I think, Therefore, I am.. Wrong

What would happen if your thoughts stopped all of a sudden? Would you cease to Exist? The French Philosopher and Mathematician, Rene Descarte is famously quoted for saying, “Cogito Ergo Sum” (translates to “I think, therefore I am”).

Rene Descarte, wanted to understand with as much probability as possible about the nature of who he truly is. Long story short, He made the conclusion that he thinks, Therefore, He is a thinking thing!

One morning as I was taking my Mathematics class. My teacher stopped talking about matrices (boring). And He wrote “Cogito Ergo Sum” on the board….

Just as he translated it into English. I was the only person in the class who started laughing at the mistake Descarte made.

One of the most important questions that we can ask in our lifetime is, “Who is it that I am?” Are YOU your body? Are YOU your thoughts? Or Are YOU a thinking thing?

We know that, You can’t be your body. The reason being, if you looked in the mirror when you were 8 years old and if you look in the mirror now when you are 28 years old. Is it the same you that’s looking? OFCOURSE. Your body changes… But it’s the same you..

Are You your thoughts?

I love to do a small thought experiment on this. What if you were to close your eyes right now and imagine a Red square, A Yellow triangle and A Blue Rectangle. My question to you now is,

“Are you the Red Square, The Yellow Triangle or the Blue Rectangle?” Obviously, you are none of that because you are the one who’s watching!!!!

You aren’t your body, thoughts or your feelings,because they keep changing and YOU experience that change. The question becomes, Who is it that YOU are?

To be honest, Even I don’t know that. But here’s what I do know, you aren’t a thinking thing. You are more than that.

Do you know that it’s possible to stop the very act of thinking?

It takes practice, but it is possible and there are people who can do it. Experienced Meditators, Zen Monks, Buddhists, Yogis and Sufis… All of them, during their practices… go to a place beyond their thoughts. A place where the mind becomes silent… thoughts settle down and they stop, if you spend a minute in this place, your whole life changes. Does that mean they die (or cease to exist, as per Descarte)?

NO! I love to give a really simple analogy to help explain this. Let’s suppose we are living in 2077, and we have this really cool new Virtual Reality completely immersive movie theatre. We go there to watch a movie. While we are watching the movie, It seems so real (Cause it’s VR) that we start to live in the movie. We start to run away from the red headed monster who’s coming to kill us.

Now just as you are watching the movie, it’s getting terrifying… the power goes out and the movie stops. Does that mean YOU aren’t in the VR theater anymore? NO. You are there. You just stopped watching.

The Virtual Reality theater is your Mind. The movie is your thoughts…. the one who is watching your thoughts is who YOU actually are. This thought experiment also proves… that when you go to a deeper place in your mind and your thoughts stop. You don’t cease to exist, ERGO, Descartes got it wrong.

It’s actually the other way around

A much better statement than I think, therefore, I am would be I am, therefore, I think

The empty mind is a field of limitless possibility, and your thoughts are the Creative energy.