The Limits to Thought

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the question of thought - with what it is, what its limitations are and what the status is of some of its constructs. Our inability to come to anything but a limited understanding of thought, coupled with our misunderstanding about the status of some of its creations, Jiddu Krishnamurti called the fundamental mistake of mankind. Thought, the paper maintains, is clearly a magnificent tool, which enables us to do all manner of things, but unless there is recognition of what it can and cannot do, unless we are aware of its limits and let thought have its proper place, the human mind will remain in a divisive state which inevitably leads to conflict. The paper tries to show that thought itself cannot end conflict and that becoming aware of this depends on unsolicited acts of perception and intelligence. Such intelligence, not to be confused with cleverness or intellectual dexterity, can use thought rationally without being consumed by the demands of the psychological 'me'. This intelligence does not come into being as a result of an act of will but can only flower when the pull of memory, the pull of all our conditioning, of all, indeed, that we know - which is the past - is in abeyance.