Thinking vs. Knowing

"The Most Direct Means To Eternal Bliss" is the name of the book by Michael Langford. It is a quirky little book, but boy is it powerful. The ideas are expressed directly and to the point. I have to thank Del Martinis for calling it to my attention. In the book, Langford makes the point that Thinking and our addiction to thinking have convinced us that conceptual knowing is the same thing as insight-awareness and direct knowing.

If you study your mental activity carefully, you will soon see that there is a distinction between this knowing-insight-awareness and thinking or conceptualizing. Another distinction that we might make is the difference between thinking and intuitive knowing. When we intuit, we just know. There is no internal verbalization or dialogue, we just know.

I have long come to the conclusion that what we intuit is the only thing of value in our heads. Thinking is of no intrinsic value. Oh, it has its place. It is a tool, kind of like an index finger. My left index finger has immense value and utility, but I would never ask for its advice. However we are skirting the real problem with thought.

The voice in our head that we think is me talking to me is not a me that lives in a familiar "I" position in the head. That "me" is a concept Langford says, "If your native language is English and you speak in English and you write in English, those same English words in your mind are thoughts."

This "me" that speaks to us from inside is nothing more than an artifact of the ego that produces a thing we call ourselves. What is humorous about looking at it the way Langford words it is that if you are a native Spanish speaker, your self is probably Mexican. While, since I am an English speaker, my self is an American.
This is really getting absurd if you think about it. How can this so called self be linked to a culture? It can't be. That would make no sense. So the entire idea of a self linked to the voice in our heads collapses and the ego is exposed for what it is - a fraud masquerading as a so-called self.

I had never thought of this English/Spanish twist until I read Langford's book and started playing with his English in your head idea. But it sure helped put into perspective this lie that humanity has lived with. Finally, thought itself has no inherent intelligence. It is a maze of concepts that the ego uses to keep us trapped in the belief that we are the ultimate concept - a self.

The sad fact is that this deception keeps us from knowing who we really are which is the One - the SELF.