The Art of Free-Thinking | Session 9, Part 2

What Must Be Done for Free-Thinking? / One Must Love the Truth / Free-Thinking Must Be Practiced in Community

Information:

• Venue: University of Art
• Date: July 25, 2024
• Occasion: Muharram 1446

1. One Must Love the Truth

Free-thinking is an art; anything deeply complex is called an art. What must one do to become a free-thinker? None of the guidance offered on free-thinking consists of rigid mathematical or engineering formulas; it requires genuine artistry to put into practice—it is profoundly intricate.

What is the relationship between the human heart and free-thinking? If the heart falls in love with the truth and refuses to halt anywhere short of it, this love of truth compels you to reflect deeply. Such thinking guides you past all the shallow, superficial, and misleading shortcuts until you arrive at the ultimate truth. But if your heart merely desires to prove a predetermined conclusion, you are no longer a free-thinker; your mind has become biased. In modern psychology, this is known as cognitive bias—your mind leans toward a preference and becomes attached to a specific outcome. As the tradition states: “Your love for something blinds and deafens you” (Man La Yahduruhu al-Faqih, vol. 4, p. 380). Loving a personal preference blinds and deafens your intellect.

2. One Must Respond to Noble Desires in a Balanced Manner

To attain free-thinking, you must address and fulfill your wholesome desires in a harmonious way, so that inner equilibrium is firmly established. When you nurture and satisfy the noble inclinations of your heart, you cultivate balance and poise, freeing yourself from peripheral pressures and unconscious biases.

3. Free-Thinking Must Be Practiced in Community

Within collective life and community, there are principles through which you can discover your own free-thinking. One way to cultivate free-thinking in community is by tolerating opposing views. Another practice—far more beautiful and inward—is to live within the collective without letting the crowd captivate your heart. That is, the crowd should not hold the power to negatively sway your inner state, though being positively influenced is entirely welcome.

Another extraordinary discipline within community life is to withhold judgment toward others. Or even to regard others as better than yourself, and to purge all jealousy from your heart! All of these are pathways to inner liberation. If you practice these within a community, you will gradually break free from the bondages of thought.
To think freely, one must also be liberated from the desire for praise and applause. An artist, too, must be detached from applause. A true artist is free from mere wages and fleeting trends. An artist never allows themselves to be trapped in a mold simply because it happens to be in fashion. An artist must be free from all such attachments to truly become a free-thinker.