The difference between thinking and knowing

It is usually supposed that thinking is the same as knowing. That to know something all you have to do is think it or understand it and that makes it known. It isn´t true though. Thoughts are not in themselves agents of knowing, they can describe what is known, if you´re lucky they may even clarify it, give it a vocabulary. They can also mask true knowing and even hide it completely.

Ask yourself, how do you know when you are hungry, do you wait for a thought to tell you that? Don´t you just know it, and then you may verbalise it internally with a thought? But that thought was not the knowledge of hungry, just its commentary. The commentary comes so fast we may not even notice it, and that´s what happens a lot. Thoughts giving a commentary on what is known, I am hungry, I am tired, I am irritated, I am walking down the street, look out for that car. Better do this or that, I wonder if so and so has done this yet, I feel happy, I am hungry (how did that creep in again?).

This may seem obvious, but this narration in thought of what is known is very insidious. What tends to happen is that the direct connection with what is known in this moment is ignored, and has become disused in favour of the indirect connection through the narration, which means through thinking about it. The thoughts are directly commenting on the known and attention is placed on the thoughts often exclusively. The thoughts are compelling, and they take over. They´re not just about what is directly known, they are also then roaming all over the place, thoughts about other thoughts ad infinitum.

The upshot is that most people live their lives through thought, and have even forgotten about the direct knowing which is available. Thought is so dominant that most people believe they are the thoughts, they mistake the commentary for the reality. A thought comes and it is taken on without checking against what is truly known. Thought becomes reality because although it´s not a direct connection with it, it´s the only one used.

When it is recognized that thought is a commentary on what is known, such as I am hungry, it´s possible to notice that the commentary is being read by consciousness, that is, it only occurs in consciousness. And there´s only one consciousness, it´s not one for thinking and one for knowing. So when you become conscious of hungry, it´s already in consciousness, the narration of thought to tell you that is not necessary. It´s only listened to because the mind has become so dominant that it is taken as the knower, as though nothing can be known unless it is first expressed in thought. This is addiction to thinking.

Yet thoughts are insubstantial, pale in comparison to what is known in the moment when we just stop listening to all the chatter and stay here, if even only to glimpse it for a second. The over reliance on thinking means to live a pale life in comparison to what is available right now. Suffering a disconnect which we can´t pin down, bereft of true direct connection to this moment. Trying to figure it out in the one place which won´t help - in thought.