Why are We Subject to ‘Wrong’ Thinking?

WE DEFAULT to ‘wrong’ thinking—meaning narrow, limited, short-sighted thinking—partly out of habit and partly because we have never been taught to think in a broader, more flexible, more expansive way.

We also resort to wrong thinking because we are usually identified. In practical terms this means that our consciousness of awareness is entangled in the mind as a feeling of ‘I’ which results in the sense of ‘I’ am thinking, as opposed to awareness remaining free of attachment to the mind as a sense of identity in the mind and simply watching the mind operate as a vehicle for thoughts.

Another thing that happens due to identification is that it draws awareness down into the lower (moving) parts of centers which operate with very little or simply automatic attention. This is where we literally—and usually in a hurry—‘jump’ to a conclusion, at which point thinking comes to a stop. And because the moving part of the intellectual center is narrow and restricted and limited, our thinking often feels cramped and jammed and forced, all of which are mental sensations of tension that we want to get out of as soon as possible. We do exactly that by comforting ourselves in the form of a quick conclusion or opinion or attitude, despite how limited it may be and regardless of whether we notice this or not.

Real thinking, or ‘right’ thinking, requires patience which stems from us being less identified and thus able to remain for a longer period of time in the intellectual part of the intellectual center. In this part of our being there is a larger lake for attention to swim in. Rather than thoughts tightening and restricting and coming to a quick stop, they are free to stretch out, bend, extend, mix with (rather than oppose) other thoughts, and—most importantly—establish their mutual relationship to a single, central, larger whole around which, and in which, they are seen revolving as its parts and limbs.

In this more fluid and expansive psychological environment, the process of thinking can, as Peter Ouspensky pointed out, become longer, more concentrated, more interconnected, and far more comprehensive; so comprehensive as to induce and reflect the consciousness of awareness itself which is serving as the environment that is allowing for free thought. In right thinking, no idea or thought is fragmented or isolated or disconnected or contradictory or in opposition. The ‘space’ of thinking remains instead open-ended and inviting. In this respect, it is noteworthy that ‘right’ thinking, because it is based on non-identification, is unhurried and inconclusive rather than embroiled in the confines and haste of identification, as ‘wrong’ thinking is.

Knowing all this can lead you to the point where you learn to discern—to ‘feel’ and ‘taste’—in yourself the difference between thinking in the moving parts versus in the intellectual parts of centers, and from this discernment you learn to find your way from the one to the other. What is really happening, however, is that awareness is learning to find its way from a condition of more identification to less identification, and it is this increasing conscious self-realization that enables thinking to correspondingly lift and open.