Intuitive Thinking As a Spiritual Path

(Joyce) #1
90 Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path

out. But how do things stand if the absoluteness of think-
ing is recognized?
Let us suppose that a specific percept—for example,
red—appears in my consciousness. On continued investi-
gation, this percept proves to be linked with other per-
cepts—for example, to a specific form and to certain
percepts of temperature and touch. I call this combination:
“an object in the sense world.” I can now ask myself what
else is located in that section of space where these percepts
appear to me aside from what has been listed so far. I find
mechanical, chemical, and other processes within that part
of space. Going further, I investigate the processes that I
find on the path from the object to my sense-organs. I find
processes of motion in an elastic medium that by their na-
ture have nothing in common with the original percepts. If
I investigate the further mediation occurring between the
sense organs and the brain, I obtain the same result. I form
new percepts in each of these areas, but what weaves
through all of these spatially and temporally disparate per-
cepts as the unifying medium—is thinking.
The vibrations of the air that mediate sound are given
to me as percepts in exactly the same way as the sound it-
self. Thinking alone links all such percepts to one another
and shows them in their mutual relationships. Other than
what is immediately perceived, we cannot speak of there
being anything except what is known through the concep-
tual connections between the percepts—connections that
are accessible to thinking. Therefore any relationship be-
tween perceived objects and perceived subjects that goes
beyond what is merely perceived is purely ideal, that is, it

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