Thought and Thinking
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Thoughts

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Higher Thought, Thinking and Life Response

Understanding
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Definition of Understanding
Understanding is an organization of the mental energies around an idea that takes a direction so that future thought and action will have its full benefit of support and sure guidance. (MSS)

Understanding in Higher Mind is through Silence
The medium for understanding in the human mind is thinking while in the Higher Mind it is silence.

Non-Thinking to Understand
As the running thoughts are a disturbance to thinking, thinking interferes with understanding. Understanding is facilitated by SILENCE.

Understanding and Intuition
Direct understanding is called Intuition.

Light is Source of Understanding Ideas
Knowledge is the source of light as light is the source of understanding ideas. (MSS)

Understanding
To express another's understanding is understanding. (MSS)

Untitled
When you explain things [to others] you already know, the understanding grows in the mind occupying the corners it has not occupied. (MSS)

Progressive Means of Understanding

Understanding by sense data

Understanding by thinking

Understanding by non-thinking -- thinking is a bar, silent contemplation

Direct intuition -- understanding is a bar to knowing -- what you don't seek comes to you  (MSS) 

Progression of Understanding

Understanding by sense data (outer)

Understanding by thinking (intellectuality)

Understanding by non-thinking -- thinking is a bar, silent contemplation (inner)

How the Body, Vital, and Physical Understands

• Body understands by the repeated movements remembered.
• Vital understands by the success or failure of its impact.
• Mind understands sensation and thought. (MSS)

Conception, Perception, Realization of an Idea or Concept

Karmayogi has identified three levels of the absorption of any truth of life. The first is mental and is described by the terms "Conception."  I conceive of an idea, e.g. that practicing Non-Reaction in a difficult or stressful situation attracts positive outcomes from life.

The second and higher level of integrative absorption of Truth or an Idea is that of at the plane of the vital being and life experience. It is called "Perception." I now perceive the power of nonreaction in my life as a result of having a powerful, life response experience where I practiced the method.

The highest level of all of absorbing a Knowledge is at the physical level; i.e. at the level of the body. It is called "Realization." There the Truth of a thing is so fundamental and natural to one's self that one does not even have to think about it. It is like the air that we breathe. In our example, I constantly take to nonreaction that attracts powerful positive conditions because it is what one does -- like breathing, eating, and sleeping. It is integrated into the very fiber of my being.

Conception - Perception - Transformation are therefore increasingly higher stages in the integral absorption of an Idea or Truth or Matter in one's being.

In this way, we can look at anything we believe we "know," and ascertain if it is flimsy at the mere level of conception, or more fully integrated through life experience of perception and to complete realization.

We can thereby measure our level of Realization on any of Karmayogi's methods -- including Non-reaction, Goodwill, Gratitude, Soft and Reduced Speech, Positive Attitude, Taking Responsibility, Non-Complaining, Non-Initiating, Taking Another's Point of View, Speaking the Truth and Being Honest, Greater Psychological Strength, Higher Organization, Maximum Utilization of Resources, Overcoming Habit, Shedding Opinions, Non-Thinking, Sincerity, Consecration, Intuition, Self-Givingness, Maximum Effort, Embracing the Work at Hand, etc. etc.

There is also a looping quality to this continuum. Because I have Realized the truth of something in the very fiber of my being, that original idea (i.e. the Conception) becomes that much more clear and developed in my mind, and the experience (Perception) that occurs much more frequent and dynamic.

As a result of this Ascent and Descent, every life Truth becomes fully and integrally realized in my life, just as the Divine Intended.

Untitled
A visual representation of ideas can make it more real than the ideas as thought. And yet the reverse is also true, when we are better able to understand a thing through language, which unlike the visual does not entice the sense nor block the thought.

Memory of Understanding
Understanding is based on a logic and each point well understood by the very strength of its understanding moves it to the next point, NOT on the strength of memory. This [approach of logic] may be called the Memory of Understanding. Memory of understanding is unfailing as its facts are all integrated. The Memory of Understanding is situated in the subtle mind where various facts relate themselves automatically and get integrated when the intelligence exercises itself on them. (MSS, somewhat reorganized)

Success and Gaining Fullness of an Idea
If you are interested in success, then when you learn some new idea, you should aspire to know the idea in its fullness; i.e. experience the idea and then embody it in your being as a spontaneous available skill.

Understanding and Insight
The gathering of the many-sided plethora of details of the objects of inquiry enables understanding and the possibility of insight to emerge. A many-sided and objective analysis is the cornerstone of one's insight into what is right and true.

Four Ways to Truly Know
The more we are open to the multi-sided facts around us, through our true objectivity of these facts, the more we are able to gain insight from those facts. Second, the deeper we live in our consciousness within, the more likely we are able to be objective in the first place, to be open to all the facts, which in turn gives us the many-sided view, and which inevitably leads to understanding and insights of those facts. Third, the more insight we have, the more the chance of spiritual experience of mind such as illuminations, intuitions, and revelations of knowledge, which enables one to acquire a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional integral knowledge. And fourth, the more we live deep within, the more we open the portals of spiritual mind on an ongoing basis.

Skills vs. Ideas vs. Spiritual Ideas
A carpenter acquires physical skill. It is remembered by the PHYSICAL memory. Mind memorises formulas. Neither is knowledge; both are skills. Deep ploughing takes the roots down, preserves moisture, gives a great yield. This is not merely information, but an idea based on information. The Westerner discovered that pleasing the customer increases business. Though selfish, it is another man's point of view, a spiritual idea, as the Spirit considers the other man's profit as one's own welfare. (MSS)

Data [Facts], Information, Ideas
(main)

Data, Information, Idea, Knowledge
Data are unrelated facts accumulated. Information is organised data so that it can be readily used. The essence of various information is idea. An idea becomes knowledge when it becomes practically usable. (MSS)

Facts/Data to Information to Ideas
When I organize this current project I start with facts [data], a "haze of information," which are then organized into ideas, with more facts added as support information, which clarifies and expands the ideas.

Facts vs. Useful Information
Facts are valuable but not usable until they are organised into useful information. (MSS)

On Opinions vs. Facts
Obviously opinion is ours, not necessarily the fact of the situation. There is a report about a theft. It comes to us. As we hear of it, our past experience receives the facts - assuming they are correct facts - and arrives at a conclusion.

That becomes our opinion. Our opinion of an event reported to us is our version of it in the light of past experience, valid to us only. To know the facts of the situation, one needs to shed that opinion. He who desires an open mind must be able to prevent opinion formation. He who forms an opinion prejudges the event. It becomes a prejudice. To insist on that prejudice is to have a closed mind. (MSS)

Ideas Entering the Mind from the Atmosphere
Ideas are afloat in the atmosphere. They enter conducive minds. We mistake such outside ideas as our own ideas. There is nothing our own. What is our own is our receptive mentality. If those ideas are powerful, they fulfil themselves. It is the power of ideas. Some people speak about the future. It comes true. (MSS)

Idea Power
Thought has an intrinsic value. Or better yet, when thought matures into an IDEA -- i.e. when it is conjured up in the mind through thinking -- then it is certainly valuable. It remains a thing in potential to be manifest.

Karmayogi says that POWERFUL IDEAS have the power to manifest on their own; to be fulfilled. What makes an idea powerful is a question. Here's one clue:

Sri Aurobindo speaks of Real Ideas, inherent truths of the Infinite consciousness. When Supermind then rendered/renders them in creation as forms of force, they have power of effectivity. Among them are Knowledge, Wisdom, Creativity, Peace, Harmony, Love, Delight, Beauty, Power, Timelessness, Infinity, etc. These are Source ideas and determinants of Satchitananda. There are infinite ideas that can manifest in infinite ways in an infinite cosmos. They are constantly moving toward fulfillment because they are powerful Ideas. They still need an instrument for fulfillment, like a receptive person who has will of its manifestation of some sort.

In this way, our own ideas are the Divine expressing Itself through our personalized Mind.

Ideas and values are very closely related. Gandhiji's ideas of freedom for India was a deeply ingrained value he believed in that came to pass through his will and effort. (So was Ahimsa -- nonviolence--, though it was, as Sri Aurobindo and Karmayogi have noted, a false one in its context that hurt India and divided it through partition. So ideas and even values can be positive and negative.)

A thought is a mind pulse. An idea is a thought, a gathering of facts into a concept. Gathering multiple ideas together lead to an INSIGHT. Above that are illuminations, intuitions, and revelations. In Supermind, the Idea/knowledge and the Will are one for ultimate effectivity, and life response power.

Every idea we come up with is an act of creativity at the level of Mind. Beyond that, it waits for the will and action for its execution and manifestation. Powerful ideas are self-fulfilling.

Ideas and Knowledge
An idea becomes knowledge when it becomes practically usable. (MSS)

Deducing Theory from Data Is Invalid; Theory Itself is More Powerful
-Theory is of the Mind. Data are physical facts. To deduce a theory from data is theoretically invalid. The right sequence is data can be called upon to confirm a Theory.

-Reliance on data is like relying on the past to know the future.

-Those who relied on data expected socialist revolution in Great Britain. The Revolution not only eluded Britain, but evaded all industrialised nations and then chose a very backward, rural Russia.

-No amount of observation and collection of data could have led anyone to conceive that it is the earth that goes around the sun.

-In any Sherlock Holmes story, the police, the victim, the onlookers and readers invariably arrive at a rational conclusion based on available data. Holmes reaches another conclusion.

-No poet, artist, great musician, or creative political leader has ever reached his goal working from data.

-Data is of the known; our search is for the unknown.

-Technology can be said to be the real cause of the success of some [of these] companies. Moving away from the concrete inputs of Technology, Market, Money to invisible ingredients such as humility and determination itself shows that one needs to move away from the visible Data to the invisible ideals, values, etc. (MSS, extracted)

(See MSS Theory of Data for Complete Article)

Manifesting Ideas, Seed Ideas

Mind's Power to Manifest Its Seed-Ideas

Facts, thoughts, ideas, self-effectuating ideas which we call Seed-Ideas are sensational, mental, practical representations of the philosophic idea of Real-Idea, an idea that can readily accomplish itself. Facts are observed by our various senses. Mind coordinates two or more facts to generate a thought. Thus, a thought is a mental essence of physical observation. It is achieved by the faculty of thinking. Mind has over a dozen such faculties. Still the mind is more than its faculties or the sum of its faculties, to speak in Aristotelian terms. Ideas are the quintessence of thoughts achieved by the entire Mind in its exercise of wholeness of existence -- sub-conscious and conscious. Such ideas have two parts -- knowledge and will. One comprehends and the other executes. By a higher process made possible by life experience and more so by inner mental experience, the knowledge and will begin to blend and fuse, each accepting the role of the other in a greater measure. In that measure, mind becomes more effective, moving towards self-effectivity. Should the entire thought fully fuse with the will, the simple idea matures into a powerful Seed-Idea capable of initiating action.

Idea Power
Thought has an intrinsic value. Or better yet, when thought matures into an IDEA -- i.e. when it is conjured up in the mind through thinking -- then it is certainly valuable. It remains a thing in potential to be manifest.

Karmayogi says that POWERFUL IDEAS have the power to manifest on their own; to be fulfilled. What makes an idea powerful is a question. Here's one clue:

Sri Aurobindo speaks of Real Ideas, inherent truths of the Infinite consciousness. When Supermind then rendered/renders them in creation as forms of force, they have power of effectivity. Among them are Knowledge, Wisdom, Creativity, Peace, Harmony, Love, Delight, Beauty, Power, Timelessness, Infinity, etc. These are Source ideas and determinants of Satchitananda. There are infinite ideas that can manifest in infinite ways in an infinite cosmos. They are constantly moving toward fulfillment because they are powerful Ideas. They still need an instrument for fulfillment, like a receptive person who has will of its manifestation of some sort.

In this way, our own ideas are the Divine expressing Itself through our personalized Mind.

Ideas and values are very closely related. Gandhiji's ideas of freedom for India was a deeply ingrained value he believed in that came to pass through his will and effort. (So was Ahimsa -- nonviolence--, though it was, as Sri Aurobindo and Karmayogi have noted, a false one in its context that hurt India and divided it through partition. So ideas and even values can be positive and negative.)

A thought is a mind pulse. An idea is a thought, a gathering of facts into a concept. Gathering multiple ideas together lead to an INSIGHT. Above that are illuminations, intuitions, and revelations. In Supermind, the Idea/knowledge and the Will are one for ultimate effectivity, and life response power.

Every idea we come up with is an act of creativity at the level of Mind. Beyond that, it waits for the will and action for its execution and manifestation. Powerful ideas are self-fulfilling.

Also see: Real Ideas

On Insight
(main)

On Insight

When we study a topic from all sides, neutrally without prejudice, we gain insight. Having insight on that topic makes us ripe to experience descents of intuitions of spiritual mind, where the deepest truths, the object of integral knowledge that we sought to know when we undertook the endeavor just enters our being.

Insight comes from knowing the facts and ideas from all sides, plus knowing the subtle phenomena and truths of life that effect things. To know thusly the outer and the inner forces, gives one the most solid basis

Untitled
Insights are the foundations of truth; not the true, full, integral truth of the thing, which is born of insight.

Untitled
Acquiring objective, many-sided facts lead to insight on a topic or idea. Insight can then be the foundation for a completer, integral knowledge that can come through hard thinking or without thinking as intuitions into the person of the complete object of knowledge.

Objectivity and Emergence of Insights
By turning aside one's prejudicial subjectivity, and making the full, unfettered effort at objectivity, at an objective effort to get the many-sided facts, one arrives at understanding and then bursts of insight.

On Insight
Insight is the capacity to place the event in its original psychological context and not in its social appearance.

The activated mind thinks as everyone else's. The silent mind refuses to bring in the popular prejudices. That invites the Silence of the Spirit. The Spirit by its atmosphere enables us to have the insight into the circumstances which others are denied. When five people have been searching for a lost object for some time in vain, your silent mind will give you the capacity to catch sight of the object. It is the insight of vision.

Insight generally comes as a thought, but can arise through any of the senses. Alert senses avail of insight. Intuition is a greater and more powerful faculty than insight. Insight serves as a door that opens on Intuition. (MSS)

Untitled
Perhaps Sherlock Holmes' greatest genius however was his ability to observe a situation, see it from its myriad of sides and subtleties, and from this cornucopia of details was able draw them together into a series of insights, from which he could come up with an integral analysis and thereby a solution to the situation at hand.

Understanding and Insight
The gathering of the many-sided plethora of details of the objects of inquiry enables understanding and the possibility of insight to emerge. A many-sided and objective analysis is the cornerstone of one's insight into what is right and true.

Four Ways to Truly Know
The more we are open to the multi-sided facts around us, through our true objectivity of these facts, the more we are able to gain insight from those facts. Second, the deeper we live in our consciousness within, the more likely we are able to be objective in the first place, to be open to all the facts, which in turn gives us the many-sided view, and which inevitably leads to understanding and insights of those facts. Third, the more insight we have, the more the chance of spiritual experience of mind such as illuminations, intuitions, and revelations of knowledge, which enables one to acquire a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional integral knowledge. And fourth, the more we live deep within, the more we open the portals of spiritual mind on an ongoing basis.

Developing Intuition
Intellectuality matures into intuition through insight. (MSS)

Insights Not Full Truth
Insights are the foundations of truth; not the true, full, integral truth of the thing.

Intuition
Crossing the faculty of intellect through the aid of insight, one enters the zone of Intuition. (MSS)

Becoming Expert in Field
If you want to become a true expert, a genius in your field, then look at the object of inquiry from every conceivable perspective, without any prejudice; be unscrupulously objective; not care about what society says, and pursue your interests with great interest and intensity. Great insights will emerge, putting you far ahead of the game, far ahead of your peers or rivals or associates, enabling you to be a true leader in your field; enabling you to accomplish beyond your wildest expectations and dreams.

Gaining Knowledge of Deeper Truths of Life through Higher Consciousness
In life, our knowledge of past and future events, the thoughts, attitudes and intentions of other people, and even much of our own deeper motivations lie beyond the bounds of conscious knowledge. The discovery of the deeper truths of life requires the development of greater self-consciousness and consciousness of others, keen observation of human behavior, and deep insight into human motivation. (MSS, slightly modified)

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Reason

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Logic

Rationality