I Don't Think, Therefore I Am

The differences I see in the world today, and the world I remember growing up in, range far and wide. Now I’m not one to know how others in the past have felt growing up in their times and eras, or even how others walking side by side me feel in their minutes, hours, and days. For all of this is too complex of a system to describe all of it in one’s lifetime let alone one sitting. However, what I have come to believe about this life, this reality, this dimension, is that all I really know is that I know nothing.

“I think, therefore I am.” Such a grand statement for the times when it was uttered from Descartes lips. Yet, I believe it must be modified for the present to say – “I don’t think, therefore I am.”

In a world that requires so much thought, analyzation, and non-focused attention the “I” Descartes meant to describe is lost in a sea of to-do notes, ringing cell phones, meetings, appointments, etc. The individual being, the I, Descartes described showed that we are truly here – for those philosophical doubters he lived with – and each of us is a separate being in a physical reality we know hardly anything about. Modern physics is doing wonders figuring out what mystics, shamans, and other such professions have talked about for centuries. Humanity is slowly learning about the physical what the spiritual has always told us – “There is more to what is out there than what humans physically perceive.”

I remember being a very young child looking at the world for the first time, without any preconceived notions, soaking everything in through my senses as it registered in my brain. I remember standing in a field of tall grass as the wind blew it back and forth against my legs and arms. I remember the smell of the first rose I encountered. I remember the first time I held a wild animal in my hands. I remember the first time (and last time) I tasted liver. I also remember the first moment I actually heard silence. And it was on that day I knew Descartes’ statement needed modification for the new millennium.

There are many reasons why the statement needs revision. It’s not that the statement is false. In the context, the situation, and the era it was uttered it is completely correct. However, I think if one person is to describe the “I” Descartes was trying to show existed, one needs to look at what the “I” really is and where it comes from.

What is the “I”? Is it what one does? Is it what one has done or will do? Is it what one is? Is it what one thinks? And what does one think of when one thinks? Normally when one thinks it is not with a focused attention. Rather it is a range of fleeting thoughts that the body runs through like a cycle usually accompanied by some range of attached emotions and analyzation.

Every day humanity goes through some sort of routine. Usually it is accompanied by some variation of the following: wake up from a not too restful sleep to a blaring alarm, hit snooze, shower, shit, shave, brush teeth and hair, dress, drive to work, work eight hours (at least), drive home, change, make dinner, work on to-do list, brush teeth, change again, and go to bed exhausted only to do it all over again when the alarm rings in the morning. This routine is not healthy if the “I” is supposed to live to its fullest potential. See, in this existence, the “I” is nothing but a machine going through a routine – separate from the world it exists in.

Descartes’ quote equates identity with the mind, and as a result a person sees him/herself as an isolated ego inside the body - separate from the world the body lives in. The mind is given the task of controlling the body, or reality, through analyzation of events that take place (the past, the future, etc.). In this sense a person is separate from the world and not a part of it, which I think at essence Descartes was trying to prove – That the body was separate, therefore it existed. In this separatist idea, people see the world as not part of themselves and therefore exploitation occurs. This separateness, this desire to exploit, has caused the political and cultural problems of the world. This ideology has brought humanity to the point where humans no longer live in a mentally or physically healthy environment.

The new version – “I don’t think, therefore I am” – equates identity with the whole body (organism) through the senses. An existence within this ideology does not separate but rather integrates and shows the interconnectedness and interrelatedness of all things. Instead of thinking about a past that is a memory, or worrying about a future that is an anticipation, humanity is able to live here and now, in eternity. A calm mind is able to fulfill this intended purpose – to catalogue events rather than analyze them. Many of our horrible mental illnesses and physical problems come from the incorrect use of the mind – analyzation.

It seems humanity is now at the bottom of the circle and needs to rise to complete the circle of life. When humanity first started, at the top of the circle, science, religion, and philosophy were all combined as one.

There was no separateness between humans, the world they lived in, and the life that followed after death. However, over time, humans have separated different areas of thought into different factions and sections that went off on their own path. Instead of keeping all ideas together, they veered off into their own direction causing various ideas and philosophies such as Descartes and many others. This is why we need to return to seeing ourselves as one with everything, complete the circle, and continue on the spiritual revolution that is making headway in the world.

Now I am not making an argument against thought, but rather against the constant analyzation that bring humans so much pain. Analyzation has its place in science and other disciplines in order to analyze the world we live in, but as individuals in a spiritual pursuit it goes against all that mystics have said for centuries and what I feel, in a calm state, is true. Analyzation causes the mind to go astray, out of its inherent function, which is cataloguing experiences that the body obtains through the senses. Through sensation, meditation, silence, calm, oneness, feeling the flow, and be-ing - humans begin to once again see the unity of the universe, and can therefore complete the circle.

In conclusion, through not thinking, one becomes aware of the unity and interrelation of all things, is able to transcend the notion of an isolated self, and identify with the ultimate reality – that which is material, and that which is immaterial.

I don’t think, therefore I am.