I am struck by the fact that we regard thinking as an activity which can (and should) only destroy. It is thinking that has destroyed the unconscious and spontaneous spirituality of our childhood, and of earlier cultural epochs.
So thinking is clearly powerful... yet we deny the validity of thinking when it is used to cure the ills of modernity.
We assume that if something good needs thinking-about, then it is not really-real but only a kind of delusion from 'wishful' thinking.
We assume that a Life cannot be built from thinking; that thinking is strong enough to destroy, but too weak to be a foundation of good living...?
Of course, thinking is not necessarily valid, and we recognise that thinking can be - and often is defective or manipulated. But so is feeling, even more so!We must not conflate the potential validity of thinking, with the imperfections of everyday thinking.
So, it seems that our modern complaint about thinking is that thinking is done-by-us; it is active, it requires effort and purpose. Our complaint is that thinking does not overwhelm us with its truth. Our complaint is that truth is not forced upon-us...
I now understand better that truth comes to us in thinking in a way that deliberately and necessarily does not 'overwhelm' us.This is indeed a difference between the child-like consciousness state of Original Participation and the Mature goal of Final Participation.
In Original Participation we are passive before reality, we are overwhelmed by what is perceived, because we cannot separate our-selves from our perceptions - we lack full self-consciousness. In Final Participation - however, we recognise that what we supposed was reality is actually co-created by our selves - we distinguish our-self from perceived-reality and at-the-same-time we are aware that both the self and the perceived reality are inextricably bound-together (because in any situation understood as meaningful, our self is always actively-involved).
We need to set aside our wish to be overwhelmed by reality! We need to recognise that when we are overwhelmed, such that thinking is compelled, and the self is coerced; than this is a false situation.
After all, is God overwhelmed by His feelings? Surely not! God is free; and when we become full Sons or Daughters of God: so will we be.
This is, indeed, freedom: to be in a relationship of Final Participation, to know that we are co-creators of Reality.
