Thoughtlessness is a myth, think fully

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Question: Sir, I heard a talk of yours on ‘thinking’. The talk made me go back to thinking all that happened in life, and really, is thinking the right endeavor even?

Acharya Prashant: It cannot be an endeavour. The keyword is ‘fully’, when I say that you must think fully, the keyword is ‘fully’. Keyword is not ‘think’. I am saying: ‘Think fully’. The accent, the stress is on ‘fully’, not on ‘think’.

When I am saying ‘think fully’, I do not mean think more and more. I mean: think from a point of fullness. I do not mean: think continuously. That will just load the mind.

I am saying: ‘Think fearlessly’. And when thought is fearless, when thought is arising not from a need to secure yourself then thought serves its function, its material function disappears. And thought does have a material function. Who can deny that. You need thought to put a fly over together. You need thought to have this camera, this cloth, this building…

Listener 1: This session itself.

AP: This session itself. They cannot happen without thought.

But where is that thought coming from? Is that thought coming from a need to secure myself? If that is coming from there then the thought will be unending.

But if the thought is coming from incompleteness then the thought will not contribute to completeness. Then the thought is not really needed. It is just an instrument.

It’s like I have a slave. It does not serve a critical or central function. The critical or central is already secure. The thought is now serving a secondary or even a tertiary function. So even without thought, you are alright. Now thought can go away. Are you getting it?

Thoughtlessness does not mean that you don’t have to think; thoughtlessness means that you don’t have to take thought seriously.

Let thought does not become your backbone, that you do not become someone who is called a ‘thinker’. Now thought is ancillary in your scheme of things. So, at times you think, and it is okay; at times, you are not thinking, it is still okay. Sometimes you must think a lot. That is fine. Sometimes thought gets its objectives; sometimes thought will not get its objectives, and both are fine. Now thought is not having great importance — that is the meaning of thoughtlessness.

L2: It’s a slave.

AP: It’s a slave. Sometimes you use it; sometimes you don’t use it. If you use it, nice; if you don’t use it, nice.

With most of us, thought is our identity, thought is our very soul. Now, that is a problem. That is an evil.

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