Most of men would rarther die than think, many have - Bertrand Russell

We used to have an old, schoolmaster when I was in middle grades. With grey hair, extra slow speech, he seemed and acted like a wise person. I appreciated his manner more than his teachings, quietly and I remember him, maybe the reason why.

Thinking

Often I saw  him think. Every word came out of his mouth, went through his brain. Every action he took, looked deleberate than spontaneous. How did he achieved, that patience. I do not see this often in men or women, but only once or twice in my life I have seen such people. Atleast for him, he knew why. He said once he was a quick tempered person. He would punish any student even without letting them speak. But one day he had punished an innocent student. And it made him regret and changed the manner. I would not say that was the only reason. Maybe every man with a brain, when become older with experience would be in a such a state as him. But apparently not. As suggested by the previous quote from Bertrand Russell.

Most of men would rarther die than think, and many have.

What did he mean when he uttered the above quote? That we are more ignorent when it comes to our choices? What is thinking anyway?

When we consider the locus of control, I find rarther difficult to explain the process of thinking. Infact I do not find evidence to point out exactly whether there is anything called delebrate thinking. Thinking seems to be rarther an uncontrollable process which happens as a reaction to the enviornment. Not completely separate from the envornment. In this framework, it is not that every man is not thinking. It looks like most of the time, these non thinking men do not have underlying factors which make them to think before they action. Maybe lack of knowledge or experience has more effect than pure dumbness of the man's mind.

How can we avoid being dead without thinking? Answer is relatively simple, and it seems to be inherently attached to our awareness, or so called mindfulness.

Waterfall with fresh water

Last few days when I drove around the lagoon, I felt a bad smell. It had been sometime since there was a rain, and all the dirt which accumilated in the lagoon, had given rise to a foul smelling algae. There was not enough flow, for it to be washed away. Similarly, if you have seen a sream, you would notice that when the slope is steep the water is fresher, well oxygenated and even drinkable without any bad effects. This natural cleansing process is used in every water treatment plant by deliberately created water cascades. Consider your mind to a stream. If there is no flow of thought, it will just stagnate and start to stink soon enough.

But when you are aware you would see, it is far from true that men do not think. Men do think! It's that they are ignorant of their thoughts most of the time, either due to egotism or untrained mind. Sometimes the lack of well written or Said information keeps them away from achieving the natural purified status of mind. So the challenge is not to start thinking about things that we do not know. But to change the enviornment so that there are enough cascades and flow of thoughts. Writing has helped me to achieve just that. One tiny idea would evolve into a branch and leaves over the course of few minutes and will be added to my knowlege. Maybe you should just do the same. Maybe men do think enough about things after all but only very few chose to record them before they die.