Many years ago, our now King Charles when talking about the need for a new relationship with our planet, called on us to move to ‘right thinking’ arguing that right action cannot happen without it. What might that mean – ‘right thinking’ and how skilled are we at it?
Firstly we might contemplate the whole notion of thinking and the way we are ‘conditioned’ to seek certainty and assuredness in our thinking – moving in a world culture where absolutes seem to offer greater security and comfort even if they, in themselves, aren’t palatable. Taking shelter in the idea that ‘at least we know where we are…’ even if it’s not where we need to be.
And yet that’s not enough – we need to be able to go deeper than that. To step into a more profound place of curiosity, inquiry and, dare we say it, ‘not knowing’. As we enter the not knowing we can open up to the questions and the possibilities. We can be more available to hearing or seeing other perspectives. We can come into a more creative resonance with the issue that requires our deeper, right thinking.
Right thinking is not about being right, it’s about having weighed the information and insights, and accessed a more subtle knowing in a way that gives us the foundation for right action – enabling it to be more secure and relevant. It takes patience and openness. It wants space and centeredness. It wants us to take all aspects and angles along with the big questions and considerations and let them circulate and become messy and eventually fathomed.
Only then can we say we have truly accessed something worth acting upon. Only when we have learned to really think – individually and, importantly, collectively will we access a deeper knowing that will enable us to realise the potential within Humanity.