Reminds me how I never liked the title of the famous Orthodox book, “Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives.” If we don’t know ourself as that which transcends thoughts, as you’ve pointed out, then our thoughts do determine our lives - we become backseat passengers to a false self, driven by our thoughts. The danger, however, is that many are all too inclined to think that thinking “good” thoughts is the solution to the “bad” thoughts that plague us, when in reality this is no solution at all but just more entanglement in thought. On the other hand, once we rediscover who we are beyond thoughts, then our thoughts in fact do not determine our lives. The importance of what you’ve shared here can’t be overstated.
It’s the core of everything. And now today we are told we can be whatever we think and our ego and self worth become tied to being able to produce happy thoughts; what do u do when those thoughts don’t come?
It cuts to the heart of the spiritual life and the root issue of man’s suffering and delusion: we have forgotten who we are. We have “fallen” into the dualistic, thinking mind and are no longer “conscious in God,” which St. Isaac says is salvation. Unfortunately, I even see in the Christian tradition a loss of focus on teaching people who they really are. How often do we get stuck in beliefs and the repetition of rituals, all the while never truly knowing who we are and living as that? I would even go so far as to say there’s a real danger of Christianity becoming a cult Christ, wherein Christology becomes ontologically separate from anthropology. It’s my opinion that the Church would do well to bring squarely back in to focus a sound Christian anthropology in both its teaching and practice.
In an earlier post I speak about that. At first we automatically identify with them as our own thought and as necessary. And then once we realize thoughts can have a negative effect it's still like digging out a wart. Wrote more on this in an earlier post: https://nasmith.substack.com/p/burning-off-the-warts-and-becoming?r=32csd0
Reminds me very much of things St. Gregory of Nyssa says in "On the Soul and Resurrection", which I read for the first time not too long ago. Good stuff!
It needs to be as rooted in the philokalia as it is in theology and tradition. It’s always been hard to convince people the two are not separate, but especially us westerners.
Reminds me how I never liked the title of the famous Orthodox book, “Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives.” If we don’t know ourself as that which transcends thoughts, as you’ve pointed out, then our thoughts do determine our lives - we become backseat passengers to a false self, driven by our thoughts. The danger, however, is that many are all too inclined to think that thinking “good” thoughts is the solution to the “bad” thoughts that plague us, when in reality this is no solution at all but just more entanglement in thought. On the other hand, once we rediscover who we are beyond thoughts, then our thoughts in fact do not determine our lives. The importance of what you’ve shared here can’t be overstated.
It’s the core of everything. And now today we are told we can be whatever we think and our ego and self worth become tied to being able to produce happy thoughts; what do u do when those thoughts don’t come?
It cuts to the heart of the spiritual life and the root issue of man’s suffering and delusion: we have forgotten who we are. We have “fallen” into the dualistic, thinking mind and are no longer “conscious in God,” which St. Isaac says is salvation. Unfortunately, I even see in the Christian tradition a loss of focus on teaching people who they really are. How often do we get stuck in beliefs and the repetition of rituals, all the while never truly knowing who we are and living as that? I would even go so far as to say there’s a real danger of Christianity becoming a cult Christ, wherein Christology becomes ontologically separate from anthropology. It’s my opinion that the Church would do well to bring squarely back in to focus a sound Christian anthropology in both its teaching and practice.
And how easy it is, in identifying with a thought, to take it into our hearts, and, from there, to incarnate that thought into sinful action.
In an earlier post I speak about that. At first we automatically identify with them as our own thought and as necessary. And then once we realize thoughts can have a negative effect it's still like digging out a wart. Wrote more on this in an earlier post: https://nasmith.substack.com/p/burning-off-the-warts-and-becoming?r=32csd0
Reminds me very much of things St. Gregory of Nyssa says in "On the Soul and Resurrection", which I read for the first time not too long ago. Good stuff!
Hi Nicholas. Enjoyed your post on life beyond Cartesian thinking. Very much appreciated your comparison of Eastern and Western Orthodoxy.
It needs to be as rooted in the philokalia as it is in theology and tradition. It’s always been hard to convince people the two are not separate, but especially us westerners.