An inquiry into the mind’s fragility, the ego’s illusions, and the freedom found in awareness.
Critical Thinking and Spirituality
Psychology, Philosophy and Spirituality intersect at critical thinking.
Psychology aims at human development.
Philosophy addresses the quality of life.
Spirituality is the very nature of thoughts.
At some point in life, these three perspectives towards critical thinking play a vital role.
Especially in the life of a student.
A person who has arrived at questioning the true meaning of life. A seeker who has been on the path of realising the truth.
I call this person a student of life. He studies life and what it means to live.
He finds the parallels between tangible and intangible aspects of life.
What is happening on the surface and how it affects our core and vice versa.
Our core influences us, and we, in turn, influence the core.
Our life influences us, and we influence the world we live in.
Hence, critical thinking can be a key to not only understanding our place in the world but also to being aware of our being.
And this give and take is an intricate process.
A process in which we grow up to gain knowledge and grow down to become more and more innocent.
Let’s look at it layer by layer, and read along to follow along.
We live in an information era.
We come to know about our friend’s marriage even before she tells us via Facebook.
I give this example to exhibit what makes information valuable.
Information itself holds no value if you keep it to yourself.
You might know about a 1000-carat diamond hidden somewhere in the Himalaya, but the information is useless if you don’t mine the diamond.
Facebook is valued in billions only because it knows how to apply the information.
This fact remains, whether we love it or hate it.
Now the crux is, you need information. The applied information is knowledge.
And to remain knowledgeable, you need to remain curious. But curiosity is killed by knowledge.
Then what are the means through which we stay curious? What are the ways that we avoid stagnation in the progress of life?
Critical thinking is critical.
It’s not something of a physical force in play where you think hard.
In spiritual thinking is looked down upon.
Philosophy is fantasising the ability to think.
Psychology is the pathology of thinking; it compartmentalises the thinking process.
Amid all this blunder, can we learn how to think?
Do we need to learn how to think?
It is an unfamiliar and uncomfortable endeavour.
But a quest we must accept to be socially aware.
Being socially aware makes us influential. And by influential, I don’t necessarily mean a person of power.
The influence the butterfly effect has is significant. And yet it is gentle and fragile.
This fragility is the common trait we share with the rest of the world.
The newborn babies, the saints and the criminals, everybody is fragile.
This fragility makes us agile. Flexible enough to accommodate new ideas.
This world is big enough to accommodate everyone. And small enough to be accommodated within us.
Being influential can be a service to the world within and without.
If we understand the mind and what it means to think.
If we understand the nature of thoughts and their source.
Spirituality from all religions suggests that the mind is independent of the body.
It is not in the brain nor the belly.
Recent studies by Popp and Swartz have confirmed the non-local communication, which is subtle and faster than light.
Dan Siegel has concluded that the mind is not confined to the brain and not even the body.
We know very less about the mind. Not because we lack the motivation to understand, but because the nature of the mind is incomprehensible.
Then how does a person rationalise living? And what justifies the actions we take as being just?
The problem is, we need justification.
The ego needs constant gratification and approval from others.
We see the world through the lens of intentions and morality.
Recently, I was caught in a debate in a group about “Being vegetarian is non-violent”
Plants are sensitive to light and hence their surroundings.
They can’t shout or feel conventional pain and emotions. It doesn’t justify the killing of a living being.
Only because we are conditioned to believe that eating plants is a non-violent act doesn’t approve of the violence.
It’s an assumption. And we live in assumptions.
It is a dangerous thing to do. It is not progressive.
The moral of morality is that we don’t know the outcome.
If you assume the outcome before experimenting with life, it is not an experiment.
It’s just gratification done to cement the belief.
When the spiritual seekers go in search of the mind, it is nowhere to be found.
The thoughts arise and subside. And that is the nature of thought.
Accumulating thoughts is the nature of the ego.
When the ego is dissolved, the thought concludes into nothing.
Zero.
The anecdote is also an information source. But the intention of the information is to devour the information.
And this is where we come to the pure land of critical thinking.
The intention.
The intention of the meditation is to be a witness to the thoughts.
The intention is clear.
Be aware of what you are doing, and objectivity springs from the awareness.
You kill a living organism to eat it. And that is natural. The intention and object are survival.
You don’t need to think about it. You kill, you eat, and that’s it.
The thinking and overthinking about it is access and egoistic.
This is the pitfall of information and knowledge. It drags you into the vortex of thinking.
Critical thinking is clear thinking. If practised enough, you don’t need to think at all.
You are hungry, eat, sleepy, sleep.
And beyond that comes a state where you come to an understanding that mind of what you think of?
If your attention is taken by the ring of the bell, you are the sound of the bell. When you dive into the ocean, you are the ocean.
Wisdom is knowledge to acknowledge that we are one with everything.
There are no compartments to our being, and this body is not the boundary of our being.
We are more than that.
Like theology, critical thinking can bring you to this realisation. What lies beyond is direct living.
Without altering the moods and emotions to the swings of uncertainty.
This is the state where you are truly open to new ideas. Without assumptions and preconceptions.
The foundation of critical thinking is not to impose but to contribute.
To impose means you think you are right and others are wrong.
Contribution means you have a unique perspective and you are sharing it with the world.
It is comfortable with the thought that it is okay if your reality is different from the person in front of you.
“The statement at the core of every disagreement: I’m right, you are wrong.”
Charles F. Glassman
We have to go beyond right and wrong. And sometimes it can stretch the fabric of morality.
Critical thinking is questioning. Questioning has propelled our civilisation to what it is.
Things have drastically changed since the dawn of civilisation for us.
We live in a modern and more practical view towards social conditions like marriage.
And at the core of all of it, an individual always strives to be valuable to society.
It can be very convincing to think that taking responsibility makes us valuable.
But a madman straying on the street also seeks his place in society without taking any responsibility.
As a spiritual healer, people put a lot of expectations on my shoulders.
But I believe I am more valuable to people if I help myself and people to evolve their beliefs.
It is not about cementing the faith, but about blossoming it.
If you take a piece of information and present it to people, critical thinking is all about what new perspective you might include.
As a “Thinker”, there is a catch to it.
Critical thinking is not taught in schools. As it would require constantly changing the syllabus.
Every idea that is presented can be challenged.
Newton’s laws of physics are challenged, and yet we call them laws. It fits the syllabus if it is kept as a law. A rule of thumb.
Because teachers are not critical thinkers.
To be a critical thinker, you will have to expand beyond books and beyond scripture.
You will have to build, if not disrupt, the ideas that our forefathers have built.
Critical thinking is not the end of thought, but the beginning of awareness.
It is the courage to stand in uncertainty without rushing to cement an answer.
It is the art of balancing knowledge with innocence, influence with humility, and individuality with oneness.
In the end, critical thinking is not about being right — it is about being awake.
Awake to the fragile beauty of life. Awake to the assumptions we carry. Awake to the responsibility of contributing, not imposing.
When we think with awareness, every ordinary act — eating, walking, speaking, even silence — becomes an opening into truth.
And perhaps that is the silent strength of critical thinking: it doesn’t end in the mind, it begins in life.
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