Experience vs Thinking

[being]

Hey!

I've been pondering on creating this thread for a while. An idea or understanding I would like to share and possibly get some discussion going.

The idea, that trying to understand or see the reality only through 'intellectual thinking' can not 'free' one. By freeing one, I mean from all the deluded views, which cause suffering and unnecessary attachments humans experience.

We can philosophize about the world for endless hours, but what we do with this, is creating more concepts (thoughts) and stroking our egos with thoughts like 'I'm so smart and intellectual' or 'I know better than others'.

Of course I am not saying, that all this thinking is totally useless. I'm only saying, that it is useless towards seeing reality as it is, as long as we do not try to experience reality with our whole capacity of awareness.
These thoughts and intellectual understandings can be good catalysts and inspiration for the effort to experience reality as it is.
But true wisdom comes only through experience.

For example we could intellectually understand and believe, that everything in this world is interconnected, that all is one, that 'each moment' is dependent by the 'moment' before it.
But does that intellectual understanding change our experience of the world or does it truly change our view?
We might think of it for a minute and even realize the 'coolness' of it on some level, but then go back to this old habitual way of existing.
The intellectual understanding won't change us, because it's not something we experience, meaning that it's just a concept inside our heads, which we can't fully grasp.

Now there are ways (techniques) to increase our chances of experiencing reality as it is (up to continuously). Most, which I know of, take quite a lot of effort and I believe this is the reason, why there are not very many people 'seeing the reality as it is'. Effort takes motivation etc.


So, let's solve this one to see it as it is.

edit:
adding a relevant clip of a talk I just found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLQD90Las5c

 

[greenberryhaze]

I think if you put a high enough value on your beliefs being correct, that would be a dangerous attitude.

 

[being]

I think if you put a high enough value on your beliefs being correct, that would be a dangerous attitude.

I agree. My belief is that all beliefs are only formations of the mind, nothing more. ^_^

 

[thesoundofmotion]

I agree.

That is why I base most of the things I learn on actual experience.

I totally understand what you are saying and I'd like to bring up this quote by Oscar Wilde:

"Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught."

 

[HoneyRoastedPeanut]

I certainly understand where you're coming from. I feel that thoughts have the power to affect experience, and vice versa, for good or for ill. There is a reason we think the thoughts that we do, they are the product of our experiences, and perhaps whatever outside agency you point to as the source of creativity. Further, our thoughts are experiences in themselves, that exist just as clearly in some cases, if not materially. Our goals are merely thoughts we are attempting to crystallize into physical experiences.

Truth, to me, is when thoughts and experiences intersect spontaneously. Which, admittedly, doesn't happen very often. :D