Why Are We Not Thinking? PDF

Why are we not thinking? Fr. Michael Moga One of life’s most puzzling mysteries is the lack of awareness or thinking in man’s life. During all of man’s walking hours and much of his sleep man is conscious. Yet consciousness is highly superficial. Man is generally aware only...

Why are we not thinking? Fr. Michael Moga One of life’s most puzzling mysteries is the lack of awareness or thinking in man’s life. During all of man’s walking hours and much of his sleep man is conscious. Yet consciousness is highly superficial. Man is generally aware only of the obvious and concentrates on this. For the most part of the profound truths of his situation elude him. However much man may affirm his rationality or prides himself on the achievements of human wisdom and science he knows in his heart that these achievements are quite minimal. The mysteries of nature and human life remain largely unpenetrated by human thought. It is this realization that leads man to appreciate and agree with the statement of Socrates that he really knew nothing at all. Why is it this way? Why is human awareness so shallow? Why are we not thinking? This question seems to challenge and provoke us. It will be the task of this article to respond to this and to follow it as it leads us forward. The Appearance of “Not Thinking” We are provoked by this question because of situations in human life where we experience a lack of awareness. “Not Thinking” appears in many particular forms. Let us live imaginatively in a few of these situations and be aware of how the question arises. The values of human life can fade into insignificance. Let us consider the value of life itself. When I hold a tiny baby in my hands for the first time I am thrilled by the preciousness of its existence. I am filled with a sense of awe and amazement. How wonderful that this baby exists when it might not even have been born! How important this child’s life is for his family and for the world! How thrilling is the sense of what this child will be in the future! How horrible is the possibility that this life might be lost or taken away! In all of these ways the “truth” of the baby’s existence moves me. I am very aware of it. Yet it will not take very long before that child is just another mouth to feed or just another noisy baby. The value of the life of the child will disappear for the most part. It will longer move me. Why is this? Why do the values of human life only appear forcefully on rare occasions? Why is it that we are generally unaware of these values? Why are we not thinking? Another area of human life that evades man continually is that of death. Man’s awareness of his mortality is usually quite superficial. How seldom in human life a man becomes personally aware that he is destined to die! It may be, for instance, when I participate in the burial of one of my family. I see the coffin being placed in the grave and it strikes me that soon others will be placing my coffin in a grave. I am shocked by the realization and I feel helpless. There is nothing that I can hold on to which will prevent my death. I feel great anxiety as I face the nothingness of my life. Such a moment was a “moment of truth”. I saw the truth of my life clearly, a truth which moved me deeply. I was moved with fear, facing the unknown future of my life. I was moved with power as I resolved to change my life and to live it more wisely. But such a powerful moment lasted for only a brief time and soon I found myself caught up with my ordinary understanding of life, concerned about problems that faced me and plans to be carried out. The truth of death faded into the background. Why is human life this way? Why does the truth of death generally escape our awareness? Why is it so hard to face death and to live in this truth? It is not simply a matter that man runs from what he finds to be frightening. For even when man wishes to face death and to appreciate this truth, he finds that this awareness escapes him and flies from his grasp. Why is it so hard to think about death? Another area when man generally does not think is the experience of beauty. For the most part man “misses” the sunrise and sunset, of the magnificence of mountains and sea, of the bright joy of flowers and trees. Let us take the example of a profound experience of a work of art, a painting. The power of the painting moves me. It transports me into a new world, where there are fresh new meanings and values. I feel that my life has been expanded and that I have been deeply enriched. What a wonderful experience, one that I wish to hold to. I buy a copy of the painting that moved me and I place it where I will see it frequently. But the inevitable happens. Soon the painting loses its power and it no longer moves me. I hardly look at it from day to day as I pass it. The “truth” of the painting which was so rich and meaningful at the beginning has disappeared for the most part. I no longer experience it. Why is our experience of beauty of this character? Why are these moments of deep esthetic so rare? Why is the awareness of beauty generally absent from my experience? Even if I diligently pursue beauty in its many forms I find that I cannot produce moments of esthetic joy by my own efforts. The experience of beauty is a rare gift. Can we explain why it is this way? We are experience a lack of thinking in religious living. Religion brings up profound truths, truths which affect our lives deeply and change them. Men usually experience, however, that even though they accept and believe in a religion its truths are generally not alive and vital in their day-to-day living. Let us take the example of a particular religious truth, the Christian message that God is love. As a Christian I have heard this truth proclaimed and I have accepted it. I believe it. There may have been moments when this truth struck me with all of its power. It may have been on my birthday, or at a time of celebration, or a moment of prayer or worship. At the moment God and His love seemed very real. My whole life appeared in a different light. The pains and problems that might have been bothering me no longer seemed important. Everything was filled with peace and joy. I could be so happy about my life and feel deep gratitude for what had been given to me. That moment of religious insight was truly a moment of truth, a truth that could not be doubted in any way. But the sad reality of life necessitated that the truth be soon lost. It was a mountain top experience which would be lost when I descended to the plain of ordinary existence. The truth of that moment is lost to me. The affirmation of the love of God is usually an act of faith, a faith that is blind. I do not fully experience what I affirm. Why is human religious this way? Why do the truths of religion for the most part evade us no matter how hard we try? Why are we not thinking in a religious way? Man’s self-understanding is usually quite deficient. Man frequently is not “in touch” with himself. He has no clear sense of what he truly wants, he is not fully aware of what he is actually feeling, he loses sight of the basic meaning of his life; they were not important. I really did not care whether I had them or not. Such a moment of clear insight did not last very long and I find myself quite confused at times in my life. I may get upset that I lack something even though it is something which I really don’t want. (I am bothered that I am not president when I really don’t want to be president. I am upset that I am not a millionaire when that is not really important to me. I am annoyed that someone does not like me when I really don’t care whether they like me or not.) At other times I lose sight of what I really want and I waste time on foolish things. (I don’t spend time studying even though I really want to succeed. I flirt with another man even though I want to be faithful to my husband.) For the most part man seems to walk in confusion without a clear vision of what he truly wants. Man tends to be inconsistent because of this confusion. Why is it that man does not have a clear knowledge of his goals? Why is it that man is not in touch with himself? Why are we not thinking? We have seen above how human awareness is seriously deficient in the areas of human values, death, death, beauty, religion, and self-awareness. There are so many other areas of human life where this “not thinking” is found. How frequently we are insensitive to the feelings of other people! The poet or the novelist or the dramatist who possesses such sensitivity is seen to be an extraordinary person. How little awareness we have of nature! We seem to be cut off from the rich mystery that is at work in the seas, in the soil and in the trees. What a small sense we have of the tragedy or the glory of human life! It is as if we do not realize what is happening within us and within other people. We miss so much of life, caught up in superficiality. The Reasons for “Not Thinking” We find it disturbing that for the most part we are not thinking. There seem to be o clear answers why it is this way. The lack of awareness in human thinking extends even to the question of the reason for this lack of awareness. There have been various reasons proposed, however, for man’s lack of thinking. Let us consider them individually. The Swirl of Distractions One reason why there is so little thinking is the tendency to be caught up in distractions. There is a world of escapism that envelops human life, a world that absorbs our attention. There is a constant cycle of spectacles, athletic contests, parties, religious celebrations, hobbies, meetings, seminars and vacations. There are the empty thrills of movies, television, newspapers and magazines that seem to promise the experience of real life but effectively turn us away from vital involvement. Man’s life becomes a constant searching for new distractions, with the assured conviction that this “rat-race” is somehow terribly meaningful and real. Caught up in this empty game there is no opportunity for man to be confronted by life. He never has the chance to see the wonder and the tragedy of existence. The deceptiveness of the active life of distraction turns man’s attention from real mysteries and real issues. The Darkness of Conventional Understanding Another reason why we are not thinking is that human life is dominated by what we can call conventional understanding. In any human social context there is a set interpretation of life that culture has determined. IT sees the meaning of human life in terms of certain role patterns, it labels certain types of human existence as success and others as failures, it makes judgments of moral goodness and badness about man’s activities, it passes absolute judgments about the artistic merit of music and art and literature, it is the last word in describing the nature of God and man’s relation to God. The result of this conventional view of reality is that there is no opportunity for a personalized experience where man can be shocked by the wonder of life and its taste is insipid. There is nothing for us to do but to live a life of unthinking habit, following the ways laid down for us in an established order. We enjoy what the public enjoys and we find shocking what the public finds shocking. As Martin Heidegger expresses it: “Every supremacy is silently suppressed, every original thought is glossed over as well known, every triumph is vulgarized, every mystery loses its power.” What we have here in this conventional understanding is a type of thought-control. Man is told what to think, how to see life, what is the nature of experience. Caught up in this understanding there is no freedom to encounter life I an original way. The exciting mysteries and problems of life are glossed over. Conventional Expression Connected with this conventional way of thinking is a conventional use of language, a way of speaking which hides the essential truth. There can be a type of polite conversation which is filled with words but in which people really do not communicate with one another. There is no true sharing of experience for the encounter remains on the level of correct words. There can be a legal process, filled with many words both written and spoken, which fulfills the requirements of legal procedure but which does not effectively touch the essential purpose of law, the attainment of justice. There can be a scientific lecture which is filled with the proper scientific expressions but which does not breathe the true spirit of science. There can be a long religious discourse which uses the correct verbal formulas of a religious tradition but which does not express real religion. The words somehow get in the way. They prevent the speaker from confronting religious reality in a fresh, vital way and they block true communication with those who listen to him. How often do religious speakers adopt a certain “tone” and use certain set phrases that ultimately hide the truth of their message. This conventional use of language controls and absorbs us. It presents us with a game that we must play, a game that has very strict rules. We are forced to be concerned about these rules since correctness is all important. We are led to ignore the world outside these rules and thus are guided into “not thinking.” Loss of Wonder and Anxiety One main reason why there is so little thinking is that we have lost the profound attitudes of wonder and anxiety. It is only within those attitudes that thinking can take place. We watch the sun come up and we think that it is Monday again. We make note of the fact that it is Monday morning, the beginning of another work week, and we are aware of nothing more. We miss the surprise and wonder of a new day. We have no sense of the freshness of this morning, of the new opportunities that it brings into our lives, of the mysterious surprises that it will bring to us. We fail to appreciate that this new day is a precious gift, a gift of life that is a blessing for us. Thus there are two ways of experiencing Monday morning, the way of routine and the way of wonder. Routine existence misses the profound truth of life. It sees moments of experience as one- dimensional and ordinary. Each moment has no meaning other than being a part of a process toward some future point. The way of wonder, on the other hand, opens up each moment and reveals an exciting world within that moment. There are deep mysteries of meaning waiting for me there. I can live in a new and rich way here and now. There are challenges that leap out to meet me, drawing me forward into deeper involvement. Wonder reveals these opportunities. Wonder opens up new dimensions of truth in beauty, science, history and people. I wonder at the fresh beauty of a flower, at the mysteries of a starry universe, at the intricate processes of a living cell, at the efforts of man over the ages to cope with challenges of life, at the ability of children to learn new things. Within that spirit of wonder reality opens up before me and I appreciate and understand so much more. In a similar way thinking is cut off when we are not filled with anxiety. We live comfortable, secure lives where everything seems to reassure us. We follow the moral rules of our culture and we are not told that all is well with our lives. What people consider as success is found in our lives and this gives us security. We worship in a customary way and this gives us an assurance of our righteousness. We follow a pattern of existence that most people follow and we feel that all is well. Such an atmosphere of existence is secure, without anxiety. Such a way of living is condemned to superficiality. There is no profound thinking going on. Without anxiety the depth of human life is ignored. Anxiety opens up moral existence and reveals the importance of my moral decisions. It reveals the responsibility that I have to take a personal stand on moral issues that are crucial. It reveals the possibility of making a wrong decision and how this wrong decision will affect my future life significantly. Anxiety reveals each moment and each decision as irretrievable. “I shall not pass this way again.” Anxiety reveals that the security of following passively the cultural moral rules is a false security. Such a way is shallow, impersonal and empty. Anxiety challenges the ideals of success that our society gives us. It reveals how these ideals are ultimately baseless. The arbitrary choice of wealth and fame, for instance, as criteria of success has no foundation. If man is to live deeply he must seek a more profound norm of success, and seek for such true success. Anxiety opens up this search for truth. Anxiety sets us free from the shallowness of customary religion. Religion tends to become a pattern of routine actions that are empty. Though approved by society and culture, they are nevertheless incapable of giving life. Anxiety sets before us the challenge of life and God and prevents us from evading this basic issue. There is no comfortable security here; there is only profound life. Truth it is human life and thought become deep when caught in anxiety. One of the basic reasons why we are not thinking is there is so little anxiety in our lives and that the atmosphere of normal life tends to cover up anxiety. The World of Practicality One situation where human awareness is limited is the practical world. I have a certain job to perform or work to achieve, and in my concern for that goal I become insensitive to many other aspects of life. The jeepney driver who is concerned about getting passengers and taking them to their destinations has no awareness of the uniqueness of his fares. The butcher who chops up meat into various cuts has no time to wonder about the mystery of life. The student who is worried about passing an examination is not sensitive to the deeper meanings of his existence. The politician who is concerned about winning an election does not bother to worry about the mortality of his actions. The practical world absorbs us and forces us to set aside other types of thinking. It is a framework that destroys thought. Human culture has always recognized the difference between the practical man and the thinker. Any practical situation is always limited and the thinking of the practical man is confined within those limitations. It is significant that the deeper moments of human awareness occur during leisure moments, the Sundays, holidays and vacations of life. During these moments when we are freed from practical concerns we are able to think more deeply about our lives. Education itself partakes more deeply of thinking when it breathes this spirit of leisure. In such a spirit the student is more aware of his life and can reflect on it more profoundly. What a different experience school becomes when everyone is concerned about the practical concerns of exams, grades, units and graduation! School becomes a task to be performed that prevents students and teachers from thinking. Modern man prides himself on his productivity, on his ability to be practical and to cope with the problems of life. It is ironic that his skill man has developed has robbed him of much profound awareness. The Hiddenness of the Cause of Thought Man experiences that thought is not constant. It ebbs and flows. This fluctuation is influenced by certain stimuli as we experience being provoked into thought. Something strikes us worthy of thought and we are moved into thinking. What usually occurs, however, is that this provocation is absent. What should stimulate thinking is simply not there. Why this happens is not clear. Why are certain cultures more thoughtful and reflective? Why were certain ages in man’s history more full of thinking? It is not enough to say the reason is found in individual subjectivity, that there is not thinking because of individual laziness or refusal to think. This cannot account for the thoughtless spirit of an entire age or an entire culture. Furthermore, we have all experienced the way that thought tends to elude as. No matter how much of an effort we make insight escape us. This is clearly seen in the case of an artist or a poet who depends on “inspiration”. He cannot force himself to produce a truly fine painting or a profound poem merely by the strength of his will. He must wait for and be receptive to the gift of inspiration. One major reason, then why there is so little thinking is that the case of thought generally hides itself. Man is not the center of the activity of thought. Man finds himself being provoked by something beyond himself. When this provocation is absent there is no thinking. Contemporary man finds himself living in a modern secular culture or in a more primitive sacred culture. The secular man is not provoked by the appearance of the sacred in his life. He does not sense the holy in nature or in the important movements of human life. The mystery of life hides from him. This absence of the holy is not something he has chosen. He simply finds himself in a world where the sacred hides itself. Modern technological man views nature as something to be manipulated and used for the purpose of reaching certain goals he has set. Ancient Greek man viewed nature as having its own inner rationality and dynamism, and such as it was to be respected. This sensitivity to nature is something which modern man lacks. Nature in its profundity and preciousness does not reveal itself in this world. In such a situation where what is thought-provoking hides itself from man there is nothing that man can do except wait. He must hold himself in readiness, awaiting the call that will move him into thinking