Thinking as a Sacred Activity!
By Heather C. Williams, H.W.,M. Ontological Artist, Author of Drawing as a Sacred Activity
“Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - as being able to remake ourselves.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
We are human beings living our lives as best we can. Today, we must do more. We must pay attention to the big problems that we have unwisely created! We created the problem of plastic bits that are now found in human cells. We created the problem of climate change. We created nuclear energy and we still DON’T KNOW how to safely dispose of nuclear waste. The question is: what blocks us from solving these problems right now? I’ll get to that in a minute.
Each of us is born with a creative seed planted deep in our hearts. This little seed is an eternal, spiritual ability or gift - and is always present within us. Unfortunately most people know nothing about this and can often be heard saying, “Oh, I’m not creative!” The TRUTH is we all have a creative gift and our assignment is to express (draw out) our creative gift with practice and share it with the world. Also, we each live in a physical body and we pretty much identify ourselves as material beings in a material world filled with things that are separate from us. Everyone agrees that we also are born with a mind that thinks. Even though we know little about the mind or consciousness, we must admit that we each are creating our personal world through our thoughts, choices and decisions. It’s time we learn more about the mind.
To solve the big problems today we must learn how our thinking creates our world. To do this, let’s explore three very different kinds of thinking: 1) Mechanical Thinking 2) Critical Thinking and 3) Straight thinking in the Abstract. Hopefully, the image of a taxi can help us understand how these kinds of thinking actually construct our personal/cultural worlds.
The taxi represents mechanical thinking: The taxi is a machine. Machines perform certain tasks. Machines do not question the task. Artificial Intelligence is a machine. We are machines when we habitually blame, deny, ignore, get angry or run away from our problems. Machines can’t feel. We humans FEEL love, joy, sadness and we feel the rightness or wrongness of something. This is conscience. We must wake up to our true identity as Consciousness and free ourselves from mechanical thinking. An ancient way to wake up is to practice self observation. A simple, easy-to-understand book is Self Observation by Red Hawk. My Ontology Book Club discusses this book every week. You are welcome to join. Check it out: https://www.drawingtogether.com/bookclub.
The driver of the taxi represents critical thinking: The driver thinks, analyzes, evaluates the road ahead, makes informed decisions and exercises control over the machine. Critical thinking is at the heart of scientific inquiry. Science makes progress when we find data that contradicts our current scientific ideas. 2,500 years ago Socrates employed critical thinking as a way to question opinions and to search for the Truth. It’s a lot easier to follow a leader or a narrative that aligns with our beliefs. But to drive forward and solve problems today, we must know how to analyze social media websites, corporate advertisements and governmental policies. We must think for ourselves! Critical thinking is how we uncover the truth that lives beneath machine-like thinking.
The passenger inside the taxi represents “straight thinking in the abstract”: The passenger pays a price to get into the taxi. The passenger determines where the taxi goes. We’re all passengers on spaceship earth. We’re all capable of awakening to our true identity as consciousness - of thinking for ourselves - and working together. Work takes practice! And practice is the price we pay to sit down, relax and employ a tool like “straight thinking in the abstract”. This tool can help us to think critically using axioms (self-evident truths) which connect us with the abstract, truthful, spiritual principles of life. It takes practice for us to face our current problems (plastic, climate change and nuclear energy) and to see them as opportunities to create a safer, kinder, more beautiful world. “Straight thinking in the abstract” is a tool I have practiced for over 50 years now.
I created a class about these three kinds of thinking, titled: Thinking as a Sacred Activity. Class begins Monday, June 6. All five 1-hour lessons are offered as a GIFT to all interested. Learn more at my website: https://www.drawingtogether.com/the-prosperos