in our daily lives. Sometimes these experiences may be
intense; at other times they are almost imperceptible. But they are there. Not
all of these experiences may be significant, while others, we cannot do
without. And yet, that is all they are: experiences. Somehow, even if the
experience is our own, there is a need to internalize or embrace the
experience, so to speak, and make it our own. Unless an experience is our own,
then it just remains that, an experience.
I noticed
that this would happen particularly when I am asked a question that is new to
me. I realized that in my mind, there would flash a wide array of experiences.
Imagine a blank wall suddenly filled with images of various experiences; all
the images change rapidly and then, a composite image of what I need to answer
the question forms before me. It is as if by flipping through all those
experiences very rapidly, a common thread was found to link several of them
together thus bringing forth the answer. Each image that is presented is an
experience that I not only had, sometimes it is not even well remembered, but
for some reason, I have a clear connection to it, a connection that makes it my
own.
From this
perspective, I suppose one can say that thinking is about making the world one’s
own. With this realization, it then becomes possible to imagine that I do
belong to the world as well, not just to its material aspects, but also to
those less visible and yet experienced.
It is through thinking that we take and transform our daily experiences
into a part of us, a part of who we are, a part of what we need to achieve in
this world.
Sources: The Study of Man by Rudolf Steiner.
