I Think Therefore I Am; Not

Cogito, ergo sum, (Latin: “I think, therefore I am) is a famous dictum coined by the French philosopher René Descartes.

The statement basically means that the very act of thinking defines our existence as humans, because in order to think, something must exist to do the thinking.

I put to you that this statement is not true… well, not as a measure of existence!

Thinking requires an abstraction from the present moment. A pause to reflect and disconnect (even if only partially) to allow our conscious focus to engage with the neural networks of our brains.

Take me writing this post as an example; I had to sit and think about what I wanted to write first, and then even while writing the post, I would periodically stop consider and reflect before continuing.

Is it the act of me thinking about writing, or the actual act of me writing that has contributed most significantly to me having an effect on the world?

Maybe if I did not think quite so much about my previous articles, then you would not have found my blog, and be looking at this article? Maybe you have just stumbled across this article without any prior knowledge of my blog, and regardless of the general quality of content, you have read the words in this article?

So, is it thinking or doing that has made the biggest difference to my effect on the world?

Action

While writing this I have slowly surfaced a snuck premise… the fact that effect on the world is a measure of existence.

The greater our effect on the things around us the more we exist.

Now, this does not need to be conscious recognition by other humans (such as likes on social media). It can simply be the positive effect of one human smiling at another which causes a ripple effect of smiles to spread.

The positive act from the first human is only known by one other, but will be felt my many, many more.

The originator does not know, and the smilers do not know.

It does not matter.

All that matters is that someone took action.

You cannot spread positive energy just by thinking about it.

I act; therefore, I exist.

I think about my actions so I can live skilfully.