"Just don't know"

 

Terry Orr

The best thing in life is the scientific laboratory of our own being. It is this, which enables us to explore the truth of existence. The worst thing, is believing in anything, because so long as we believe, we cannot uncover the unknown. As far as thoughts go, they are no more than phenomena that we become aware of through our sixth sense similar to our sense of sight we are aware of objects in the world. The mistake, is identifying ourselves with our thoughts and proclaiming "I think therefore I am".

 

Ron, yes one of the worst mistakes in the history of philosophy was made by Descates when he made that proclamation.

Nancy, we get back to the concept of Anata (not self). This is a recognition that the idea of self is just that - an idea and ideas are just the phenomena of thoughts, which in turn are generated by the characteristic of mind to give meaning, values and identification to that which touches the senses.

 

Terry Orr Ron, the mind has "sense doors" and one of those doors is the sense of thought. When we see, hear, taste, touch, or smell an object, we don't identify with it - we recognize it as external. In the same manner, we need to recognize thought in the same category.