Weekly Writing Prompt No. 63.In 1637 René Descartes published his Discourse on the Method in French stating in Latin, Cogito, ergo sum which roughly translates as I think, therefore I am. Since I originally happened across the phrase whilst studying Theology at Uni, I’ve had a problem with it. It’s always felt a bit itchy or scratchy, niggling away in the back of my mind that something about it wasn’t quite right.
I feel that both statements are true. It's an age thing.
When I was young I was taught to think for myself. I read books on building and interior design. I thought about the things I was reading and decided what was good and what needed improving. I thought and therefore it made me what I am.
I decided that I wanted to build houses and design interiors, but hands on and not as an architect. So that is what I grew up to do. Now I am older, people look to me for solutions to their problems.
Because I am the builder/designer. I am the one that has to think up solutions that are not always obvious and can take a lot of thinking about. I am the designer therefore I think.
And there stands the ultimate creator Arthur - the designer of all that is, and all that will be. Nicely written and thanks for joining in the sharing.
Reflecting: I'm with Descartes. I think therefore I am. It doesn't mean I only exist because I think, it means that how I exist is because of how I think. Someone told me we are not our thoughts. I believe that we are nothing but our thoughts. Our mind is not the "monkey-mind" ever active, uncontrolled. Our mind is the one thing we can take control of, and we must, because it determines our entire existence. Our "existence" is the combination of the external reality and our perception of it. We have some ability to change the one and total ability to change the other. I think therefore I am = I am as I think I am. When I choose to focus on gratitude and abundance, I find I am happy and joyful and at peace. When I choose to focus on the evil in the world, I find I am sad and on the brink of the deep dark well. I am as I choose to think, and when I remember that, I choose to think about all the beauty that yet remains, and all the wisdom that still lingers.
I cannot for the life of me remember who said it, but the following misremembered quotation always sticks with me "Thought creates the world, and then says 'I didn't do it!".
There were those who said that at the centre of the maze she would find the minotaur. They lied.
Or maybe they just didn’t know. Maybe the minotaur was what they found at the centre of their maze. Maybe they didn’t know that the maze was inside their head. Maybe they didn’t take heed of the instruction never to enter the maze, and once they had they just found themselves between the high hedges of close-cropped cypress and yew and box and all the other misleading greenery. Maybe they believed the instruction that if you just kept your right hand against the wall of green it would lead you out again.
Maybe and maybe and maybe.
She had been in here for days now. Or was it longer? Or was it only minutes?
There were no hedges. Nothing green. Only walls and doors, and none of them would stay still. The walls shrank in upon her. The doors moved, and looked different, and none of the keys would fit, and stairs led nowhere, and she had to squeeze herself around the edges of things, and when she found her room it was already occupied and there was no-one anywhere to help.
Her maze had no monster, because it had no centre. It had no solution because there was no way out. It had only shifting walls and doors without keys and all she could do was to keep walking the corridors…and hoping.
Alice in Wonderland springs to mind with this beautifully eloquent insight Lesley. And isn't it true that we can lose ourself for days in the maze of our minds. Oh, and I always thought it was the left hand ....! Perhaps that's why I keep getting lost in the maze of my own thinking :-)
Left probably works as well as right, why shouldn't we go round widdershins?! :)
I hadn't made the Alice connection, but yes - the influence is there - and maybe that explains my nightmares, because most of that is straight out of my dreamscape...the shifting doors, keys not fitting, not being able to find the room - that is my standard anxiety dream., I wake up sweating. I wake up happy to have woken up.
I feel that both statements are true. It's an age thing.
When I was young I was taught to think for myself. I read books on building and interior design. I thought about the things I was reading and decided what was good and what needed improving. I thought and therefore it made me what I am.
I decided that I wanted to build houses and design interiors, but hands on and not as an architect. So that is what I grew up to do. Now I am older, people look to me for solutions to their problems.
Because I am the builder/designer. I am the one that has to think up solutions that are not always obvious and can take a lot of thinking about. I am the designer therefore I think.
And there stands the ultimate creator Arthur - the designer of all that is, and all that will be. Nicely written and thanks for joining in the sharing.
Reflecting: I'm with Descartes. I think therefore I am. It doesn't mean I only exist because I think, it means that how I exist is because of how I think. Someone told me we are not our thoughts. I believe that we are nothing but our thoughts. Our mind is not the "monkey-mind" ever active, uncontrolled. Our mind is the one thing we can take control of, and we must, because it determines our entire existence. Our "existence" is the combination of the external reality and our perception of it. We have some ability to change the one and total ability to change the other. I think therefore I am = I am as I think I am. When I choose to focus on gratitude and abundance, I find I am happy and joyful and at peace. When I choose to focus on the evil in the world, I find I am sad and on the brink of the deep dark well. I am as I choose to think, and when I remember that, I choose to think about all the beauty that yet remains, and all the wisdom that still lingers.
I cannot for the life of me remember who said it, but the following misremembered quotation always sticks with me "Thought creates the world, and then says 'I didn't do it!".
There were those who said that at the centre of the maze she would find the minotaur. They lied.
Or maybe they just didn’t know. Maybe the minotaur was what they found at the centre of their maze. Maybe they didn’t know that the maze was inside their head. Maybe they didn’t take heed of the instruction never to enter the maze, and once they had they just found themselves between the high hedges of close-cropped cypress and yew and box and all the other misleading greenery. Maybe they believed the instruction that if you just kept your right hand against the wall of green it would lead you out again.
Maybe and maybe and maybe.
She had been in here for days now. Or was it longer? Or was it only minutes?
There were no hedges. Nothing green. Only walls and doors, and none of them would stay still. The walls shrank in upon her. The doors moved, and looked different, and none of the keys would fit, and stairs led nowhere, and she had to squeeze herself around the edges of things, and when she found her room it was already occupied and there was no-one anywhere to help.
Her maze had no monster, because it had no centre. It had no solution because there was no way out. It had only shifting walls and doors without keys and all she could do was to keep walking the corridors…and hoping.
Alice in Wonderland springs to mind with this beautifully eloquent insight Lesley. And isn't it true that we can lose ourself for days in the maze of our minds. Oh, and I always thought it was the left hand ....! Perhaps that's why I keep getting lost in the maze of my own thinking :-)
Left probably works as well as right, why shouldn't we go round widdershins?! :)
I hadn't made the Alice connection, but yes - the influence is there - and maybe that explains my nightmares, because most of that is straight out of my dreamscape...the shifting doors, keys not fitting, not being able to find the room - that is my standard anxiety dream., I wake up sweating. I wake up happy to have woken up.
Gosh, it sounds like you're on a bit of a soul journey in your dreams Lesley.
Always! in the dreamworld and the waking world.