Thinking about Thinking

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
— E. F. Schumacher -

There was once a very wealthy man who was bothered by severe eye pain. He consulted many physicians and was being treated by several. He did not stop consulting a galaxy of medical experts; he consumed heavy loads of drugs and underwent hundreds of injections. But the ache persisted with more vigour than before. At last, a monk who was supposed to be an expert in treating such patients was called for by the suffering man. The monk understood his problem and said that for sometime he should concentrate only on green colours and not to let his eyes fall on any other colours. It was a strange prescription, but he was desperate and decided to try it.

The millionaire got together a group of painters and purchased barrels of green paint and directed that every object his eye was likely to fall to be painted green just as the monk had directed. When the monk came to visit him after few days, the millionaire's servants ran with buckets of green paint and poured it on him since he was in red dress, lest their master see any other colour and his eye ache would come back.

 Hearing this, the monk laughed and said "If only you had purchased a pair of green spectacles, worth just a few dollars, you could have saved these walls and trees and pots and all other articles and also could have saved a large share of your fortune. You cannot paint the world green!". The man look dumbfounded and the monk cured his ills simply.

 Everyone wants to know the secret to being a critical thinker. How can one rise to see things differently than others? Is there such a thing or is it something that is inborn? We are looking and praying for the Eureka moments to hit us constantly, but is it only the destiny of the chosen few?

To think or not to think. That is the question

Socrates once said, “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think”. For me, thinking clearly is not only about evaluating information and about working towards better ideas and solutions. It is about having a constant sense of curiosity  which has captured a part of your mind, to constantly learn more in order to become more.

I feel the questioning mind of a simple thinker is a true skill. It is an art which takes years to cultivate. Thinking, to me, is one of the most difficult things to do and one we all shy away from because of the sheer effort of it all.

Thinking out of the box is simply about thinking more. This subconscious realm is beyond our daily clutter of thoughts.The Buddhists have a funny term to this. They call it the “mind-monkey”- Another term for a restless mind that is unsettled, fanciful, confused, indecisive and uncontrollable. Like a monkey that keeps running all over the place. Taming the mind-monkey is the way to free your mind and to change your lives.

A mind expanded is one of the best gifts you can give to yourself and it is all possible. All you need to do is get started on the journey to deeper understanding , with a few changes in your life.

1. Awareness is your endgame to open the mind

Interesting fact. The mind churns 70,000 thoughts a day. That’s about 3000 per hour or 50 per minute. Now that’s a lot of thoughts for one person. Imagine if you can have the power to focus this energy into your life blue print. It will require you to train your mind towards this. This is the first step. Awareness. This is to be conscious of your thought streams and to be a keen witness to these thoughts. If this is sounding strange, this is what meditation is all about. The Zen methodology states this best as “Mizu No Kokoro”- A Mind like Water.

When water is calm, there are no ripples and the surface is still with no outward disturbance. This is the exact way your mind should be cultivated towards, if you want to live a prosperous life bubbling with ideas, yet simple in state. In other words, your Eureka moments.

2. Staying clear of bad traps.

Thoughts that reinforce negative, limiting beliefs and feelings are traps that need to be avoided like the plague. It happens to a lot of us. Something goes wrong and our thoughts are fixated on the situation which is replayed again and again. Face it. We have all been there. In this replaying we try to “wish” our reactions could have been different. Fact is. It was the past and you cannot go back there. Accept it. This is a real energy drainer and its better to be focused on better goals. In fact I believe, all adversity are just hints which are guiding us to the correct path to be taken.

3. Stay clear of Biases of opinion

The good news is you do not need to go very far from home to groom this simplicity within. It is pretty straightforward really. You need to adapt to a lifestyle of less irrationality, daily meditation of the way you look at the world and let go of certain bias to lead a life of simple thinking.

Now the mind works in mysterious ways and is susceptible to a number of biases. However, below are my top 3 biases that you should be wary of to help you on your way to becoming a simple and able thinker.

• Bias #1 - You see what you want to see.

We surround ourselves with information that matches our beliefs and if someone holds the same views as us, he becomes our friend. Somehow this makes us subconsciously disregard any information that does not conform with our world views. Think about it. You go and buy a car, and almost suddenly you see the same car everywhere. You now start seeing it more than before. Why? Your mind has conditioned itself to only see what you want to see , as based on your views of the world.

• Bias #2 - Expecting the Odds

This is when we keep knocking our heads against the same wall and expect it to open magically to a world of new possibilities. We continue to think just because something did not work a few times round, it could work next time round. We keep pushing regardless of what happened in the past and assessing the odds of what can actually happen.

• Bias #3 - Worrying about pain than gain

We are a constant victim to this bias in the brain. It is a natural tendency of the human mind to gravitate towards the feeling of loss. Psychologists state that we are wired to feel loss more strongly than the prospect of gain. This suggests that we place more urgency on avoiding threats than on maximizing opportunities, which is not a mindset to adopt if one is to think clearly and differently. Forget about investments or costs gone wrong and focus energies towards what did work. The gains. That is the hunch that needs investing in. Not the other.

I have given you food for thought in this blog. Leaders are always looking for the ones who stand out and they usually do, because of their thinking. Remember the mind with poise  and the mind with purpose is the great mind. The one that thinks clearly, simply, greatly. The one that thinks with the power to move. The one that never ceases its sense of wonder.

Thinking is the hardest form of human exertion, and this is the reason why people shy away from it.  However, in my personal mission to enlighten and awaken the ones searching to become better, I can only say this. The highest form of human self actualization is the mind that questions and deliberates. The mind that looks for ways to build and not break down. The mind that just stays with a question longer than the others. There is always a better way. Go find it. You will.

Think Different. Think Simple. Think out of the box.

Think . Think. Think.