On Thoughtlessness
As part of an exercise during the European Setians' recent Holy Mountain project, I took the challenge of letting a negative emotion manifest itself so it could be traced back to its source. From this I discovered that the root of most of my negative emotions comes from anger. I could then track the cause of most of my anger back to my impatience and intolerance of thoughtlessness. Primarily this anger stems from the thoughtlessness of others, though I also become angered that I myself can sometimes be guilty of this cardinal sin of the Left Hand Path. Most of life's mistakes can be considered the product of not thinking. Whenever we find ourselves doing something trivial like misplacing a pen, or something non-trivial like causing resentment and pain in those close to us, we must learn from our experiences with thoughtlessness.
The Self can act very abruptly in recognising thoughtless behaviour when we take steps towards enhancing our awareness. Awareness is the weapon that allows us to realise the distinction between Self and not-Self, Living and Existing, Being and unBeing, Life and Death. Thoughtlessness is the liquid contained in the poisoned Chalice of Hope, and hope is the delusion we are least likely to destroy. Even the most enlightened of us will always hope for something, be it long life, immortality, money, admiration, a great sex life, or a better body. None of those are achieved through hope alone.
Forget hope. Act. When you act however, remember that actions can in themselves be the embodiment of thoughtlessness. This is especially the case in the form of reactions. To react generally means to rely totally on the intransitory sense that we name 'instinct'. Instinct is a handy remnant of the primitive brain that lingers in the limbic system, a part of the brain unfamiliar with the concept of thinking. There are times when reacting is essential to survival or social mobility, but it is only through the art of contemplation that one can learn when to and when not to react inappropriately. When one opens themselves up to the instinctive centres, the intellectual centre has a predisposition to seek shelter, and in the case of reaction, the emotional centre runs free and unbound in its place. This usually leads to the same lack of perspective that blind, obsessive love and copious amounts of alcohol can produce. By adding a thinking component to reaction we take control of the most primitive part of our brain. The ability to do this is an example of the uniqueness and separateness of the human species from the natural order.
If many of the 'multiple I's' of which G.I. Gurdjieff spoke can be said to be those I's that are without thought, then thoughtfulness can aid the unified Self come into existence by limiting the power and influence of the false personalities. By becoming Lord of the Mansion, the instinctive, thinking, and feeling centres converge, and thoughtlessness is banished. The gate is closed on all sorts of potential trouble and destruction when instinct and emotion are bound by thought. Listen to the news or read a newspaper and notice how many of the tragedies reported, whether accidental, incidental, or purposefully committed, are related to a person or persons acting mechanically or emotionally whilst remaining thoughtless.
What word could better summarise the sleeping, mechanical masses than thoughtless? What force is there that leads to so much destruction? If your life is prematurely stolen from you (with the exception of certain illnesses) it will be through the thoughtless actions of either yourself or others. The couch potatoes, career criminals, thugs, and vacant masses who stain modern humanity squander their right to meaningful existence because of the Etins of thoughtlessness. What greater example is there of a virulent meme that unifies the essence of both Apep and Osiris into one easy to swallow capsule in the modern world?
The main catalyst for the spread of the virus of thoughtlessness is ignorance. Whether they know it or not, and despite how enlightened they might like to think they are, ignorance is the Raison d'Être for the major part of the human race. It is the deliberate, or at least unwitting, lack of thought that leads to the actualisation of self-annihilation, whether it be via the ignorance is bliss mindset of the comfortably numb, the pistis of Right Hand Path religions, or the outwardly destructive hatred that leads to meaningless wars, jihads, gang-culture, and other bigotry related violence. Even those in our modern culture who would describe themselves as enlightened (mostly because they bear the modernist trappings of material humanism cloaked in either quasi-socialist guilt, or fractionally formed spiritual sympathy for others), are nothing but models of thoughtlessness, even if it is at least thoughtlessness with an agenda. Nihilism, that firebrand of the wannabe antinomian is of even less worth than ignorance. Belief in nihilism is to throw one's arms open to the destruction of thoughtlessness by choice. Its path leads to nowhere but negative emotion, petty materialism, solipsism, personal apathy, and eventual destruction. It is the ultimate in self-fulfilling prophecies, believe in nothing, and you become nothing. You become the very epitome of thoughtlessness.
We have no excuse for thoughtlessness other than the failure to recognise the
putrid veils of deceit which are placed cunningly over our eyes from the
moments shortly after we are born. When we realise that these veils do not
represent a part of our true essence, it becomes clear that they are in fact
damp cloths placed over our eyes to smother the Black Flame. Only when we can
add the tinder of enlightenment by the exercising of Will can it begin to
smoulder and burn away the dark material which binds and blinds us. This
burning enables us to see ourselves as we really are and is akin to a surgical
cauterisation used to repair the link between body and soul. The anaesthetic
used in this surgical procedure is antinomianism, and it is only through the
practice of that art that we can destroy the barriers society creates between
the self and the Self. Those who do this are following the example of Set,
slaying his despised enemies of old, and as Set they will find themselves
shunned as outcasts for refusing to allow themselves to be normalised by the
mundane. Those who find themselves existing this way are taking steps to living
a mindful rather than thoughtless existence, and thus become party to the
predilection of Set.