I’m Not Saying Thinking Is Bad

Cowboy Fried Egg, Salome AZ. iphone 12 Pro

A person who thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts. So, he loses touch with reality and lives in a world of illusions. By thoughts I mean specifically “chatter in the skull”… perpetual and compulsive repetition of words… of reckoning and calculating.

I’m not saying thinking is bad. Like everything else, it’s useful in moderation. A good servant, but a bad master – and all so called civilized peoples have increasingly become crazy and self-destructive. Through excessive thinking, they have lost touch with reality.

— Alan Watts, The Art of Meditation