Does wisdom arise from thoughts? || (2016)
Questioner (Q): Acharya Ji, is wisdom a thought?
Acharya Prashant (AP):
Wisdom is not a thought. Wisdom is to see the limit of thought. Wisdom is not to place needless trust upon thought.
Thought is a problem-solving mechanism. And if the problem is still continuing, how can there be understanding?
Understanding is freedom from thought.
Sure, the mind has the capability to think just as the mouth has the capability to eat. Will you keep eating? There are other organs of the body that have other capabilities. Will you keep walking? Will you keep mating?
Q: So, think only when it is needed?
AP:
How do you know when there is a need?
How do you know what is it that thought cannot give to you?
How do you know which need thought cannot fulfill?
How do you know where you must stop, so that another agency takes over from that point?
How do you know when thought should just bow its head down?
Alright, the fundamental clarification. We have not gathered here as an assembly of thinkers. It is a significant thing to say because it means that what the speaker is saying will not be very clear to you upon analysis, upon application of thought. And if there are people here who are trying to parallelly sort me out, think me up, then they will be totally missing what is happening here.
If you can just, please listen, then we will be connected. Then the whole thing will have a very different flavor, maybe something that is beyond experience. But if you will try to conclude, compare, analyze, you will miss everything.
There are many here who seem to have come for the first time, so it is necessary to ask this, are they people who have found no need to think all this while 15-20 minutes? Anybody here who has been listening deeply and hence has been finding no need to parallelly keep thinking, or comparing, or integrating? And parallelly there would be many who would not be free from the grind of the limited mind. They will be playing catch-up. They will hear, but they will not listen.
Feel secure enough to just listen. Listening does not mean obedience. Listening does not mean automatic acceptance. Listening does not mean subordination. So, you need not be afraid. Just listen. Of one thing I can assure you, there is very little thought in what I am saying. And if I can speak without thinking, it should not be very difficult for you to listen without thinking.
Try. Not.
