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Stop Thinking Yourself Out of

Life

17 Dec 2014 3 Comments

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Sadhguru tells us the story

of when Aristotle met
Heraclitus, to illustrate
how we tend to get lost in
our thought process and lose perspective
in life.

Sadhguru: Someone told you, “I think

therefore I am.” Is that really true? It is
only because you exist that you can
generate a thought, isn’t it? Your thought
process has become so compulsive, and
your focus has shifted from your
existence to your thought to such an
extent, that now you are beginning to
believe that you exist because you think.
Even without your silly thoughts,
existence is. What can you think, really?
Just the nonsense that you have gathered
and recycled. Can you think something
other than what has been fed into your
head? All you are doing is recycling old
data. This recycling has become so
important that people even dare to say “I
think, therefore I am.” And that has
become the world’s way of life.

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Because you are, you can think. If you
choose, you can fully be and still not
think. The most beautiful moments in
your life – moments of bliss, moments of
joy, moments of ecstasy, moments of
utter peace – were moments when you
were not thinking about anything. You
were just living.

Do you want to be a living being or a

thinking being? Right now, ninety percent
of the time you are only thinking about
life, not living life. Have you come here to
experience life or to think about life?
Everybody can think up their own
nonsense whichever way they want; it
need not have anything to do with reality.
Your psychological process is a very small
happening compared to the life process,
but right now it has become far more
important. We need to shift the
significance to the life process once again.

Aristotle is known as the father of modern

logic; his logic was immaculate. He was
intellectually brilliant, no question about
that, but he tried to stretch logic to all
aspects of life, and in many ways he was
crippled.

There is a story, I do not know if it is a

fact, but it smells true. One day, Aristotle
was walking on the beach. A glorious
sunset was happening, but he had no time
for such petty daily events. He was
thinking seriously about some great
problem of existence, because for
Aristotle, existence is a problem, and he
believes he is going to solve it. Thinking
seriously, he was walking up and down
the beach. There was another man on the
beach who was doing something very
intensely – so intensely that even Aristotle
could not ignore him.

You know, people who think too much

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about their own nonsense end up ignoring
life around them. They are the people
who don’t smile at anybody or even look
at anybody in the world. They have no
eyes to look at a flower, a sunset, a child
or a smiling face – or if it is an unsmiling
face, they have no inclination to make it
smile; they have no such small duties or
small cares in the world! They ignore all
the life around them because they are all
busy, solving the problems of existence.

But Aristotle could not ignore this man,

and he closely observed what he was
doing: this man was going to the ocean,
coming back, going to the ocean, coming
back, all with great intensity. So Aristotle
stopped and asked, “Hey, what are you up
to?”

The man said, “Don’t disturb me, I am

doing something very important,” and
went on and on.

Aristotle became even more curious and

asked, “What are you doing?”

The man said, “Don’t disturb me,

something very important.”

Aristotle said, “What is this important

thing?”

The man showed a little hole he had dug

in the sand, and he said, “I am emptying
the ocean into this hole.” He had a
tablespoon in his hand.

Aristotle looked at this and laughed. Now,

Aristotle is the kind who can spend a year
without a single moment of laughter,
because he is intellect. It takes a heart to
laugh. Intellect cannot laugh; it can only
dissect.

But even Aristotle laughed at this and

said, “This is ridiculous! You must be
insane. Do you know how vast this ocean
is? How can you ever empty this ocean
into this little hole? And that too, with a
tablespoon? At least if you have a bucket,
there’s some chance. Please give this up;
this is madness, I am telling you.”

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The man looked at Aristotle, threw the
spoon down and said, “My job is already
done.”

Aristotle said, “What do you mean?

Forget about the ocean being empty; even
the hole is not full. How can you say your
job is done?”

The other man was Heraclitus. Heraclitus

stood up and said, “I am trying to empty
the ocean into this hole with a tablespoon.
You are telling me it’s ridiculous, it’s
madness, so I should give it up. What are
you trying to do? Do you know how vast
this existence is? It can contain a billion
oceans like this and more, and you are
trying to empty it into the small hole of
your head – and with what? With
tablespoons called thoughts. Please give it
up. It’s utterly ridiculous.”

If you want to know the experiential

dimensions of life, you will never know it
with petty thought. It does not matter
how well you can think, human thought
is still petty. Even if you have Einstein’s
brain working within you, it is still petty
because thought cannot be bigger than
life. Thought can only be logical,
functioning between two polarities. If you
want to know life in its immensity, you
need something more than your
thoughts, something more than your
logic, something more than your intellect.

This is the choice you have: either you

learn to live with creation, or you create
your own nonsensical creation in your
head. Which option do you want to
exercise? Right now, most people are
living in thoughts, something in a
psychological space, not in an existential
space. And so they are insecure, because it
can collapse any moment.

The planet is spinning on time. Not a

small event. All galaxies are going
perfectly well, the whole cosmos is doing
great. But you have one nasty little
thought crawling through your head, and
it is a bad day.

You have the freedom to think whatever

you want. Why don’t you just think

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pleasant thoughts? The problem is just
this: you have a computer for which you
have not bothered to find the keypad. If
you had the keypad, you might type the
right words, isn’t it? You don’t have the
keypad, and you are punching your
computer like a cave man, so all the
wrong words keep coming up. Try this
with your computer; the result will look
like an obscenity.

You have lost your perspective of life

because you think you are much more
than you are. In cosmic space, if you look
at yourself in perspective, you are less
than a speck of dust, but you think your
thought – which is less than a speck in
you – should determine the nature of
existence. What I think and what you
think is not of any importance. What is
important is the grandeur of existence —
the only reality.

You have heard of the word “Buddha.”

One who has risen above his intellect, or
one who has risen above the
discriminatory and logical dimension of
his life, is a Buddha. Human beings have
invented millions of ways to suffer. For all
this the manufacturing unit is just in your
mind. When you have risen above your
mind, this is the end of suffering. When
there is no fear of suffering, there is
absolute freedom. Only when this
happens, a man is free to experience life
beyond his limitations. So being a Buddha
means that you have become a witness to
your own intellect. The essence of yoga
and meditation is just this: once you have
a clear space between you and your mind,
you experience a completely different
dimension of existence.

The next step

You could try this simple practice. Set
your tap – or any similar contraption – in
such a way that only five to ten drops fall
per minute. See if you can observe each
drop – how it forms, how it falls, how it
splashes on the ground. Do this for fifteen
to twenty minutes a day. You will
suddenly become conscious of so many
things around and within you that you
are completely unaware of right now.

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 Download the free ebook “Inner
Management”, where Sadhguru offers
effective tools to enhance our capabilities,
and gives us a way to open up a whole
new dimension of life that frees us from
external influences.

Download Inner Management

Images courtesy: Heraclitus by

Johannes Moreelse from Wikimedia
Aristotle by Francesco Hayez from
Wikimedia

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POSTED IN: LIFESTYLE

TAGS: Intellect,
Mind

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Vishal Vangara
• 4 months ago

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 Finally , A practice is
suggested .. Can anyone
please find a video of the
falling drops , i guess it would
be easier ..
1 • Reply • Share ›

Debie • 4 months ago

Mind and body needs
Creativity and Nature. So, how
many people are one with the
Nature and how many are
Creative? And how many do
really sparkle with children and
oldies in Nature and Creativity?
If so, no time to think crap
right?

And drops are wonderful to

look at it Sadhguru, esspecially
when it rains along with the
sound .... even falling leaves
gives us a kind gesture just
like kids laugther.

Thank u guru-ji
• Reply • Share ›

Paul Bikoff
• 4 months ago
"You are less than a speck of
dust..." Sadhguru
"Peacock
today...Featherduster
tomorrow"- Chinese Fortune
Cookie
All blessings, Sadguru for your
teachings!
with love always!
paul
• Reply • Share ›

Ar.Roshani adsod
• 4 months ago
Basically I am a very fun loving
person and always want to
stay happpppppy. I believe in
that feel happy and let
everybody feel happy.
• Reply • Share ›

Jaya • 4 months ago

My mind needs credit what to
do shambho
• Reply • Share ›

Nanda • 4 months ago

Very nice article
• Reply • Share ›

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