A. OVERVIEW

My idea of Monk Math is to give the monks an experience of doing mathematics which will introduce them to both the content and process of mathematics.  I envisage a three level approach:

thoughts and non-thought on the path to reality.

I asked a friend: What is the place of thinking on the spiritual path?   My friend asked me: do you think?  Sometimes, I replied.  Most of what we do with our mind is not thinking, but conditioned regurgitation of memory.  My teacher used this image: you have a piece of blank paper and roll it up and put it under your bed.  Next time you try to unroll it, but it tends to go back to the same rolled up condition.  He called this a memorized impression.  Everything we take in is memorized, stored as habit energy, nucleated structures of thought.  When we want to use our mind again, the habit is still embedded and conditions what we experience.  Words arise in some order and we say we are “thinking.”     Given this basic human condition, is not surprising to find teachers of spiritual paths suggesting we do away with thinking.  Of course, there are also some perspectives of culture and religious fanaticism that do not believe in thinking, but for other reasons.