On Thinking.

Thinking ..., it is not something you should be afraid to do.
Statistics say that only 10 - 15% of people actually think.
There should more of us out there who actually think.
The process is not very complicated unless you try to understand it - So, don't.
Here are some guidelines:

a. You have a large number of thought building blocks, that were given to you by your parents, your teachers and all kinds of other preachers.
What you need to do, is take them out once in a while, dust them off and examine them; Discard those that seem too absurd. For example: I told one of my daughters that the rubber tip on the handle of your toothbrush, was placed there in order to stop the brush from sliding down the drain when accidentally dropped. She believed that until some time in her twenties. It was a joke; I think she could have discarded that one much sooner.
 

b. You then take these blocks and reorganize them in a scheme that seems more realistic, and more sensible to you. For example: The Golden Rule (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.) What a crock of shit!!!! I know people who derive a large amount of pleasure from being tied down tightly and having all kinds of unspeakable acts performed upon their bodies. Yuck! - Unspeakable is not that bad - if the unspeaking part is not performed by or on me. And if you think that is rare, what exactly do all of you think of tatooing? O.K. - there is no tying down, but all those needles? I am not opposed, please do not misunderstand, I just do not want any for myself. There are many other areas, especially in the fields of pleasure, on which opinions and feelings are very much split; How about tongue piercing? - Nipples? - Clitoris? - Penis? By now you should be able to get the drift so I rest my case.

c. So, the point is that you should take out these dinosaurs and walk them once in a while.
The thing to keep in mind, is that your mind has an infinite number of levels the number and purpose of which is totally programmable by you (or somebody else, if you are too lazy.) Here's one more example: Incest, It has been ingrained in most us that that is a bad, bad word and its contemplation is almost as bad as its actual practice. In a lot of societies, not only was that O.K., it was actually rather the norm to marry your sister. (The Egyptians for instance.) How about screwing your wife's sister? I think that is considered incest, but according to the bible, it didn't stop Abraham. Hopefully, none of you people decide to turn off your computer and have sex with one of your relatives. (It is O.K. to do that with your primary cousins of the opposite sex, if you are Jewish.) If you do, you have misunderstood me and you should read this thing over again.

You might also want to wait for next month's thought on "Choosing Sides," and another future thought on "Living Within Your Chosen Social Group." I have to add here that one of the more annoying (to me) trends in non-thinking, is the one that has to do with weight. Especially, the weight of human females.
"Get off of that stupid diet!!! Have a bite, cause you're wasting away. Look back at art during past centuries, and try to find some masterpieces, that are depicting skinny women." I'll give you a few clues - La Giocconda? Venus Rising? The Three Graces? I could prepare a list of a thousand zaftig (as in chubby?) nudes, but here's my point: whom do we compare today? Cameron Diaz? Paris Hilton? Penelope Cruz? Yes, there are a few lights within this bony darkness (Kate Winslet - oh Goddess, Elle McPearson - yummy, and then ... but let's keep this impersonal.) d. So, what I am getting at, is that YOU may appoint any part of your mind the master/mistress of your thought processes, and YOU may control what you are thinking, how you are thinking, etc. Exactly who is YOU, and how this process works, is not that easy to explain, but check out Douglas Hoffstadter's writings, especially "Gödel, Escher, Bach" and rent or better yet, buy the DVD called "What the Bleep Do We Know?"

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Copyright © 2008 Ernest Samuel Llime. All Rights Reserved.