THINKING WITHOUT PRACTICING IS FALLACIOUS.

Human intellect is a wonderful tool; but, it has to be used along with other tools the man possesses, viz. his body and his mind (man’s emotional powerhouse). Someone who is thinking must be constantly aware and live to why he is thinking, about which matter he wants to take a decision about, what would happen to him and others if an intellectual output is made use of and so on and so forth. We often use the word ‘spontaneity’, but rarely appreciate that it means ‘thinking and conducting’ simultaneously. But, this is helpful only in our day to day thoughtful conduct.

After sufficient rolling over a thought or an idea, the process of in-depth contemplation helps us to extract answers to some of the questions we may be seeking answers to. Here, it must be emphasized that a strong desire to know must precede the acquisition of any knowledge, only then the acquired knowledge gets settled in one’s mind. However, even after getting settled in one’s mind it still doesn’t become a part of one’s thinking process, unless it is put to regular use and rigorously practiced.   When a thought is used, many inconsistencies and incompatibilities associated with the thought, the user of the thought and the circumstances in which thoughts are to be used come to the fore. One can work upon the thoughts, on himself and the circumstances to make the thoughts more useful than when they were picked up in the raw state. Spontaneity is not the answer for issues that are complicated or are critical to the welfare of many. One has to ponder over the thoughts, carry out detailed analysis and experiment with the thoughts repeatedly before putting them to use in the matters that affect the lives of many.

Some people think that they can use their intellect to find a meaning of their life, and thereby, can do good to themselves and to others. Thinking about some ideas in pieces with intentions of extracting something meaningful out of them without a strong urge to act for relieving some or many of their pains may be nothing but an egocentric pastime of the people who identify with none but themselves and their intellectual faculty. Whatever the people who excessively rely on their intellect might think, and whichever way they think, they would always end up with some fallacious outcome that may even hamper their thinking process itself. What a man can do with understanding something if it serves no purpose? What would one do with knowing the etymology of the word ‘hunger’, if the purpose is not to satisfy somebody’s hunger? Decisive intellect is a very precious tool that only human beings have. Perhaps, its misuse, excessive or corrupted use is more harmful than its disuse.

PROMOD KUMAR SHARMA

[The writer of this blog is also the author of “Mahatma A Scientist of the Intuitively Obvious” and “In Search of Our Wonderful Words”.]