Oleg Ayupov, mentologist, сhairman of the Association of Mental Approach (Mentology)

People often say, "Don't think about it," "Don't even think," "Don't worry," or "Live now, think later." Yet these same people complain about being kept awake by "all sorts of silly thoughts" and not being able to "get this junk out of their heads."

First, thinking is not a chaotic set of associations or empty ruminations; it is something entirely different. It is a conscious, strictly logical, and detached action where you reflect on and generalize your life into certain concepts and ideas, preferably into categories, forming your understanding of your world in the purest forms possible.

It is important to ask, why reach the essence of something in your thinking about the world, stripping away all noise? Only at the edge can we feel, perceive, and understand the presence of one core essence, phenomenon, or concept, clearly understanding its boundaries, rules, and forms. It is hard to understand the essence of human relationships without loneliness, satiety without hunger, wealth without poverty, life without death, and white without black.

This is not about experience. People might be at the edge of life, but without looking at it and thinking about it, understanding nothing, and drawing no conclusions. Therefore, its value is zero.

What you can do is think about it, make decisions, and create your beliefs and principles, understanding the extreme degrees of each. Only then you can create an accurate and consistent understanding of the world. For example, answer yourself, what if I am alone? Then what? Conversely, why do I need people?

It's like building a stone house. Pay close attention to the bricks you use to build your house—your worldview. Do you know for yourself, for example, what Good is? And what is Evil? And where is the boundary when Good turns into Evil and Evil becomes Good? And is there something between them? And do you even believe in their existence?

If you don't have answers to these and similar questions, it doesn't mean your house will immediately collapse. In reality, such houses last a long time, 70-80 years. But then may be one idea, one doubt comes, and the tremors, cracks, and destruction begin. By then, it might be too late to fix it. And you won't get that time back. Think about it. How strong is your worldview? Are there already some cracks you don't want to notice?

Inspired by the film "The Fool" (Directed by Yuri Bykov).

The original publication of this article was made in Russian on the Association of Mental Approach (Mentology) website in 2015.

Translated from Russian by Andrey Kazantsev in 2024.

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