Parasophy

Thinking may not be a distinctive quality of human beings. But thinking about one thing or another all the time is definitely a specifically human character. We are bound to think. Even at the odd times we find our minds absolutely blank, we are too crowded with thoughts that we can't recognize a single one to characterize that specific moment. Other living organism may think; humans keep on thinking!

Buddha said:

Einstein said:

Rumi is quoted to have said:

Religions teach us to think well of our fellow beings, and promise us in reward to find a state of well being ourselves ultimately. For example, Islamic traditions clearly state that you find from Allah what you expect from Him. So, think good, be grateful for everything you have, and all the authorities quoted above promise that you'll find even more of what you're thankful for!

Positive thinking is not indulging into the realm of useless chimera and impotent imagination. It's about looking at the world from a rather lively perspective. Nothing in the world is either absolute good or absolute evil. So why waste our time on searching for what we are already promised in afterlife? Why not accept this half-good, half-bad world as it is, and try to grab the most out of the half-good portion. After all, even this partial good is much more than we can imagine or need in this life of rawness.

I am sorry to be rather realistic, but I feel it is necessary. The most important problem? Any problem annoying anyone. When you suffer from severe toothache, I bet you can't even imagine to ponder on war, selfishness, world-hunger, education, etc. So does this really increase the importance of your problem to that extreme?

In fact, my friends, man is ignorant and stupid. He is not designed to be objective. He thinks and acts under the influence of what he is, and has been. So many guesses at the most important problem of the world are nothing more or less than guesses. Even if the whole world agrees that war is the most terrible problem with the world, it cannot end. At least, man cannot end it. Because at a very critical moment, he may go mad, he may get sick, he may become emotional, death may come to him. Not to be pessimistic, even if he remains extra conscious of the situation, that may be a problem by itself. To err is human!

Then, there is another point to be noted. Ideally, to solve a problem, you must have a thorough and absolute knowledge about it. How can man, whose knowledge has not yet allowed him to agree on "the most important", and who does not even know the potential consequences of his last meal, solve the most important problem of the world ? We do not know what results from what, so we cannot cure it. May be what we are thinking of as a problem, is protecting us against a greater potential danger.

But the problems get solved. Even the most important problems get solved. We are often happy, appreciating the beauty and sublimity of the world in various ways, indicating that there are no problems we should be concerned about at the moment.

So, my friends, man is ignorant. Man is stupid. We are talking about problems. There are many out there who are praising God for making such a beautiful, perfect world. Perhaps they'll complain soon, and perhaps we'll get rid of (thinking about?) the most important problems even sooner.

Problems are neither created nor solved. They are only perceived by humans. The most important problem with the world, among a hell lot of many others not less important, is that it appears problematic!

From a strictly logical point of view, how can you be good if you don't understand what it is? Life has a quite different testimony. You can run a bicycle even if you don't know the subtleties of bicycling. You can eat even if you're ignorant of the table manners. Life tells us that we CAN do things we don't understand fully. Life further teachels that we MUST do things to understand them fully!

A critic of bicycling can never be closer to the truth of bicycling than the one who exerts his powers in mastering the art. Pursuers of Good must empirically test it to give a final verdict. Even if their whole life is sacrificed in the pursuit, and they don't find the truth (which is a logical possibility and an empirical impossibility), it should still be better than the speculation which is not live to the currents of Good, whatever it is.

Truth and reality are two different things. Truth is nothing more or less than an expression of reality as you perceive it, while reality being something totally independent of, and indifferent to how you express, or even, perceive it. People differ only in their reference to reality; and this difference is not without its own implications. Certain interpretations have more value in certain situations, and vice versa.
Any number of opposite propositions may be true simultaneously, but their truth value will ultimately decide their worth. From which angle to look at reality at a certain time, is a wisdom philosophy is not designed to endow. It can only help you refine your perception. In order to choose and change your mode of perception, you perhaps need Will.

Genuine knowledge is what helps understand and deal with life optimally. Coping with the challenges of life, or dealing with the real life problems optimally means acting properly under specific conditions, which is only possible when we have developed some understanding of the life which we believe true.

In the words of Jean Paul Sartre, we are doomed to be free. We have Free Will.

The Free Will binds us to do only what we feel beneficial, although we might think otherwise sometimes. As a matter of fact, the Free Will, as the term itself suggests, affords little connection with our thoughts, concepts or ideas. It is driven by our animal instincts mainly. It makes us act what we feel like acting, however our thoughts may oppose it. If our mind is wise enough, and often it is, it soon yields to the power of Free Will by beginning to generate ideas that do not clash with our feelings. This state of consistency, or agreement, between thought and feeling is called belief.

So, if we are taught to feel rightly, or rather believe rightly, we shall act appropriately. Education has more to do with refining our emotions than our thoughts. If it modifies, corrects, and develops our mental faculties only, that does not guarantee our acting accordingly. But if it performs the noble function of chastising and purifying our emotions and feelings, it is more than sure that we will act most accurately under any circumstances. It is because Free Will, the power behind action, can be, and mostly is, utilized way better by emotions than intellect. That' why, it is safe to maintain that genuine knowledge is correct information supported by a firm belief upon it. And genuine education is what provides us with genuine knowledge.

If you feel differently from what you think, which can be indexed by juxtaposing your thoughts with your actions, you may be fortunate or unfortunate enough to either become a Nietzsche, or an unknown lunatic in some infamous asylum, irrespectively.

We generally believe in evolution. We generally believe in improvability of our beliefs. Man evolved. Man evolved in the world, in the universe. The world, the universe we know, is void of principle if we look at them through the eye of an animal. A mouse is just a mouse to a cat. An entity. Another mouse is another mouse to it; another entity. Particularity! Every mouse is a particular one. No generalisation! No idea! No name! The cat is just following the dictates of instinct!

Particularity! It is a particular world we are supposed to have evolved in; no generalisation, no principle, no idea, no concept, no name present in the sense a mouse, or a cat, or the world is present. No materialisation of ideas! No embodiment of concepts!

How did Man come to generalise? How did he generalise the generalisation? How did he find the principle of the principle? How the hell did he transcend the tangible to catch at the intangible? Did somebody from the forth dimension teach him?

Does the below excerpt from Qur'an answer the question satisfactorily?